Tuesday 31 October 2023

TikTok Star Keith Lee Sparks Debate About Onerous Restaurant Rules

For restaurant owners these days, a positive or negative review from an influencer can make or break their business. Some Atlanta restaurateurs are learning just how much of an impact social media can have thanks to TikTok food critic Keith Lee. 

Although he's traveled to cities across the country before, his trip to Atlanta has sparked a surprising number of issues with local eateries, many of which have lengthy lists of rules for their patrons or expensive hidden fees that have been highlighted in his videos. 

Who Is Keith Lee?

Lee has built his platform on TikTok reviewing (primarily Black-owned) restaurants around the country. He went to Atlanta for the first time with his family and had a grand food tour planned for his time there. But after encountering some restaurants' ridiculous rules and service, he couldn't stay quiet any longer. 

Why are Keith Lee's Atlanta restaurant reviews going viral?

When he stopped by Atlanta Breakfast Club, Lee said his family ran into problems ordering food and weren't even able to order water until their entire party was seated. He was also informed that orders couldn't be modified or added onto once they're initially placed. "The customer service was interesting. While the people were nice, the rules they had set were very unique to me," he said, calling the add-on rule "Unique to me, but it is what it is." 

The next stop was The Seafood Menu owned by Atlanta-bred rapper Lil Baby, which opened earlier this year. Because he's allergic to shellfish and the restaurant doesn't cook their foods in different oils, Lee had to pass on the marine menu choices.

Lee saved a lot of his criticism for The Real Milk & Honey. When he and his family first arrived, they were turned away because the restaurant was closed for deep cleaning. What shocked him even more were the spot's many requirements, some of which contradicted themselves entirely. 

"So far being in Atlanta I found some places do have unique rules. And this is one of them," he said, noting that the staff was nice and discouraging his followers from harassing the restaurant and its workers. "If you don't like their rules, their rules [are] not for you. And for me and my family the rules just wasn't for us."

@keith_lee125

The Real Milk & Honey taste test 💕 would you try it ? 💕 #foodcritic

♬ original sound - Keith Lee

What happened between Keith Lee and Kandi Burruss?

One of Lee's last stops in Atlanta was Old Lady Gang, a Southern eatery created by Grammy-winning songwriter and The Real Housewives of Atlanta star Kandi Burruss and her husband Todd Tucker. The shop, named in honor of Burruss' mother and aunts, offered very different service to Lee than it did to his family. 

Lee sent his relatives inside the restaurant to try to place a take-out order but were told they don't do to-go orders on weekends. When they tried to get a table, they were told it would be at least an hour wait, but when Lee himself attempted to get a table, they informed him he'd be seated in five minutes. As someone who doesn't want preferential treatment or free meals, Lee decided to take his money elsewhere. 

The review prompted a response from Burruss herself. She welcomed the review

"I do appreciate Keith Lee for stopping by our restaurant and trying to show us love," she said. She went on to explain that the no weekend to-go policy is correct because the kitchen would get overwhelmed in combination with all the in-person traffic the restaurant gets.

@keith_lee125

Old Lady Gang taste test 💕 would you try it 💕 #foodcritic

♬ original sound - Keith Lee
@kandi

Thanks for stopping by #OldLadyGang @Keith Lee! Much love to you & your family. ❤️ & Thanks to all of our supporters! 😘❤️

♬ original sound - kandi

Did Keith Lee have any positive experiences in Atlanta?

While his less-enthusiastic reviews got the most shares, Lee also shone a spotlight on some smaller and less well-known eateries in the city. This included a family-owned restaurant called The Dining Experience, which he gave a glowing review.

@keith_lee125

The Dining Experience taste test 💕 would you try it ? 💕 #foodcritic

♬ original sound - Keith Lee

What did Cardi B have to say?

Rapper Cardi B—an Atlanta resident—also chimed in, saying she agreed with Lee's assessment of the city's restaurant scene: 

If you're a restaurant owner and find out Lee is in your city, it's probably best to ensure every part of the dining experience at your establishment is up to snuff.



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The Best Celebrity Halloween Costumes of 2023

What would Halloween be without our favorite celebrities throwing it all behind outrageous costumes (and in some cases, private photo shoots to show them off). A vast majority decided to dress as characters from famous movies, in direct defiance of SAG/AFTRA's request that its members avoid promoting studios in light of the ongoing strike.

As All Hallows Eve descends upon us, Men’s Journal has collected the very best celebrity Halloween costumes of 2023. (Unfortunately, no one has come as Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift...yet.)

Mariah Carey served her sultry version of Jessica Rabbit…

…while Ice Spice delivered a twist on the theme, as Betty Boop, for a performance.

Superstar couple Austin Butler and Kaia Gerber arrived to the Casamigos celebration dressed as Andy Warhol and his ill-fated muse Edie Sedgwick, respectively.

Kim Petras threw it back as Cherry Darling from the 2007 film Planet Terror.

Megan Fox and Machine Gun Kelly arrived at Casamigos’ event dressed as schoolgirl assassin Gogo Yubari (Chiaki Kuriyama) and Uma Thurman’s The Bride from Kill Bill, respectively.

Never one to shy away from a risqué bit, Underworld star Kate Beckinsale dressed as Anna Nicole Smith, while her friend, musician Rony Alwin, dressed as the model’s octogenarian husband J. Howard Marshall.

Beckinsale later suited up as Jane Fonda’s Barbarella for a photoshoot, which saw her friend clad in a Pennywise costume.

Adele suited up as Morticia Addams, wearing a floor-length gown and dark-hued makeup for a performance at her Las Vegas residency over the weekend.

Singer Chloe Bailey debuted her take on Daenerys Targaryen.

Rapper Tyga was a dead-ringer for Art the Clown, the malicious slasher from the ultra-violent Terrifier franchise. Pal Evan Ross, however, seemed to be dressed as himself.

Kim Kardashian and her daughter, North, lit up the internet with a dead-on rendition of Cher (Alicia Silverstone) and Dionne (Stacey Dash) from the classic high school comedy Clueless…

Lizzo honored the late, great Tina Turner…

…as well as fabled scream queen Elvira.

Demi Lovato painstakingly recreated Snow White’s look…

…and rapper Saweetie put her signature fingernails to use as Edward Scissorhands.



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Southwest Airlines Finally Facing Penalties After Stranding Millions Last Year

The U.S. government said that it would issue a fine to Southwest Airlines over a customer service mishap that left nearly 17,000 flights canceled and over 2 million travelers stranded last December. In many cases, customers were forced to wait in hours-long lines and the airline would not reimburse the cost of hotels or accommodations.

The U.S. Department of Transportation first said back in January that it was conducting an investigation into Southwest over the December incident, which included a probe into whether the airline was scheduling more flights than it could handle. "DOT is in the initial phase of a rigorous and comprehensive investigation into Southwest Airlines’ holiday debacle that stranded millions," a department spokesperson said at the time.

On Friday, the agency said that "it has determined the company had failed to provide adequate customer service assistance, prompt flight status notifications, and proper and prompt refunds." As such, it was determined that "the assessment of a civil penalty is warranted."

In a regulatory filing on Monday, Southwest indicated that it would not be able to estimate the cost of a fine, in addition to damages from lawsuits filed by customers and shareholders. This is on top of at least $1.1 billion in lost sales and other costs including refunds that the airline suffered as a result of the breakdown in customer service.

The filing comes just days after Southwest announced that its third-quarter profit from July through September fell 30 percent this year, and that the airline would scale back growth plans early next year. The carrier blamed changes in travel, including a slow recovery in business travel, for the loss. 

"The whole sector is under pressure obviously," CEO Robert Jordan told CNBC last week. "Costs are rising, and a lot of that is labor cost.”

Southwest executives said during a third quarter earnings call on Thursday that heading into the 2023 holiday season, the airline is taking proactive measures in an effort to avoid a repeat of last year. The same day, the company announced that it would also be introducing a baggage tracking tool to allow travelers to trace their checked luggage in transit by using the company’s website or mobile app.

And while that's certainly an attractive feature, it remains to be seen whether it will be enough to offset the bad publicity.



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Ex-'Baywatch' Babe Blasts 'Hater Women' While Straddling Pumpkin

Former Playboy model Donna D'Errico is perhaps best known for appearing on Baywatch for two seasons from 1996 through 1998, but these days the 55-year-old continues to act and model, now posting exclusive content on OnlyFans. 

However, D'Errico has found that her newfound notoriety has made her the target of online bullies, and this week she took to Instagram to clap back at her so-called "haters."

In one post on Monday, D'Errico claimed that here was a "group of women haters" who routinely report all of her posts—many of which she appears in skimpy bikinis or lingerie—in an effort to get her shadow-banned. She said that these women do this because "it makes them feel better about themselves to see a thriving, confident woman ... have to keep taking down all of her posts."

She explained that she's had to remove content from her Instagram to get her shadow-ban lifted, but because "Donna doesn’t get bullied," she's putting it right back up.

In a second post of re-uploaded content, just in time for Halloween, D'Errico appears in a series of photos wearing a tight black corset and straddling a pumpkin, while seductively touching her lip in one image.

"Here’s another photo that had to be removed in order to lift the shadow ban on my account after a group of women haters went through my account reporting all my posts," she captioned the post. "There’s nothing wrong with these photos, so I’m turning right back around and reposting them."

"Have a beautiful day. Hater women: Feel better about yourselves," she added. "Build up other women. In doing so, you can shine, too. Failing that, I guess you can simply kiss my ass."

For what it's worth, D'Errico does indeed look incredible at 55. So if some underground cabal of hater women does indeed exist (it's unclear how she's determined the gender of her reporters), perhaps they are envious of her preternatural youth.

Back in August, D'Errico celebrated her one-year anniversary with OnlyFans by posting a—you guessed it—sultry photo of herself wearing a skimpy yellow polka-dot bikini. "Two days until my one year anniversary on 'the site that shall not be named,'" she wrote at the time, cheekily referring to the NSFW content-creator platform. "Here’s me in a bikini scraping paint off a wall."

With any luck, the model won't have to deal with any further shadow-banning so her content can reach her 2.3 million Instagram followers, haters or not.



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