Popular TikTok food critic Keith Lee returned to Atlanta on Wednesday to host a free food giveaway. In true Keith Lee fashion, he partnered with small, locally-owned Black businesses to help him give back to the community for the FamiLee ATL Community Event. In true Atlanta fashion, the city showed up in droves to support.
Over 500 people lined up outside of Za’Acai Cafe on Piedmont Avenue to grab free food and meet with the food critic as he returned to Atlanta. The event, which he announced on TikTok on Tuesday, was planned after he shared that he had to postpone his anticipated “redemption tour” visit to the city due to “business reasons.”
In October, Lee visited and reviewed some Atlanta and metro Atlanta businesses as a part of his ten-state 2023 food tour, prompting a debate about the city’s food scene and customer service. He later ranked Atlanta as the worst city on the tour due to poor customer service and the rules set in place by some businesses.
However, Lee said Atlanta has welcomed him back with open arms.
“It’s amazing… it’s more than 1000 people. I was expecting less than 500, so I paid for about 500 plates,” Lee said. “I appreciate Atlanta. This is crazy. I thought it was going to be a turnout, but I didn’t think it was going to be this. I’m just blessed.”
Photo by Kerri Phox/The Atlanta
The FamiLee Community Event was initially set to be held at Selena S. Butler Park at noon; however, the overwhelming turnout caused the city to shut down the event, forcing them to move to another location. For those who had been standing in line — some for over three hours — it was a mad dash to the new location. For Deonte Atkins, the owner of Za’Acai Cafe, it was the opportunity he had been waiting for.
Atkins said he’d been trying to contact Lee for a few months to partner with him, but he wasn’t even sure if Lee would even be at the event. When the people at the first location were told they would have to relocate, Atkins offered his store as the event site. Thirty minutes later, he was shaking hands with Lee, his wife Ronni and the rest of Lee’s family.
“Y’all see how manifestation works. Y’all see how God works,” Atkins said. “I think it’s amazing. I think it’s amazing to highlight minority entrepreneurs, and I think it’s amazing what he chooses to use his platform for. Number one, I think it’s amazing that he followed God and he gives God the glory.”
Lee’s platform has been built on reviewing local businesses and mom-and-pop shops that don’t have the marketing prowess of bigger restaurants. His reviews began in Las Vegas, where he is based, and spread to other cities as his following exploded. The impact of his reviews can be seen in the days, weeks and months following a good review as hundreds of customers flood small businesses that either weren’t getting a lot of traffic or were on the brink of closing. On the flip side, a bad review can break a restaurant. The impact has been dubbed the “Keith Lee Effect.”
“Hopefully after the ‘Keith Lee Effect’ you will be seeing the Stuffed ATL food truck rolling through here,” said Shawn Buford, owner of Stuffed ATL who spent six hours baking 120 gourmet cupcakes in her home after she heard Lee was hosting the event. “It was an amazing experience. It was really good meeting everybody. I gave out every business card I had.”
Lee was joined by popular streamers Kai Cenat and Fanum who are a part of the YouTube group AMP and were instrumental in helping Lee set up the event. Christina Scott, the owner of Larry and Cris Corner Kitchen, shared that she’d done business with the group before and they’d called her to help Lee give away 500 plates of food to locals.
“I feel excited because he called Larry and Cris Corner Kitchen so we can let him taste some of this good old Southern food and let him know we welcome him here,” Scott said.
Eggroll Boyz, Steve’s Carribean Kitchen, Kayla’s Italian Ice, My Favorite Ice Cream Truck and Burritos Locos were among the food trucks that joined Lee in giving out free food. They shared that they weren’t personally invited by Lee and his team, but had decided to join his efforts to give back to the community. And it was also a chance for these businesses to market themselves to those who may’ve not been familiar with them.
“This is just another opportunity for us to get out there and tell people exactly who we are in the community, and we are here for them,” said Theresa Bostic, owner of Kayla’s Italian Ice.
Brand New Wave Mobile, a mobile barbershop that regularly serves the community through barber services, also gave free haircuts to the kids in attendance.
Ahmad Bizzell, owner of the barbershop, shared the sentiment that seemed to propel other small-business owners to help during Lee’s food event: “It was one of those things. I saw he was giving back. It touched my spirit. I pulled up.”
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