As Evan Lovett casually scrolled through TikTok one afternoon, he saw a short video featuring a Boyle Heights location for the Los Angeles chain, Pioneer Chicken. Until then, Lovett had assumed the fried chicken chain of his childhood vanished a long time ago. So upon seeing the Boyle Heights store, he began plotting his next TikTok video for his Los Angeles restaurant series, LA In a Minute.
As a San Fernando Valley resident, he had to chart the distance and time it would take to handle research, write a script, travel, and shoot a new video for his TikTok series, which focuses solely on Los Angeles with an emphasis on the history of Southland restaurants. And while he’s been publishing TikTok videos since January, the Pioneer Chicken segment felt particularly close to Lovett’s experience.
