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The Keith Lee effect is real, and a handful of Chicago restaurants recently had the opportunity to expand on their initial visit from the man dubbed the internet’s favorite food critic.
In its second installment of Microsoft’s The Reheat, the content creator and influencer is paired with restaurant owners who have experienced the Keith Lee effect and continue to feel the impact of that success in their personal lives.
This year, The Reheat spotlighted three Chicago-based restaurants: Soul Prime, Tacotian, and Cleo’s Southern Soul.
“At the end of the day, I just be eating food,” Lee told Blavity in a recent interview. “For me, it’s like, I don’t see the Keith Lee effect how other people see it. I see the fact that people, who are willing to stand in line for two or three hours that’s the real Keith Lee Effect. It has nothing to do with me eating food on camera, I’m blessed enough to be the person on camera, but it’s really the people who gonna stay in line. I feel like that’s the magic, that people are willing to wait in line, to support any small business, so yeah, that still blows my mind.”
For Chef Royce of Soul Prime, Lee’s early visit was the turning point that helped her connect with a community she initially struggled to reach.
“I’m still running with it,” Chef Royce told us. “I’m still growing from it. When Keith came, I was four months old; now, I’m a sophomore. I’m growing up a little bit, but I was only four months old, and although I had been involved in a business with this new venture, the community was new to me. The biggest struggle I had personally was getting support from the community. I am in the wealthiest neighborhood of Chicago, and there aren’t many Black and brown businesses, so we’re not represented. To be in the business, in that community, is a big deal, but I want to make sure that everything about Soul Prime is about our culture; however, I wasn’t getting support from the community.”
She added, “When Keith came, I started getting business because of his recognition. People know him all over the world, different cultures and nationalities, as well as my community, which is my saving grace. We come from all over the city of Chicago and beyond to dine at Soul Prime, so the Keith Lee Effect is still affecting and it’s still working, and I’m so honored and so blessed to have been a part of that journey of the Keith Lee Food Tour.”
Chef Kristen Ashley of the popular Cleo’s Southern Cuisine restaurants echoed the sentiment, noting how nothing has been the same since Lee’s first visit to her restaurant.
“I created Cleos to honor my grandmother, who passed when I was in high school, and we were extremely close, and when I turned 25, I wanted to do something to honor her and her name, and Cleo’s was born. I started with my aunt, catering,” Ashley recalled.
“In 2019, I opened the flagship store for Cleo’s, and just being able to do something to honor my grandmother has been amazing,” she continued. “When Keith came on September 17th of 2023, nothing has been the same. Now, people not only here in Chicago are saying ‘Cleo,’ but people all over the country and even globally are saying her name. We have visitors from everywhere.”
As a Midwest native, Lee’s decision to return to the Windy City to highlight the three selected restaurants, much like he and his family hand-select the restaurants for his various city-wide food tours, was very intentional.
“I would say the reason they’re so special is because not only the personal relationship that I have with them, but every single person that we pick for this is the definition of a hustler, and that’s why I love Chicago to death,” said Lee. “I’m born and raised in Detroit, and I feel like it’s a different breed of person that comes from the Midwest, no matter what situation they’re thrown in, it’s…I don’t know what it is about the Midwest. Maybe it’s the cold, maybe it’s the fact that we get all four seasons, but it’s something about people from the Midwest, they can survive any situation.”
He added, “These three people that we picked are the definition of that, and I love how every person that we picked from the list in Chicago has not only taken the quote, unquote Keith Lee effect, but taken it and really used it as what it is, which is a marketing tool. Cleo’s, for example, went from one restaurant to three restaurants. Soul Prime went from doing no reservations to reservations immediately. It’s those adjustments, Tacotian, went from doing no festival to festivals immediately. It’s one thing to just accept the big rush, and then another thing to really use it to your advantage, like, open the second location, or venturing off into spots that you don’t normally do. I think that’s why they are so special. Chicago has a very special place in my heart, so the second that they told me that were doing the second season here, I feel ike it’s one of the happiest I’ve ever been to do a partnership.
The first season of The Reheat launched in June 2024, with the company hosting its Black Techxcellence Brunch during Blavity’s 2024 AFROTECH Conference in November of the same year. During the event, select Houston restaurants from the installation were invited to participate in a live demonstration to celebrate Microsoft’s latest technology, Copilot.
“As entrepreneurs juggle the demands of business and life, AI can be a powerful tool to help them manage growth and reduce burnout,” said Anthony Kerr, Senior Product Marketing Manager at Microsoft. “Partnering with Keith Lee lets us meet business owners where they are, with real solutions that make a difference.”
“I don’t necessarily use it as a way to make all of my decisions, but I use it as a way to get another perspective or another view of things that I personally wouldn’t have thought about, or somebody around me wouldn’t have thought about, and then I use that perspective and match it into what I was already thinking, or how I personally have my own point of view. I feel like that’s a perfect way for the restaurant owners to use it,” said Lee. “Then, it’s really good for me to make lists or things that are more compartmentalized to where it helps your organization. It helps with speed, timing, and trying to get thoughts out and put them directly on paper. I think it’s a bunch of ways to use it, but those are how I personally use the tool.”
Restaurant owners like Cleo Sol’s Chef Kristen Ashley aim to use the platform as she sets her sights upon more locations and the continued expansion of her business.
“We launched a product line,” said Ashley. “We have our chicken and catfish seasoning, that delicious butter sauce that we put on top of the muffins, the waffle butter sauce, the comeback sauce that is just going to open up another completely different lane of business, and another revenue stream. So, that’s something else that I really want to pour into more, and now I’ll be able to use Copilot to figure it out, because I don’t know anything about business,s to be honest. I went to school and graduated with a degree in Computer Information Systems. I minored in business, but what does that really mean, you know? Being able to use Copilot makes me feel more confident as a business owner to answer those questions. That may be because it’s perceived that I have a level of success, but mentally, I might not be where I want to be, and I’m embarrassed to maybe pick up the phone or to ask a question. Now, I can just ask Copilot that question.”
Alongside catching episodes of The Reheat on TikTok and Instagram, business owners can explore free resources and AI tips on the educational hub launching alongside the show. The second season of the social media series kicks off on Sept. 8 with Cleo’s Southern Cuisine.
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