How a CSULB grad with an iPhone is redefining Long Beach's food scene
In April 2022, James Tir ’13 pushed open the door of Chiang Rai, a small Thai restaurant on a busy stretch of Anaheim Street. It was lunchtime, and the dining room was empty — never a great sign. But Tir hadn’t come for the crowd; he'd come because opening doors, literal and otherwise, had started to feel like a calling.
As the creator of @LBFoodComa — an Instagram account he started as a design major at CSULB — Tir walked to the counter and asked if he could film the chef making a dish. If he liked the dish, Tir explained, he’d post the video. Minutes later, he was shooting a new sequence on his phone: aromatics hitting hot oil, curry bubbling up, noodles folding into broth.
Then he sat down with his bowl of khao soi. "It was the best khao soi I’d ever had,” he said — which is what he told his followers.
Within days, the little restaurant on Anaheim had lines out the door; within months, it had become one of few local spots recommended in the Michelin Guide. Four years later, Chiang Rai is so popular that Tir can barely get a table himself.
“It’s so annoying,” he joked.
Building a brand
Tir is one of the most influential figures in Long Beach’s food scene — a self-described “food enthusiast” whose iPhone videos have turned struggling restaurants and pop-ups into overnight sensations.
But long before @LBFoodComa became a trusted guide for nearly every corner of the city, Cal State Long Beach's design program was teaching him how to think in systems, build stories and make ideas useful. That training didn’t just shape the way he films food; it shaped the way he sees the world.
“I don’t know if I’d be doing this because the design program really pushed me,” he said. “Without that struggle, I think I would still be in the food industry, but I would probably be in the kitchen.”
Born in Long Beach to Cambodian refugees, Tir grew up in kitchens — first in his parents’ donut shop, later in his aunt’s restaurant in Cambodia Town. Food was familiar. It was how his family survived and how they stayed connected with their homeland. He didn’t yet have the language or the tools, but those counter seats and steam tables were already becoming the world he would one day learn to elevate.
Though he graduated with an arts degree, Tir spent his first years at The Beach studying industrial design — enough time, he said, to rewire how he thinks, forcing him to move fast, problem-solve visually and see everything as a product with a purpose.
“Because industrial design was kind of multi-disciplinary,” he said, “you had to learn every facet of design, art, illustration and some engineering as well. It was like I took five, six, seven different majors all at once."
In that rigor, he discovered his best lane.
“I was really good at editing,” he said. “I get my videos done in 15 to 20 minutes,” he said. “That’s my editing style.”
Stacking successes
After graduation, Tir grew @LBFoodComa as a hobby while cycling through a string of jobs that didn’t fit. The account gained traction during Covid-19, when many restaurant owners credited him with helping them stay afloat, and now it's Tir's full-time job. Although he posts to Facebook, TikTok and X, his main hub is Instagram, where he is closing in on 100,000 followers — a fifth of the city’s population.
Most of Tir's income comes from agency shoots and paid gigs; he said he creates content for restaurants and agencies in his signature style and posts it himself if he genuinely likes the place. “I’m not obligated to post on my page,” he said. “It lets me keep my integrity.”
Meanwhile, he contributes to outlets such as LAist, produces community events, and calls opening his own place in Long Beach “inevitable."
“I’ve grown beyond what I ever expected to grow beyond," he said.
Returning to The Beach
This fall, Tir returned to CSULB — iPhone in hand — to document new dining options emerging during Future U construction. A golf cart ferried him between food trucks, pop-up tents and container cafés.
He pointed out his favorite window seat at The Outpost and grinned as old landmarks came into view. “I loved my time here.”
His advice to students is simple: “Form your network ASAP," he said. “Build your connections with your classmates … I got to where I am because I schmooze. I talk to everyone.” And about CSULB itself: “I have so much pride for this school, it’s crazy.”
Seen in hindsight, the campus tour became an origin story: Of all the doors Tir has opened, the first one that mattered opened at The Beach.
