A single go to from TikTok meals critic Keith Lee has turned the tide for a Black-owned soul meals restaurant going through vicious racial harassment in Lexington, North Carolina.
What started as one other cease on Lee’s culinary tour by means of the state grew to become a robust story of resilience and group help when he encountered JJ’s Mama’s Soulfood Restaurant.
The proprietor, Tyleata Jones, had been battling not simply the standard challenges of small enterprise possession, but additionally the painful actuality of being the primary Black restaurateur in a traditionally hostile setting.
Lee paid a go to to “The First Black Owned Restaurant In North Carolina,” as he wrote in his caption. “This was an expertise that I’ll always remember and at all times respect thanks @jjs_mama_soulfood only for being you. God Is Superb,” he continued.
Whereas driving by means of Charlotte to Raleigh, he stopped at JJ’s Mama’s after the proprietor despatched him a DM. “Actually I’ve been hanging on with a wing and a prayer,” was written in a prolonged paragraph despatched from the restaurant’s Instagram web page.
Jones additionally revealed to Lee that she was the primary Black individual to personal a soul meals restaurant within the metropolis of Lexington, “on report.”
The submit rapidly went viral, drawing consideration not solely to the restaurant’s meals but additionally to the hateful messages its proprietor has obtained from critics hoping the enterprise fails.
“We’re rising on them, but it surely’s a racist place. So, they wrote me they usually had been like principally, ‘Hello, I hope you don’t elevate a dime in your restaurant. We now have sufficient n—ger lovers right here. We don’t want any extra. I hope your restaurant fails and also you don’t even get to begin,’” Jones shared with Lee throughout his go to.
She continued studying from the hateful message, “‘You n—ger lovers can return to Africa. We don’t want any Black eating places in Davidson County.’”
Nonetheless, her response to the habits demonstrated outstanding grace. She replied to the nameless sender: “Effectively, howdy. I’m sorry the colour of my pores and skin defines who I’m to you, however I pray God takes the hate out of your coronary heart. My restaurant will prosper with or with out anybody’s assist as a result of I imagine in a Larger Energy.”
Her response continued with a suggestion of kindness.
“I’ll make you this promise. Should you’re ever down in your luck and also you want a meal, my door is at all times open,” she wrote again. “I pray God has mercy in your soul on judgment day.”
Jones defined that she retains this trade displayed in her restaurant as a reminder that not everybody will help her journey.
Moved by her story, Lee did what he has change into recognized for: He left a beneficiant $3,000 tip with a stipulation that $1,000 be used to offer again to the group.
The impression was instant. After Lee’s overview, which included an 8 out of 10 score for her well-known wing boil, enterprise tripled in a single day. The restaurant offered out utterly on Could 19, posting a easy “Thanks to everybody” on Instagram.
The “well-known seafood boil” that impressed Lee – that includes wings, celery, potatoes, eggs, corn, turkey necks, and beef sausages – has since been renamed “The Keith Lee Particular” because of overwhelming demand.
“It appears like a brand new grand opening another time,” Jones informed WXII 12, expressing her pleasure in regards to the surge in prospects, together with some touring from so far as Augusta, Georgia.
Katherine Delgado, who made the journey from Georgia after seeing Lee’s TikTok, shared, “We had been simply on TikTok yesterday and my sister she despatched me this video about this restaurant, and I stated let’s go tomorrow. We acquired within the automobile round 8 o’clock this morning and we got here.”
Lee’s followers had been fast to reply to the story on social media.
“When white ppl say return to Africa it’s thoughts blowing like return to Europe,” one individual wrote.
One other added, “If all of us went again to Africa, they’d comply with us.”
Some commenters centered on Jones’ sleek response to hatred.
“Her response was unbelievable. Assault hate with kindness,” a remark learn, including, “I would like her institution to be so profitable. These are messages that must be on the market. Posting negativity to do one thing optimistic. Win.”
This transformation isn’t Lee’s first time making a major impression on a small enterprise.
In April 2025, he revisited The Puddery in Pearland, Texas, a yr after his preliminary overview saved the banana pudding store from closure, this time presenting proprietor Janel Prator with a $50,000 examine to help her enlargement plans.
For Jones, the sudden go to from Lee has given her enterprise the publicity it wanted to thrive regardless of the undercurrents locally.
As she stated about Lee’s 8 out of 10 score, “The best way he bit my rooster the second time round is what actually made me really feel good, however an 8 out of 10 coming from Keith Lee is superior. He stated something much less wouldn’t be proper.”
