Emily Carbone ‘28
Features Editor
When I mention Honest Kimball Review, you likely know who I’m talking about. Maybe you have seen his Instagram account, or recognize him from an occasional perusal of Fizz. You might think of some of his recent comedic videos, filmed in Kimball, of course, or his more traditional, honest reviews of the different meals that Kimball serves. After becoming popular on Fizz as a faceless and nameless campus critic, Patrick Schultz decided to continue his brand as himself, even having a few of his reviews and videos gain traction on Instagram reels.
The start of Honest Kimball Review was nothing special, according to Patrick. “I downloaded Fizz early in my freshman year, because a lot of people I knew were on it, so I wanted to see what the buzz was about,” he explained. “A few days after I installed the app, I was sitting in kimball drinking the yellow lemonade, and I thought to myself, ‘this lemonade is so good, I want to tell people that,’ so I took a picture of it, posted it, and talked about how I enjoyed the lemonade. So the first ‘Honest Kimball Review’ was of the lemonade.” Patrick continued posting after that first post gained traction, and the rest is history.
Despite his commitment to his content, he never thought it would gain the recognition that it did. “It kind of just started as a thing for fun, but then over time people started posting about my reviews on Fizz and I was like ‘huh, people see what I do and like it, that’s cool.’ I remember I told some of my close friends and they were always shocked. ‘YOU’RE Honest Kimball Review???’ they would say. So it was definitely kind of shocking that pretty much everyone who used Fizz knew who I was. But especially now with the Instagram account, I get recognized all the time by people around campus, which I could’ve never predicted. Even some of my professors know about my account.” Patrick has since posted in collaboration with Holy Cross Dining Services, and had one of his Instagram reels reach several hundred thousand viewers.
While he enjoys posting content, it can sometimes be difficult for Patrick to keep it consistently new and fresh. “I’ve noticed when I match trends that I see on Instagram, those videos tend to do better. My highest performing video has 427k views and that was from a trend that I saw. So having variety is clearly very important for my page, but sometimes it can be hard to come up with new and refreshing ideas. I also don’t want to run out of food to review, but I feel like they’ll always have something new to try.” Despite these challenges, Patrick continues to post consistently. I additionally asked him whether he ever dislikes the food he reviews, and he told me that he highly recommends Italian night (and other specialty events) at Kimball, but was not a fan of the Funfetti pancakes. However, he maintains that it may have just been a bad batch, and recommends that you honestly review them for yourself.
In addition, The Holy Cross community may soon see Honest Kimball Review in places other than Kimball. “I want to review food around Worcester when I’m able to have my car on campus. I also want to review food in and around my hometown. This way I can attract a bigger audience, and do it even after I graduate from Holy Cross. I’m also going abroad to Granada, Spain next spring semester, so I will definitely be doing ‘Revisión Honesta de Kimball’ in Spain!”
Regardless of the future of HonestKimballReview, Patrick has certainly brought lots of joy to the campus with his reviews, and finds the process of his video creation to be highly rewarding. “It has allowed me to connect with the student body in ways I could’ve never imagined,” he explained. “I get people from all walks of life who come up to me and talk to me, asking to be in a review, all of that stuff. I wouldn’t talk to most of these people otherwise, HonestKimballReview is a really excellent conversation starter! It’s so lovely just being able to interact with people everywhere I go, I feel like I make a new friend every time I leave my dorm.”
Copy Edited by Sophia Mariani ’26
Featured image courtesy of HonestKimballReview Instagram page
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