LEXINGTON, N.C. —
JJ's Mama's Soulfood Restaurant in Lexington, North Carolina, is experiencing a surge in business after social media food critic Keith Lee visited and shared a positive review, drawing attention to the small Black-owned establishment.
Owner Tyleata Jones expressed her excitement, saying, "It feels like a new grand opening all over again."
Since Lee's review, customers have been traveling from afar to taste the restaurant's offerings.
Katherine Delgado, a customer from Augusta, Georgia, said, "We were just on TikTok yesterday and my sister she sent me this video about this restaurant, and I said let's go tomorrow. We got in the car around 8 o'clock this morning and we came."
Delgado said that she hoped to try the fried chicken.
Jones felt honored by Lee's visit, noting the difficulty of getting on his tour.
"I was more excited because, as most people know, it's hard to get on the Keith Lee tour," she said. "Like, there's millions of people begging him to come and for him to come to North Carolina, let alone Lexington, it was amazing. Just for my restaurant itself and for the city of Lexington."
Lee left a positive review after trying JJ's famous wing boil, which includes wings, celery, potatoes, eggs, corn, turkey necks, and beef sausages.
"The way he bit my chicken the second time around is what really made me feel good, but an 8 out of 10 coming from Keith Lee is awesome," she said. "He said anything less wouldn't be right."
The dish is now known as "The Keith Lee Special."
"Everybody's coming up in here like, 'We want what he got.' So, we're going to give it a name, that way we know what they're asking for," Jones said. "So many people are starting to come."
Since Lee shared his review, Jones has seen a significant increase in business.
"So it's like, tripled, and that's in one day," she said. "He posted at 12 o'clock a.m. on Saturday, we opened up at 11:30, so in that time span, our business tripled."
During his visit, Lee also gave Jones a $2,000 tip and donated $1,000 to her nonprofit organization, Soulful Giving, which helps underserved members in the surrounding community by providing free meals and essential needs.
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