Meet Jenny Zaerr

Today we’d like to introduce you to Jenny Zaerr.

Hi Jenny, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
Hey! I’m Jenny Zaerr. I am originally from China but grew up in Cincinnati, OH and its suburbs for most of my childhood. Ever since iPhones came out, I’ve taken mass photos of my food and drinks (and actually even before iPhones, I took photos on my red digital Nikon). The dining experience is beautiful. Each meal can be so different depending on the setting, the ambiance, the menu, the company. I used to take photos and keep them on my phone to be able to look at later. Or until I deleted them because of storage space – haha.

Right after graduating Ohio State in May 2015, Zach (my husband) and I moved west to Seattle. Seattle has a huge food and drink scene. I started posting our Seattle experiences on Yelp. I was a big user of Yelp at the time especially in a new city, and found it to be really helpful in figuring out where to eat and what to order. I figured my photos could have a home on Yelp and might help others too — not only the app users looking to make decisions on dinner, but the (oftentimes local) business owners as well.

We spent 6.5 years living in Seattle and loved it. Zach and I got to really grow up there. We ate so much good food, got a fur baby (Riley, our toy golden retriever), hiked weekly, drank a lot of Washington wine, and took many weekend trips to various cities in WA, OR, and CA. The 2-3 years we expected to live in Seattle kept growing, and we even changed our jobs a couple times each to be able to stay in the area.

In 2021, remote working and both of our jobs brought us back to the Midwest. I had started an east coast time zone role, and moving to Columbus meant I could be on the same time zone as my team, Zach and I could be closer to family in Cincinnati, and I was excited to get my internal clock back to normal. Working east coast hours on west coast is tough.

That’s when I started Columbus Bites & Booze. I figured why not try something new. I love pictures and posting and sharing my experiences on Yelp, and Instagram was a great way to house my photos in a place that was my own brand and voice. I also selfishly wanted to show my Seattle friends that Columbus is a cool city too and that they should visit asap (it worked). I started the Instagram page Summer of 2021, about a month before taking the big road trip from Seattle to Columbus.

Since moving to Columbus in August 2021, I’ve averaged about a post a day, met so many cool people/friends, developed relationships with some amazing business owners and social media managers, and have grown my following to over 8K.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
It’s been a smooth road, but that is largely because of my mindset. I started the page for fun and plan to keep it that way. It is pretty easy to feel defeated if a post gets low engagement. The algorithm is ever-changing and really hard to predict. I try not to let that affect my mood too much. It’s hard because it’s such an endorphin boost when you do get good engagement. So, when posts don’t do well, I try to move on and post again the next day. I remind myself that I’m just here to share my experiences and hopefully help a few people out along the way.

I’ve also asked my followers for feedback to better understand what content they resonate with – and try to focus on doing more of that.

The page is a fun hobby for me, but I want to use every opportunity to learn more about content creating, social media marketing, and driving digital growth.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
Outside of my Instagram page and food blog, I am a marketing and sales professional in the food/beverage industry (so yes, I think about food and drinks all the time). I want to be known for putting out high-quality work and pour a lot of myself into my job. I want to develop my career and as a leader, and spend a lot of my waking hours thinking on what to develop so I can accomplish that.

I love posting on Columbus Bites & Booze because it allows me to 1) develop new skills that I wouldn’t otherwise learn at my day job, and 2) have a creative outlet that allows me to actually “get something” out of what I was already doing (eating out a lot). That “something” is: having connection in a city that is new again to me, supporting the local community, meeting new people, and making friends. To me, those are the most valuable outputs of my page.

What do you like and dislike about the city?
Columbus is growing SO quickly. When I was at Ohio State 2011-2015, I don’t think we had a single rooftop bar here. Now we have 4? 5? Ohio State was an amazing experience that propelled me personally and professionally, and I love giving back to a city that gave me so much. The restaurant and bar scene is growing rapidly and I love to see that first-hand.

I travel a lot, so I also love that CMH is such an easy airport. @simonloveshighnoon said it best… plane is boarding? Time to call the uber!

One of the hardest parts of moving from Seattle to Columbus is the lack of hiking. We did so much hiking out on the west coast and really grew to appreciate nature. Since moving to Ohio, we started biking and go out on the trails quite a bit. But nothing beats the ability to drive 20 minutes outside of the city and hike a mountain with 3000 ft elevation gain. I miss the elevation! But we make sure to take trips to get our nature fix… Hocking Hills is only an hour away and is especially gorgeous in the summer.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.cbusbitesnbooze.com
• Instagram: @cbusbitesnbooze

Image Credits
Mint Julep
Aseel Brodd Photography
Jenny Zaerr