December 15, 2023 • 26 mins
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Wake that ass up in the morning. The Breakfast Club Morning.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Everybody is DJ Envy Charlamagne the Guy. We are the
Breakfast Club. We got our guess co host Lauren the
Roaster with us, and we got a special guest in
the building. Brother's name is Keith Lee.
Speaker 3 (00:14):
Welcome brother, Pleasure, pleasure, pleasure to be here. How are
you doing, man, I can't complain, man, blessed ay favorite.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
Yes. Absolutely for people that don't know who you are,
you've been going viral the last couple of months and
years because you're a food creek. Absolutely, but you're a
food creek the hood way, like you pull up to
the spot and you eat it in the car pause.
Speaker 1 (00:31):
I wouldn't say the whoday. I just eat food.
Speaker 3 (00:32):
I critique it everything, and it's not even from a
critique and standpoint, it's just I experience everything. So at
first I will go in and I will eat food,
and I will experience the whole thing, like sitting down
the restaurants. But I've always had social anxiety, so I've
never been really big on sitting down and like sitting
and talking to people. Really, so I'm getting a lot
better being around my family and being around the situations
that I'm in. But really, my family goes in and
(00:54):
they get the customer service experience for me now because nowadays,
if I go in, I get thirty backs to food
and get the experience that it's not authentic. And if
I go in and I say, hey, the customer service
was amazing or the food was amazing, it's only because
I have fifteen min million followers. It's not because the
food is actually amazing or the customer service. You're gonna
get the same customer service experience. So I want the
same customer service experience my mom gonna get if you
(01:16):
going the next day.
Speaker 4 (01:16):
Oh that's interesting you said that. You know, you being
the food critic, you don't get an authentic experience.
Speaker 1 (01:21):
And the absolutely it might front now, Oh it's immedia.
It ain't. No, Mike.
Speaker 5 (01:26):
Might be knowing where you're going to. Like when they
say you in a city, they sit out an alert
on Twitter. They'll be like, oh, Keith Lee is.
Speaker 1 (01:31):
In New York.
Speaker 6 (01:33):
It's like, okay, people got tightened up.
Speaker 3 (01:34):
A lot of people ask me why I do that.
So the reason I put out an alert before I
go to a city, every food I pay for everything.
Speaker 6 (01:42):
He doesn't go in hisself.
Speaker 1 (01:43):
He said that, okay, so.
Speaker 3 (01:46):
Get a little backstory, because I know a lot of
people aren't familiar with what I'm blessed enough to do.
So I basically, I go to restaurants, and I'm a
marketing platform for absolutely free to these restaurants that don't
have marketing platforms, but they have great food and great
customer service. So I go in and I go to
small mama pop shops. I go to places who might
have just opened, or I go to places that have,
like I said, great food and gret because of services
(02:07):
with people don't know about them because they aren't either
on social media or they don't do a great job
of word of mouth, because a lot of these places
are either ran by older people who aren't on social media,
or people who've put they all into making the resources
that they have work and not have time to actually
go out and outsourced marketing. And a lot of people
who are on social media or are food influencers they charge.
(02:28):
So I don't consider myself a food influencer. I don't
consider myself an influencer, a celebrity or anybody. I'm just
a vestable of God and I just do what I
feel like i'mupposed to do and that comes with eating food.
Speaker 7 (02:37):
Use an MMA fighter too?
Speaker 1 (02:38):
Professional?
Speaker 3 (02:39):
Yep, wow, at eight years ninety five is a professional
four no as amateur.
Speaker 7 (02:43):
So how did you go from MMA fighter the food creek?
Speaker 3 (02:46):
So I've always been really big into food. As MMA fighter,
food is one of the most important things because you
got to lose a lot of weight. I fought at
one thirty five, but I always waited around one to
sixty five and one to seventy, So really cutting from
one seventy to one thirty five is ninety percent in
ten percent dedication. So it's really I've always had a
passion for food and cooking and really being focused on
a food aspect.
Speaker 1 (03:07):
So it just, honestly, it's God man. One thing led
into another.
Speaker 3 (03:11):
I started doing TikTok just to get over my social
anxiety so I can do interviews for MMA, and then
by the time you know it, I was I'm here.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
How do you rate when you go to a lot
of these restaurants and spots, Because, as I was saying earlier,
a lot of times when you go to a restaurant,
it is the experience, right, It's you know, when you
go to the South, you usually get a warming feeling
from people. New York is a lot colder.
Speaker 1 (03:30):
And we're very cold, very cool when you go to
those restaurants.
Speaker 2 (03:33):
So how do you rate a restaurant on experience? Based
on that?
Speaker 3 (03:36):
So really is based on the experience from traveling the
world and being able to do that through fighting. I've
took that experience that I've had from that into the
actual food world. So most of the time it's either
based on a customer service, the food, or the overall
experience itself. So if let's say I go into a
restaurant again, this is why I don't go in by myself,
because I go into a restaurant, I walk out with,
(03:58):
like I said, thirty five bags of free food. And
that's never been my My mo is to help restaurants
and to help people and to be a blessing that
I feel like I've been called to be. But in
order to rate sufficiently, I get the food in front
of me, I eat it like everybody else. I give
my opinion like everybody else, and I make sure I
pre EMPHASI it that this is my opinion. These are
my taste bloods. Yeah, I just taste food. Bro that's
(04:21):
really what it boils down to be. But I'm blessed
enough to where if I go in like a restaurant,
or if I actually am super fond of a dish,
it might be a four to five hour way time.
And we've been able to do it in Houston, We've
been able to do it in Detroit. We've been able
to do it in Miami. We've been able to do
it here. We've been able to do it in Vegas,
New Orleans. So we've just been blessed enough to go
(04:43):
to places and once we leave, we might leave a
like I said, a five hour weight time, six hour
way time. The places who haven't been blessed enough to
have that experience or that exposure.
Speaker 6 (04:51):
The location called the I think it's the puttery what
you said.
Speaker 5 (04:55):
They had to close down and get themselves together to
reopen because of all the business.
Speaker 3 (04:59):
You absolutely within the span. So all that has really
started for me in January last year. So within the
span of a year, we've been able to raise over
forty thousand dollars for a restaurant owner who has cancer.
In less than twenty four hours, we've been able to
raise fifty thousand dollars for a food truck owner. In
less than twenty four hours, we've been able to keep
thousands of where I would say thousands hundreds of doors
(05:20):
open from restaurants who would email me and say, hey,
we about to close tomorrow or we're about to close
the next few days because we don't have the marketing
and nobody knows about us. And then within twenty four
hour span, Like I said, it's a line around the corner.
And I don't take anything on the back end. I
don't take any money. I don't take any endorsement deals
from these small companies. I don't take anything from them.
What I get out of it is knowing that whatever
(05:43):
I put in the world, I get back.
Speaker 7 (05:44):
Yeah, as soon as you do that, your word is done.
Speaker 4 (05:46):
As soon as people realize like oh somebody paid him,
or somebody gets or something, your word is done.
Speaker 7 (05:51):
All this is over.
Speaker 1 (05:52):
Yeah.
Speaker 7 (05:52):
What was the first one that went really really big
for you?
Speaker 3 (05:55):
It was a place called Francis's Piece of Reda in
Las Vegas. They emailed me and they basically said, hey,
we're about to close those doors because we same thing.
We don't have a marketing, No nobody knows about us.
But the food is amazing. And my dad is the
owner and his name is Frank, and he put all
his money into this business. But he's afraid that his
business is about the clothes. We just want you to come.
We don't want you to do a review or anything.
(06:15):
We just want you to come and eat the food.
I went. I met Frank the second I walked in.
He had no idea who I was, and he just
was one of the nicest men I've ever met. He
gave me a frigator rad. He tried to gave me
freegated I turned it down. He tried to give me
free food. I turned it out and I just took
the food.
Speaker 1 (06:27):
I ate it.
Speaker 3 (06:28):
I recorded it, and then within less than twelve hours
they went from having two customers a day to being
around the corner. And to this day they have a
section for luggage to where you come straight off the
plane you put your luggage because so many people come straight.
Speaker 1 (06:40):
Off the plane.
Speaker 2 (06:41):
And where are you from.
Speaker 1 (06:42):
I'm originally from Detroit, but I live in Vegas.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
From Detroit with So you've been in all these different places, right,
So you said New York is cold. So when you
say New York is cold, explain to people when you
get service in New York and compared to service in Detroit,
compared to service in the South.
Speaker 3 (06:57):
Culture is different. Culture is different, the people are different.
When I walked in, you asked me or you said
that I'm a ghetto food critic. So it's like that
alone New York. So it's like New York is cold.
They play with you a lot, but I got I
got thick skin. So it's like what you say to me,
don't bother me. I just don't like when places or
(07:20):
people go to these smart restaurants and they get that
that energy that.
Speaker 2 (07:25):
But your food creek the hood way, like you pull
up to the spot and you eat it in the car. Pause.
Speaker 3 (07:29):
It's the same thing, that energy that you gave me
when they give it to smart restaurants.
Speaker 1 (07:33):
That's what I don't like when you get it to me.
Speaker 2 (07:34):
I don't mind it's not the same because I'm from
the hood, but I'm not ghetto. I'm from Quities, but
I call it the hood, but it's nigga.
Speaker 7 (07:39):
You are so ghettle I'm not.
Speaker 1 (07:40):
You think you not gettle.
Speaker 7 (07:42):
You're one of the most ghetto is niggas.
Speaker 3 (07:47):
You got to you gotta he got a white beeter,
but he said twenty degrees outside and his rainer.
Speaker 7 (07:56):
Jack.
Speaker 1 (07:56):
Okay, now that you also wear video got no strings
on it from TikTok.
Speaker 6 (08:03):
I don't know if I would pick up on like
your actual personality, but you' not like that in person.
Speaker 1 (08:08):
I'm the same.
Speaker 3 (08:09):
I feel like I feel like I am who I
say I am. Is just that when I'm in front
of the camera and I can just chill in this myself,
then you just get me eating food. But that's that's
one thing about the Internet. I'm always me, but you
don't really know me because I don't really talk much.
And I only did this because I wanted to do this.
I don't have the traditional way of marketing or going
(08:30):
out and pushing myself because my goal isn't to push myself.
My goal is to push these smart restaurants and do
what I feel like I'm called to do. I only
did this as a scratch off the buckets because I've
always wanted to do this.
Speaker 4 (08:41):
What you said earlier about you know, not going into
the stassment yourself, that's why you didn't go into candy restaurant, right,
because why they want to give you perferctial treatment.
Speaker 3 (08:49):
So they personally invited me. So when we were at
the music fest, the one music fest, one of her
team members or somebody who was associated or walked into
me and was like, Hey, we've been inviting you for
the last week. We've ben DMU, we've been emailing you.
Can you please just come get a food to try?
And I knew if I was to walk in again
the same experience that somebody with less followers than me
(09:10):
or somebody with no followers wouldn't get the same experience.
And I'm a person at the D day. I'm a
normal person. I'm not like again, I'm not a celebrity.
And the way I think about it, if we were
ready to get dropped off in a foreign country or
a random country and they had no idea who anybody was,
we'd all be picking the same or doing the same things.
We all we we would all be the same on
the same plane field. So that's how I live my life.
(09:32):
So they literally asked me I went, and I knew
if I walked in it would be completely different. So
I sent my family in as always, and they immediately
told them like, hey, it's a two hour to two
and a half hour away time. So I was like, okay,
if we're gonna wait, we're gonna just sit and wait
like everybody else. That's one thing. I never skipped lines. Again,
I'm a normal person. But we I sat in the car,
(09:54):
I waited fit them to go in. They came back
and it was like a two hour way time. I
was like, okay, let me go in and see if
it's gonna be different if I go in, because my
experience to why Atlanta that whole time was if I
go in, I get literally five minute wait times, two
minute wait times, and it's like in Atlanta, I think
it's different because it really takes status to be able
to eat or to be able to do anything out there.
(10:16):
So me walking in immediately, she was like, oh yeah,
you can come sit down. And I was like, well,
you just told my family it's too our way time,
and she was like, oh, well, I called a bunch
of people and they didn't come and pick up the reservations.
So that's why we're on a first come, first basis now.
But a few minutes ago you went on the first
first her basis. So it was just things like that
(10:36):
that made me highlighted and made me turn around and
go sit in the car.
Speaker 7 (10:41):
How many people in your family? Though? How many people is?
Speaker 1 (10:44):
I can't tell you all of that because sometimes it's
a lot of us.
Speaker 7 (10:47):
So that's what I mean.
Speaker 3 (10:48):
I don't want to blow the cover nobody because it
only works if nobody knows who we are.
Speaker 4 (10:51):
Because just to be fair, if eight people walk in,
I might not be able to come.
Speaker 3 (10:55):
Oh of course not no, actually walk We actually a
five person tape when my family asked for a five
persona but I came and asked for a seven person
table and they gave it to me in two minutes.
Speaker 2 (11:05):
But you know, when most restaurants have celebrities, most they
give them you know, you know, they feel like a
celebrity is gonna post.
Speaker 1 (11:12):
It, which I want to see celebrities.
Speaker 2 (11:14):
And they'll want to come to the restaurant even more.
Speaker 3 (11:16):
But that's why I only go to places that I'm
invited to, because if you invite me, you invite me
on the pretenses that you know what it is. You
know what it is that I do. So if I
go into a spot and you automatically know that I
don't want preferential treatment because I want to get the
same experience that everybody else kids. Then once you give
it to me, it shows that you didn't invite me
for me. You invited me for the opportunity. You didn't
(11:36):
look at me as a person, You only looked at
me as an opportunity.
Speaker 2 (11:38):
So you only go where you're invited. You only go
to the restaurant. So like if you're in New York,
and then let's say Lauren or all myself say, yo,
this restaurant is dope. You don't go to those. You
only go where.
Speaker 3 (11:46):
New York is different because I feel like a lot
of restaurant owners out here have an ego.
Speaker 1 (11:51):
I'll here.
Speaker 3 (11:51):
Nobody invites anybody. So it's like everything out here is
word of off. So the way I've been planning out
here is I only go to places that I've been
recommended to over thirty times.
Speaker 1 (12:01):
So if got recommended to you a thousand.
Speaker 3 (12:04):
Times, yeah, So it's like if I can have a
backbone to because what I don't want is I go
and get my opinion in the restaurant immediate, like, oh,
we didn't ask him to come here, he just gave
his unsolicitate opinion, or we didn't Nobody asks for.
Speaker 2 (12:16):
That isn't that the best thing? Like, because I think
a lot of people look at you as when I
come to a city, let me see what Keith Lee
says is good, and I'm gonna go there, you know
what I mean, because I can trust in his opinion.
You know what I mean.
Speaker 3 (12:24):
But if I don't personally like it, then the human
reaction is to be deflective, or the human reaction is
to immediately be like, don'tbody asks him to come here.
But if you ask me to come here and I
give you my opinion, once you do something like when
we was in Atlanta, the real mc honey, they asked
me to come or I got tagged a thousand times
to come, and then the second I made the video,
(12:47):
the owner went online. It was like, who is Keith
Lee but the one of the main I don't know
exactly what they rolled that the company was, but one
of the main people in the restaurant. Once I walked
in and they told me it was a five minute wait,
I walked back out. They chased me to my car
and tried to get me service. So it's like, how
you don't know, but either way.
Speaker 5 (13:04):
Your review stands harder than that deflection because people still.
Speaker 3 (13:07):
I'm a person at the end of the day. I'm
a customer at the end of the day. That's why
when you say I get free food, I made sure
I made it clear I pay for everything. So it's like,
I'm a customer at end of the day. Regardless if
you think that I'm somebody or if you think I
have a status, I'm a customer and I pay my
money and I want to experience everybody else.
Speaker 2 (13:23):
If you give a negative review on a restaurant, do
you ever go back and be like, because you know,
sometimes the chef might have a bad day or staff
might have a bad day. People I always say that,
do you ever go back and say, you know what,
we'll try this again or once it's a wrap.
Speaker 3 (13:34):
It depends on the circumstance, and it also depends on
Now we're on tour, so we're on tour, we're going
around to different cities. I'm only here for a certain
amount of day, so it's almost impossible to go and
track back. But when I was back in Vegas, I
will go back because I would have time to go back.
And eventually I plan on going back to different cities
or going back to different spots and then some spots.
Speaker 7 (13:54):
I won't go back to it's cut and slices. Not amazing.
Speaker 1 (13:57):
It is absolutely amazing. Yeah, you had it? What have
you had it?
Speaker 2 (14:01):
Not yet?
Speaker 6 (14:02):
I have had it yet. I've heard of it, though
I've heard of it a lot.
Speaker 4 (14:06):
It's I've had it personally. I've had it catered. When
I did the Daily Show, I had it catered because
it's really just that good. Which slightly did you have?
Speaker 3 (14:12):
I had the curry oxtail, I had the chicken and waffles,
and then the I had a bunch of them. I
think I had six of them, but the curry oxet
was the one that stood out to me the most,
the chili oxel.
Speaker 1 (14:23):
I think it was single.
Speaker 7 (14:25):
He said that here we go. He said that you
that you hurt are people's business with your reviews. Have
you all spoken?
Speaker 3 (14:34):
I made a response video, but we haven't spoke directly.
I saw his response to my response and I appreciated it.
But I also think a lot of it was based
on uh misinformation, and a lot of it was based
on I said, when I walked in, you had no
idea what I do. So I get that, and people
make opinions based on that, and they only see like
one or two headlines and say, oh, he gave a
(14:56):
negative review the Candies restaurant. He must be doing bad
for busines. But they haven't seen the amazing things we've
been blessed enough to do. And I think that just
was the case with ch Ad, And once I broke
it down, I think he was a understand whre I
was coming from.
Speaker 4 (15:08):
I mean, because the reality is, you know, the reason
you have the following you do is because you are
clearly impactful for people's business, whether it's positive or negative.
Speaker 7 (15:18):
You know, so you have to that's that's being a critic.
Speaker 1 (15:21):
Is I think that? Yeah, I think that gets long.
Speaker 2 (15:25):
I think I think it's dope because a lot of
times we go to these places and we don't know
where to go to eat right, and we because we
haven't tried the food or we just heard it, you know,
and reviews online or most of them are fake a
lot of times because these people do it themselves. So
the fact that you got somebody that can go to
the restaurant, the only thing that ever bothers me is
is some people don't like a ribbean food. Some people
don't like spicy food. Some people don't like this. So
if you're not into that, and I am that that
(15:46):
can you know, skew you a different way. But I
think it's dope because you get to you get in
effective people from the real right. And and that's that's
my point. You don't really have too many people that
do it that you can really say. Now, he's like me,
I'm gonna try that food.
Speaker 3 (15:58):
You know. See, I always prett emphasis I want everybody
that wants to go try it to go try it,
no matter what the food is, Like, I want everybody.
I don't want anybody's taste budds to be the end
all be all. And I think that's what we lost
on social media is that when people put their opinions out,
it's like, this is my opinion and you gotta take
it for the end all be all. And I feel
like I always try to preemphasis that this is my opinion,
this is the way I taste, and if you want
(16:20):
to go try it, or if you think different than me,
absolutely go try it.
Speaker 7 (16:22):
Question you said you walked out after a five minute waytime.
Speaker 1 (16:25):
Yeah that's too.
Speaker 4 (16:26):
Much for you.
Speaker 3 (16:26):
No, no, no, it wasn't the way time. It was
the fact that my family had just got a different results.
It was two hours that was the issue. It wasn't
the I was willing to wait in the two hours.
So that's that's one thing I want to make very clear.
I'm willing to wait in a three hour way time
to four hour way times. I just want the same
surface to everybody else.
Speaker 2 (16:42):
kIPS. Have you ever got threatened? I'm sure I own
I had the threaten if.
Speaker 1 (16:45):
You get in Atlanta.
Speaker 3 (16:46):
They supposedly gave us step threats once we left Atlanta,
But I'm covered by God.
Speaker 5 (16:51):
Man.
Speaker 2 (16:52):
I ain't worried about nobody excited, So you can have
somebody right up, I ain't worthy nobody.
Speaker 4 (16:57):
Do you post like if you hate everything about the restaurant,
food service, everything, Do you post those type.
Speaker 1 (17:03):
Of reviews constructively? Yeah?
Speaker 3 (17:05):
But I've been blessed enough to where I haven't really
granted to that many spots like that. But yeah, absolutely constructively,
because again, if I only gave positive reviews, if only
gave out the good, then it wouldn't hold any weight.
It only holds weight if you know I'm being honest,
regardless if you agree with my taste buzz, if you
don't agree with them, it only holds weight if you know,
I'm authentically being myself and I can only look at
myself in the mirror knowing I'm authentically be me.
Speaker 2 (17:27):
What food don't you do? Is there any food that
you don't do? I don't like charlomage.
Speaker 3 (17:30):
I only alergs of shellfish. Everything else, I'm I'm open book. Yeah,
my wife does when I want. When I can't have shellfish,
my wife does the reviews for me. So like crab legs,
shrimp and all of that.
Speaker 6 (17:42):
Oh my gosh, So you've never had that.
Speaker 1 (17:43):
You've always been, always been since since birth.
Speaker 6 (17:46):
Yeah, I'm so sorry to.
Speaker 1 (17:49):
Be honest with you. Chelfers don't look that good either. No,
it is my review.
Speaker 6 (17:53):
It's amazing.
Speaker 1 (17:54):
Understand. Understand.
Speaker 2 (17:56):
Now let's talk about this. You went and got some
chop cheese.
Speaker 1 (17:58):
Yeah, they was mad as would mad at you. What
made you go to people?
Speaker 2 (18:02):
Was like he went to Queens to get a chop cheese?
Speaker 5 (18:04):
And how do you even pick that when you go
into places like New York because each borough is its.
Speaker 6 (18:07):
Own like place.
Speaker 3 (18:09):
So I didn't pick anything I got it suggested. So
any any place that I go to again, if it's
not directly by the owner themselves. It's suggested a thousand times.
So I always show the d MS or the emails
that I get directly from whoever tells me to go.
I get New York is a very hard market to
do anything new.
Speaker 2 (18:27):
Yep.
Speaker 1 (18:28):
The second you try to break any tradition out here,
it's a rap you try to break. I didn't try
to break it. I didn't try to break it.
Speaker 3 (18:35):
They tried to break it because it's a black owned
business that just opened not too long ago and they
have a salmon chop cheese that they were trying to
break into the market. But instead of it being opened
or welcome with like oh they trying something new, is
immediately like we don't do that over here, what you're doing,
And it got towards turned towards me, which again I
don't mind. I just didn't want that restaurant to be
(18:57):
tore down, which unfortunately is being tore down as they
trying to do something different. It was decent, but again
I don't really I don't really like chop cheese like that.
It's cool, but I don't get the it's I think
it's based nostalgia. I think it's wrapped nostalgia. I think
it's wrapped in the fact that you ate it growing up,
or you ate it in places where you had memories
(19:18):
tied to it, like leaving the club, leaving leaving places,
like all of that has to be tied to in
order it to hit.
Speaker 2 (19:26):
When you leave, you just need something.
Speaker 3 (19:31):
I believe it's attached to memories, and I feel like,
since I don't have those memories, I don't get the
same experience, which again I understand, but I feel like
it's just one of those things. Again, it is wrapped
in nostalgia, and people won't get out of that nostalgia.
They just immediately see an outsider. And then New York
is one of those places that have like real strong
patriotism to they city. So it's like, if you're from
(19:52):
New York, you're from New York and you don't want
nobody outside in New York come in and given the opinion.
But again, I'm covered by God. I go everywhere I'm
supposed to go.
Speaker 2 (19:59):
What about Detroit? What was your favorite spot?
Speaker 3 (20:00):
Detroit Cony is number one, obviously, but it's a food
haul that just opened. It's a black On food Haul
and they have over twenty different black On restaurants in there,
and we went and it.
Speaker 1 (20:10):
Was amazing Atlanta.
Speaker 7 (20:11):
Every spot in there.
Speaker 1 (20:12):
Every spot wasn't amazing, but it was a lot of
spots where do.
Speaker 6 (20:15):
You actually cook yourself like I just at home.
Speaker 1 (20:18):
So that's how it started. That's how it originally started.
Speaker 3 (20:19):
Like I said, to get over my social anxiety, I
would just turn the cameron and I would talk like
it was three hundred people in front of me. But
my wife was pregnant at the time, so at first
it started with me going to get her pregnancy cravens.
And then it turned into me cooking because again fighting,
you would have to fighting and cooking goals is synonymous.
So I literally would cook for myself four times a
day and I would cook my wife four times a day.
And that's how it started. And I did that for
(20:41):
like a year straight, and within that year or two years,
it took me to get to a million. It took
me less than nine months to get to fifteen million.
Speaker 2 (20:49):
Wow, do you step outside the box? Like I know
Charlomagne's talking about eating deer before or raccoon or things
like that, or bear? Do you go today say.
Speaker 1 (20:58):
You like I know you from.
Speaker 4 (21:01):
I then be showed I ain't no red, I ain't.
Speaker 2 (21:04):
Never have you have you stepped out the box to eat?
Speaker 1 (21:08):
I haven't.
Speaker 3 (21:09):
I would I would, Yeah, I wouldn't eat bear shoulder?
What bear shoulder tastes like?
Speaker 6 (21:13):
Oh?
Speaker 7 (21:13):
That shit was great. It tasts like beef. I had
it in West Virginia.
Speaker 4 (21:18):
Actually, when I went to West Virginia, everything I ate
they either hunted or grew themselves.
Speaker 7 (21:22):
So we had bed shoulder, deer hash and squirrel dumplings.
Speaker 1 (21:26):
Understand, Yeah, you ever try? I would? Would? I say,
I would like it? I don't know.
Speaker 6 (21:31):
Do you ever get sick from eating food?
Speaker 7 (21:33):
Like?
Speaker 3 (21:34):
I don't get sick, but so much. I don't get sick,
but sometimes my stomach do be a little.
Speaker 1 (21:39):
But again, it comes with the job. It comes with
the job.
Speaker 3 (21:41):
I'm blessed to be here, and I'm thankful that I'm
not getting punched in the face for a living and
trying to make ends meet.
Speaker 4 (21:47):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (21:47):
This time last year I was literally on food stamps,
trying to figure out where my next meal was gonna
come from. So from to be here now? Again, I
don't do many media interviews. I don't do many like
speaking engagements to boost who I am because I truly
believe whatever's meant for me, it's gonna be for me.
I just do things like this because again, it's a
check off the bucket and I just want to show
(22:08):
my kids later like, whatever you put your mind to,
you can absolutely do it.
Speaker 4 (22:11):
So you've just been in a food critic for like the
past year nine nine much Okay, okay, wow, just last year.
Speaker 7 (22:16):
He was going fu SAMs. That's crazy.
Speaker 4 (22:18):
Absolutely, That's another thing you could do, showing people who
are on food stamps, you know, what meals they could
be eating out.
Speaker 7 (22:25):
Like my homegirl Colleen Witch.
Speaker 4 (22:26):
She has a podcast called Eating While Broke and basically
she brings people on to talk about, you know, affordable meals,
meals that you can create on a budget.
Speaker 3 (22:36):
I just do what I feel like I'm supposed to do.
I don't I didn't write this out. I didn't plan
this out. I didn't write this out. If you would
have asked me at the beginning of the year when
i'd be here, I look at you and laugh. So,
so what's the future, Like, whatever it's supposed to be,
I'm gonna be everywhere I'm supposed to be. I believe
I'm gonna walk in every room I'm supposed to be
in and I So the reason we went on tour
directly is because a lot of TV companies, every TV
(22:58):
producer you can think of, each to us in March
and they were planning our shows and they were putting
our shows, but it was very cookie cutter. It was
really like, we already had to show plan, but we
just want to make you the host of it. And
they kept reversing diners driving and dash at my saying
that right, yeah. They kept referencing that, and they were
basically like, we just want to make you the host
of this show that's already created.
Speaker 1 (23:18):
And I don't like that.
Speaker 3 (23:19):
My family moves with me everywhere, so I want to
make sure my family has involved in anything that I do.
So I took it upon me and my family and
we just hit the role on our own, and we
went out to show these TV producers and these TV
companies and everybody else that we're blessed enough for this
to work and it can work in every market. So
we just going and we're doing it on our own.
So by the time we go back to these companies,
(23:40):
we already have concrete evidence and concrete facts of how
many businesses we've been blessed enough to help with the
system that we have. So by the time we get there,
ain't no changing up.
Speaker 6 (23:48):
And are you feeling right now?
Speaker 4 (23:50):
I would love to see that, because I when you
think about it, I can think of guy Guy Fi
pronounce this last name right, Anthony Boardin.
Speaker 1 (23:57):
We ain't got many that looked like me, not at all. Everywhere.
I got dred, I got locks.
Speaker 3 (24:04):
I'm a black man, I got a black wife, I
got black children. So it's like, it's very important.
Speaker 7 (24:08):
What do you think of Darius Cooks?
Speaker 1 (24:10):
You know, I don't think of nobody.
Speaker 7 (24:12):
Okay, I.
Speaker 2 (24:16):
Don't think nobody we got we gotta run to the rumors.
But we appreciate you for joining us. And and again,
I don't want you to feel like I was belittling
you by saying hood whatever, No, No, What I was
saying was.
Speaker 7 (24:25):
He's not gonna grab you after Mary. Relax.
Speaker 2 (24:28):
What I'm saying because I want to eplain it because
I don't I don't ever want somebody to do I'm
belittling him. What I wanted to What I was saying
was I was doing it to saying no, I don't
have a restaurant coming. But I was saying, is I
love the fact that you go to restaurants that we
go to. I don't see a lot of people critiquing
the restaurants.
Speaker 1 (24:45):
That we go to, and the restaurants we go to
ain ghetto.
Speaker 2 (24:47):
No, they said that what ghetto? He stopped saying. I
said that. The reason I said that, I did not
say yetto ghetto didn't come in my word. I said,
you said, hood I loved the restaurant. No, I said hood.
I said the restaurants that we come in my hood.
When I talked about Queens, that's my hood. When I
talk about Brooklyn, it was of my hoods. I don't
mean ghetto. But the fact that is, you see somebody
do a critique of taal, you'll see critique somebody do
(25:07):
a critique of carbones. When it comes to a taste
of seafood, or when it comes to cuts and slices,
you never see that. And I love to see my
own people doing it. That's what I meant by it.
And I didn't mean to belive you if you felt
that way, I apologized, but that.
Speaker 1 (25:20):
Was he didn't mean.
Speaker 6 (25:25):
Charlotte didn't mean to be on.
Speaker 3 (25:26):
His phone, you know, because I love it. I love
that for you, of course, and I think you capreciate you. Also,
media platforms keep un the scuorely. We just dropped merch
uh and this is one thing that's really big for me.
(25:48):
We just dropped merch and my family and myself created it.
My cousin created it for us and a bunch of companies.
We was going back and forth because they really wanted
us to charge the highest because it's a really high quality.
They wanted me to charge one hundred and eighty to
one hundred nine jollas for our hoodies. We charged seventy five.
They want us to charge one hundred and twenty one
hundred and thirty for our t shirts. We charged in
forty five. Because the profit isn't the mango for me.
(26:08):
The mang goal is to have people who follow me
and people who support me to be and stuff that
I am proud of and stuff that I will wear,
and I just walk on my purpose and I'm just
apprecia to be here.
Speaker 7 (26:17):
You can give me one for free so I can
critique it and see if the fabrics.
Speaker 6 (26:19):
You don't get nothing for free, so you need to
buy it.
Speaker 1 (26:21):
God bless y'all, appreciate you'a having.
Speaker 2 (26:24):
It's the Breakfast Coming love for y'all.
Speaker 1 (26:26):
Wake that ass up in the morning. The Breakfast Club
Wake that ass up in the morning. The Breakfast Club Morning.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Everybody is DJ Envy Charlamagne the Guy. We are the
Breakfast Club. We got our guess co host Lauren the
Roaster with us, and we got a special guest in
the building. Brother's name is Keith Lee.
Speaker 3 (00:14):
Welcome brother, Pleasure, pleasure, pleasure to be here. How are
you doing, man, I can't complain, man, blessed ay favorite.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
Yes. Absolutely for people that don't know who you are,
you've been going viral the last couple of months and
years because you're a food creek. Absolutely, but you're a
food creek the hood way, like you pull up to
the spot and you eat it in the car pause.
Speaker 1 (00:31):
I wouldn't say the whoday. I just eat food.
Speaker 3 (00:32):
I critique it everything, and it's not even from a
critique and standpoint, it's just I experience everything. So at
first I will go in and I will eat food,
and I will experience the whole thing, like sitting down
the restaurants. But I've always had social anxiety, so I've
never been really big on sitting down and like sitting
and talking to people. Really, so I'm getting a lot
better being around my family and being around the situations
that I'm in. But really, my family goes in and
(00:54):
they get the customer service experience for me now because nowadays,
if I go in, I get thirty backs to food
and get the experience that it's not authentic. And if
I go in and I say, hey, the customer service
was amazing or the food was amazing, it's only because
I have fifteen min million followers. It's not because the
food is actually amazing or the customer service. You're gonna
get the same customer service experience. So I want the
same customer service experience my mom gonna get if you
(01:16):
going the next day.
Speaker 4 (01:16):
Oh that's interesting you said that. You know, you being
the food critic, you don't get an authentic experience.
Speaker 1 (01:21):
And the absolutely it might front now, Oh it's immedia.
It ain't. No, Mike.
Speaker 5 (01:26):
Might be knowing where you're going to. Like when they
say you in a city, they sit out an alert
on Twitter. They'll be like, oh, Keith Lee is.
Speaker 1 (01:31):
In New York.
Speaker 6 (01:33):
It's like, okay, people got tightened up.
Speaker 3 (01:34):
A lot of people ask me why I do that.
So the reason I put out an alert before I
go to a city, every food I pay for everything.
Speaker 6 (01:42):
He doesn't go in hisself.
Speaker 1 (01:43):
He said that, okay, so.
Speaker 3 (01:46):
Get a little backstory, because I know a lot of
people aren't familiar with what I'm blessed enough to do.
So I basically, I go to restaurants, and I'm a
marketing platform for absolutely free to these restaurants that don't
have marketing platforms, but they have great food and great
customer service. So I go in and I go to
small mama pop shops. I go to places who might
have just opened, or I go to places that have,
like I said, great food and gret because of services
(02:07):
with people don't know about them because they aren't either
on social media or they don't do a great job
of word of mouth, because a lot of these places
are either ran by older people who aren't on social media,
or people who've put they all into making the resources
that they have work and not have time to actually
go out and outsourced marketing. And a lot of people
who are on social media or are food influencers they charge.
(02:28):
So I don't consider myself a food influencer. I don't
consider myself an influencer, a celebrity or anybody. I'm just
a vestable of God and I just do what I
feel like i'mupposed to do and that comes with eating food.
Speaker 7 (02:37):
Use an MMA fighter too?
Speaker 1 (02:38):
Professional?
Speaker 3 (02:39):
Yep, wow, at eight years ninety five is a professional
four no as amateur.
Speaker 7 (02:43):
So how did you go from MMA fighter the food creek?
Speaker 3 (02:46):
So I've always been really big into food. As MMA fighter,
food is one of the most important things because you
got to lose a lot of weight. I fought at
one thirty five, but I always waited around one to
sixty five and one to seventy, So really cutting from
one seventy to one thirty five is ninety percent in
ten percent dedication. So it's really I've always had a
passion for food and cooking and really being focused on
a food aspect.
Speaker 1 (03:07):
So it just, honestly, it's God man. One thing led
into another.
Speaker 3 (03:11):
I started doing TikTok just to get over my social
anxiety so I can do interviews for MMA, and then
by the time you know it, I was I'm here.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
How do you rate when you go to a lot
of these restaurants and spots, Because, as I was saying earlier,
a lot of times when you go to a restaurant,
it is the experience, right, It's you know, when you
go to the South, you usually get a warming feeling
from people. New York is a lot colder.
Speaker 1 (03:30):
And we're very cold, very cool when you go to
those restaurants.
Speaker 2 (03:33):
So how do you rate a restaurant on experience? Based
on that?
Speaker 3 (03:36):
So really is based on the experience from traveling the
world and being able to do that through fighting. I've
took that experience that I've had from that into the
actual food world. So most of the time it's either
based on a customer service, the food, or the overall
experience itself. So if let's say I go into a
restaurant again, this is why I don't go in by myself,
because I go into a restaurant, I walk out with,
(03:58):
like I said, thirty five bags of free food. And
that's never been my My mo is to help restaurants
and to help people and to be a blessing that
I feel like I've been called to be. But in
order to rate sufficiently, I get the food in front
of me, I eat it like everybody else. I give
my opinion like everybody else, and I make sure I
pre EMPHASI it that this is my opinion. These are
my taste bloods. Yeah, I just taste food. Bro that's
(04:21):
really what it boils down to be. But I'm blessed
enough to where if I go in like a restaurant,
or if I actually am super fond of a dish,
it might be a four to five hour way time.
And we've been able to do it in Houston, We've
been able to do it in Detroit. We've been able
to do it in Miami. We've been able to do
it here. We've been able to do it in Vegas,
New Orleans. So we've just been blessed enough to go
(04:43):
to places and once we leave, we might leave a
like I said, a five hour weight time, six hour
way time. The places who haven't been blessed enough to
have that experience or that exposure.
Speaker 6 (04:51):
The location called the I think it's the puttery what
you said.
Speaker 5 (04:55):
They had to close down and get themselves together to
reopen because of all the business.
Speaker 3 (04:59):
You absolutely within the span. So all that has really
started for me in January last year. So within the
span of a year, we've been able to raise over
forty thousand dollars for a restaurant owner who has cancer.
In less than twenty four hours, we've been able to
raise fifty thousand dollars for a food truck owner. In
less than twenty four hours, we've been able to keep
thousands of where I would say thousands hundreds of doors
(05:20):
open from restaurants who would email me and say, hey,
we about to close tomorrow or we're about to close
the next few days because we don't have the marketing
and nobody knows about us. And then within twenty four
hour span, Like I said, it's a line around the corner.
And I don't take anything on the back end. I
don't take any money. I don't take any endorsement deals
from these small companies. I don't take anything from them.
What I get out of it is knowing that whatever
(05:43):
I put in the world, I get back.
Speaker 7 (05:44):
Yeah, as soon as you do that, your word is done.
Speaker 4 (05:46):
As soon as people realize like oh somebody paid him,
or somebody gets or something, your word is done.
Speaker 7 (05:51):
All this is over.
Speaker 1 (05:52):
Yeah.
Speaker 7 (05:52):
What was the first one that went really really big
for you?
Speaker 3 (05:55):
It was a place called Francis's Piece of Reda in
Las Vegas. They emailed me and they basically said, hey,
we're about to close those doors because we same thing.
We don't have a marketing, No nobody knows about us.
But the food is amazing. And my dad is the
owner and his name is Frank, and he put all
his money into this business. But he's afraid that his
business is about the clothes. We just want you to come.
We don't want you to do a review or anything.
(06:15):
We just want you to come and eat the food.
I went. I met Frank the second I walked in.
He had no idea who I was, and he just
was one of the nicest men I've ever met. He
gave me a frigator rad. He tried to gave me
freegated I turned it down. He tried to give me
free food. I turned it out and I just took
the food.
Speaker 1 (06:27):
I ate it.
Speaker 3 (06:28):
I recorded it, and then within less than twelve hours
they went from having two customers a day to being
around the corner. And to this day they have a
section for luggage to where you come straight off the
plane you put your luggage because so many people come straight.
Speaker 1 (06:40):
Off the plane.
Speaker 2 (06:41):
And where are you from.
Speaker 1 (06:42):
I'm originally from Detroit, but I live in Vegas.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
From Detroit with So you've been in all these different places, right,
So you said New York is cold. So when you
say New York is cold, explain to people when you
get service in New York and compared to service in Detroit,
compared to service in the South.
Speaker 3 (06:57):
Culture is different. Culture is different, the people are different.
When I walked in, you asked me or you said
that I'm a ghetto food critic. So it's like that
alone New York. So it's like New York is cold.
They play with you a lot, but I got I
got thick skin. So it's like what you say to me,
don't bother me. I just don't like when places or
(07:20):
people go to these smart restaurants and they get that
that energy that.
Speaker 2 (07:25):
But your food creek the hood way, like you pull
up to the spot and you eat it in the car. Pause.
Speaker 3 (07:29):
It's the same thing, that energy that you gave me
when they give it to smart restaurants.
Speaker 1 (07:33):
That's what I don't like when you get it to me.
Speaker 2 (07:34):
I don't mind it's not the same because I'm from
the hood, but I'm not ghetto. I'm from Quities, but
I call it the hood, but it's nigga.
Speaker 7 (07:39):
You are so ghettle I'm not.
Speaker 1 (07:40):
You think you not gettle.
Speaker 7 (07:42):
You're one of the most ghetto is niggas.
Speaker 3 (07:47):
You got to you gotta he got a white beeter,
but he said twenty degrees outside and his rainer.
Speaker 7 (07:56):
Jack.
Speaker 1 (07:56):
Okay, now that you also wear video got no strings
on it from TikTok.
Speaker 6 (08:03):
I don't know if I would pick up on like
your actual personality, but you' not like that in person.
Speaker 1 (08:08):
I'm the same.
Speaker 3 (08:09):
I feel like I feel like I am who I
say I am. Is just that when I'm in front
of the camera and I can just chill in this myself,
then you just get me eating food. But that's that's
one thing about the Internet. I'm always me, but you
don't really know me because I don't really talk much.
And I only did this because I wanted to do this.
I don't have the traditional way of marketing or going
(08:30):
out and pushing myself because my goal isn't to push myself.
My goal is to push these smart restaurants and do
what I feel like I'm called to do. I only
did this as a scratch off the buckets because I've
always wanted to do this.
Speaker 4 (08:41):
What you said earlier about you know, not going into
the stassment yourself, that's why you didn't go into candy restaurant, right,
because why they want to give you perferctial treatment.
Speaker 3 (08:49):
So they personally invited me. So when we were at
the music fest, the one music fest, one of her
team members or somebody who was associated or walked into
me and was like, Hey, we've been inviting you for
the last week. We've ben DMU, we've been emailing you.
Can you please just come get a food to try?
And I knew if I was to walk in again
the same experience that somebody with less followers than me
(09:10):
or somebody with no followers wouldn't get the same experience.
And I'm a person at the D day. I'm a
normal person. I'm not like again, I'm not a celebrity.
And the way I think about it, if we were
ready to get dropped off in a foreign country or
a random country and they had no idea who anybody was,
we'd all be picking the same or doing the same things.
We all we we would all be the same on
the same plane field. So that's how I live my life.
(09:32):
So they literally asked me I went, and I knew
if I walked in it would be completely different. So
I sent my family in as always, and they immediately
told them like, hey, it's a two hour to two
and a half hour away time. So I was like, okay,
if we're gonna wait, we're gonna just sit and wait
like everybody else. That's one thing. I never skipped lines. Again,
I'm a normal person. But we I sat in the car,
(09:54):
I waited fit them to go in. They came back
and it was like a two hour way time. I
was like, okay, let me go in and see if
it's gonna be different if I go in, because my
experience to why Atlanta that whole time was if I
go in, I get literally five minute wait times, two
minute wait times, and it's like in Atlanta, I think
it's different because it really takes status to be able
to eat or to be able to do anything out there.
(10:16):
So me walking in immediately, she was like, oh yeah,
you can come sit down. And I was like, well,
you just told my family it's too our way time,
and she was like, oh, well, I called a bunch
of people and they didn't come and pick up the reservations.
So that's why we're on a first come, first basis now.
But a few minutes ago you went on the first
first her basis. So it was just things like that
(10:36):
that made me highlighted and made me turn around and
go sit in the car.
Speaker 7 (10:41):
How many people in your family? Though? How many people is?
Speaker 1 (10:44):
I can't tell you all of that because sometimes it's
a lot of us.
Speaker 7 (10:47):
So that's what I mean.
Speaker 3 (10:48):
I don't want to blow the cover nobody because it
only works if nobody knows who we are.
Speaker 4 (10:51):
Because just to be fair, if eight people walk in,
I might not be able to come.
Speaker 3 (10:55):
Oh of course not no, actually walk We actually a
five person tape when my family asked for a five
persona but I came and asked for a seven person
table and they gave it to me in two minutes.
Speaker 2 (11:05):
But you know, when most restaurants have celebrities, most they
give them you know, you know, they feel like a
celebrity is gonna post.
Speaker 1 (11:12):
It, which I want to see celebrities.
Speaker 2 (11:14):
And they'll want to come to the restaurant even more.
Speaker 3 (11:16):
But that's why I only go to places that I'm
invited to, because if you invite me, you invite me
on the pretenses that you know what it is. You
know what it is that I do. So if I
go into a spot and you automatically know that I
don't want preferential treatment because I want to get the
same experience that everybody else kids. Then once you give
it to me, it shows that you didn't invite me
for me. You invited me for the opportunity. You didn't
(11:36):
look at me as a person, You only looked at
me as an opportunity.
Speaker 2 (11:38):
So you only go where you're invited. You only go
to the restaurant. So like if you're in New York,
and then let's say Lauren or all myself say, yo,
this restaurant is dope. You don't go to those. You
only go where.
Speaker 3 (11:46):
New York is different because I feel like a lot
of restaurant owners out here have an ego.
Speaker 1 (11:51):
I'll here.
Speaker 3 (11:51):
Nobody invites anybody. So it's like everything out here is
word of off. So the way I've been planning out
here is I only go to places that I've been
recommended to over thirty times.
Speaker 1 (12:01):
So if got recommended to you a thousand.
Speaker 3 (12:04):
Times, yeah, So it's like if I can have a
backbone to because what I don't want is I go
and get my opinion in the restaurant immediate, like, oh,
we didn't ask him to come here, he just gave
his unsolicitate opinion, or we didn't Nobody asks for.
Speaker 2 (12:16):
That isn't that the best thing? Like, because I think
a lot of people look at you as when I
come to a city, let me see what Keith Lee
says is good, and I'm gonna go there, you know
what I mean, because I can trust in his opinion.
You know what I mean.
Speaker 3 (12:24):
But if I don't personally like it, then the human
reaction is to be deflective, or the human reaction is
to immediately be like, don'tbody asks him to come here.
But if you ask me to come here and I
give you my opinion, once you do something like when
we was in Atlanta, the real mc honey, they asked
me to come or I got tagged a thousand times
to come, and then the second I made the video,
(12:47):
the owner went online. It was like, who is Keith
Lee but the one of the main I don't know
exactly what they rolled that the company was, but one
of the main people in the restaurant. Once I walked
in and they told me it was a five minute wait,
I walked back out. They chased me to my car
and tried to get me service. So it's like, how
you don't know, but either way.
Speaker 5 (13:04):
Your review stands harder than that deflection because people still.
Speaker 3 (13:07):
I'm a person at the end of the day. I'm
a customer at the end of the day. That's why
when you say I get free food, I made sure
I made it clear I pay for everything. So it's like,
I'm a customer at end of the day. Regardless if
you think that I'm somebody or if you think I
have a status, I'm a customer and I pay my
money and I want to experience everybody else.
Speaker 2 (13:23):
If you give a negative review on a restaurant, do
you ever go back and be like, because you know,
sometimes the chef might have a bad day or staff
might have a bad day. People I always say that,
do you ever go back and say, you know what,
we'll try this again or once it's a wrap.
Speaker 3 (13:34):
It depends on the circumstance, and it also depends on
Now we're on tour, so we're on tour, we're going
around to different cities. I'm only here for a certain
amount of day, so it's almost impossible to go and
track back. But when I was back in Vegas, I
will go back because I would have time to go back.
And eventually I plan on going back to different cities
or going back to different spots and then some spots.
Speaker 7 (13:54):
I won't go back to it's cut and slices. Not amazing.
Speaker 1 (13:57):
It is absolutely amazing. Yeah, you had it? What have
you had it?
Speaker 2 (14:01):
Not yet?
Speaker 6 (14:02):
I have had it yet. I've heard of it, though
I've heard of it a lot.
Speaker 4 (14:06):
It's I've had it personally. I've had it catered. When
I did the Daily Show, I had it catered because
it's really just that good. Which slightly did you have?
Speaker 3 (14:12):
I had the curry oxtail, I had the chicken and waffles,
and then the I had a bunch of them. I
think I had six of them, but the curry oxet
was the one that stood out to me the most,
the chili oxel.
Speaker 1 (14:23):
I think it was single.
Speaker 7 (14:25):
He said that here we go. He said that you
that you hurt are people's business with your reviews. Have
you all spoken?
Speaker 3 (14:34):
I made a response video, but we haven't spoke directly.
I saw his response to my response and I appreciated it.
But I also think a lot of it was based
on uh misinformation, and a lot of it was based
on I said, when I walked in, you had no
idea what I do. So I get that, and people
make opinions based on that, and they only see like
one or two headlines and say, oh, he gave a
(14:56):
negative review the Candies restaurant. He must be doing bad
for busines. But they haven't seen the amazing things we've
been blessed enough to do. And I think that just
was the case with ch Ad, And once I broke
it down, I think he was a understand whre I
was coming from.
Speaker 4 (15:08):
I mean, because the reality is, you know, the reason
you have the following you do is because you are
clearly impactful for people's business, whether it's positive or negative.
Speaker 7 (15:18):
You know, so you have to that's that's being a critic.
Speaker 1 (15:21):
Is I think that? Yeah, I think that gets long.
Speaker 2 (15:25):
I think I think it's dope because a lot of
times we go to these places and we don't know
where to go to eat right, and we because we
haven't tried the food or we just heard it, you know,
and reviews online or most of them are fake a
lot of times because these people do it themselves. So
the fact that you got somebody that can go to
the restaurant, the only thing that ever bothers me is
is some people don't like a ribbean food. Some people
don't like spicy food. Some people don't like this. So
if you're not into that, and I am that that
(15:46):
can you know, skew you a different way. But I
think it's dope because you get to you get in
effective people from the real right. And and that's that's
my point. You don't really have too many people that
do it that you can really say. Now, he's like me,
I'm gonna try that food.
Speaker 3 (15:58):
You know. See, I always prett emphasis I want everybody
that wants to go try it to go try it,
no matter what the food is, Like, I want everybody.
I don't want anybody's taste budds to be the end
all be all. And I think that's what we lost
on social media is that when people put their opinions out,
it's like, this is my opinion and you gotta take
it for the end all be all. And I feel
like I always try to preemphasis that this is my opinion,
this is the way I taste, and if you want
(16:20):
to go try it, or if you think different than me,
absolutely go try it.
Speaker 7 (16:22):
Question you said you walked out after a five minute waytime.
Speaker 1 (16:25):
Yeah that's too.
Speaker 4 (16:26):
Much for you.
Speaker 3 (16:26):
No, no, no, it wasn't the way time. It was
the fact that my family had just got a different results.
It was two hours that was the issue. It wasn't
the I was willing to wait in the two hours.
So that's that's one thing I want to make very clear.
I'm willing to wait in a three hour way time
to four hour way times. I just want the same
surface to everybody else.
Speaker 2 (16:42):
kIPS. Have you ever got threatened? I'm sure I own
I had the threaten if.
Speaker 1 (16:45):
You get in Atlanta.
Speaker 3 (16:46):
They supposedly gave us step threats once we left Atlanta,
But I'm covered by God.
Speaker 5 (16:51):
Man.
Speaker 2 (16:52):
I ain't worried about nobody excited, So you can have
somebody right up, I ain't worthy nobody.
Speaker 4 (16:57):
Do you post like if you hate everything about the restaurant,
food service, everything, Do you post those type.
Speaker 1 (17:03):
Of reviews constructively? Yeah?
Speaker 3 (17:05):
But I've been blessed enough to where I haven't really
granted to that many spots like that. But yeah, absolutely constructively,
because again, if I only gave positive reviews, if only
gave out the good, then it wouldn't hold any weight.
It only holds weight if you know I'm being honest,
regardless if you agree with my taste buzz, if you
don't agree with them, it only holds weight if you know,
I'm authentically being myself and I can only look at
myself in the mirror knowing I'm authentically be me.
Speaker 2 (17:27):
What food don't you do? Is there any food that
you don't do? I don't like charlomage.
Speaker 3 (17:30):
I only alergs of shellfish. Everything else, I'm I'm open book. Yeah,
my wife does when I want. When I can't have shellfish,
my wife does the reviews for me. So like crab legs,
shrimp and all of that.
Speaker 6 (17:42):
Oh my gosh, So you've never had that.
Speaker 1 (17:43):
You've always been, always been since since birth.
Speaker 6 (17:46):
Yeah, I'm so sorry to.
Speaker 1 (17:49):
Be honest with you. Chelfers don't look that good either. No,
it is my review.
Speaker 6 (17:53):
It's amazing.
Speaker 1 (17:54):
Understand. Understand.
Speaker 2 (17:56):
Now let's talk about this. You went and got some
chop cheese.
Speaker 1 (17:58):
Yeah, they was mad as would mad at you. What
made you go to people?
Speaker 2 (18:02):
Was like he went to Queens to get a chop cheese?
Speaker 5 (18:04):
And how do you even pick that when you go
into places like New York because each borough is its.
Speaker 6 (18:07):
Own like place.
Speaker 3 (18:09):
So I didn't pick anything I got it suggested. So
any any place that I go to again, if it's
not directly by the owner themselves. It's suggested a thousand times.
So I always show the d MS or the emails
that I get directly from whoever tells me to go.
I get New York is a very hard market to
do anything new.
Speaker 2 (18:27):
Yep.
Speaker 1 (18:28):
The second you try to break any tradition out here,
it's a rap you try to break. I didn't try
to break it. I didn't try to break it.
Speaker 3 (18:35):
They tried to break it because it's a black owned
business that just opened not too long ago and they
have a salmon chop cheese that they were trying to
break into the market. But instead of it being opened
or welcome with like oh they trying something new, is
immediately like we don't do that over here, what you're doing,
And it got towards turned towards me, which again I
don't mind. I just didn't want that restaurant to be
(18:57):
tore down, which unfortunately is being tore down as they
trying to do something different. It was decent, but again
I don't really I don't really like chop cheese like that.
It's cool, but I don't get the it's I think
it's based nostalgia. I think it's wrapped nostalgia. I think
it's wrapped in the fact that you ate it growing up,
or you ate it in places where you had memories
(19:18):
tied to it, like leaving the club, leaving leaving places,
like all of that has to be tied to in
order it to hit.
Speaker 2 (19:26):
When you leave, you just need something.
Speaker 3 (19:31):
I believe it's attached to memories, and I feel like,
since I don't have those memories, I don't get the
same experience, which again I understand, but I feel like
it's just one of those things. Again, it is wrapped
in nostalgia, and people won't get out of that nostalgia.
They just immediately see an outsider. And then New York
is one of those places that have like real strong
patriotism to they city. So it's like, if you're from
(19:52):
New York, you're from New York and you don't want
nobody outside in New York come in and given the opinion.
But again, I'm covered by God. I go everywhere I'm
supposed to go.
Speaker 2 (19:59):
What about Detroit? What was your favorite spot?
Speaker 3 (20:00):
Detroit Cony is number one, obviously, but it's a food
haul that just opened. It's a black On food Haul
and they have over twenty different black On restaurants in there,
and we went and it.
Speaker 1 (20:10):
Was amazing Atlanta.
Speaker 7 (20:11):
Every spot in there.
Speaker 1 (20:12):
Every spot wasn't amazing, but it was a lot of
spots where do.
Speaker 6 (20:15):
You actually cook yourself like I just at home.
Speaker 1 (20:18):
So that's how it started. That's how it originally started.
Speaker 3 (20:19):
Like I said, to get over my social anxiety, I
would just turn the cameron and I would talk like
it was three hundred people in front of me. But
my wife was pregnant at the time, so at first
it started with me going to get her pregnancy cravens.
And then it turned into me cooking because again fighting,
you would have to fighting and cooking goals is synonymous.
So I literally would cook for myself four times a
day and I would cook my wife four times a day.
And that's how it started. And I did that for
(20:41):
like a year straight, and within that year or two years,
it took me to get to a million. It took
me less than nine months to get to fifteen million.
Speaker 2 (20:49):
Wow, do you step outside the box? Like I know
Charlomagne's talking about eating deer before or raccoon or things
like that, or bear? Do you go today say.
Speaker 1 (20:58):
You like I know you from.
Speaker 4 (21:01):
I then be showed I ain't no red, I ain't.
Speaker 2 (21:04):
Never have you have you stepped out the box to eat?
Speaker 1 (21:08):
I haven't.
Speaker 3 (21:09):
I would I would, Yeah, I wouldn't eat bear shoulder?
What bear shoulder tastes like?
Speaker 6 (21:13):
Oh?
Speaker 7 (21:13):
That shit was great. It tasts like beef. I had
it in West Virginia.
Speaker 4 (21:18):
Actually, when I went to West Virginia, everything I ate
they either hunted or grew themselves.
Speaker 7 (21:22):
So we had bed shoulder, deer hash and squirrel dumplings.
Speaker 1 (21:26):
Understand, Yeah, you ever try? I would? Would? I say,
I would like it? I don't know.
Speaker 6 (21:31):
Do you ever get sick from eating food?
Speaker 7 (21:33):
Like?
Speaker 3 (21:34):
I don't get sick, but so much. I don't get sick,
but sometimes my stomach do be a little.
Speaker 1 (21:39):
But again, it comes with the job. It comes with
the job.
Speaker 3 (21:41):
I'm blessed to be here, and I'm thankful that I'm
not getting punched in the face for a living and
trying to make ends meet.
Speaker 4 (21:47):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (21:47):
This time last year I was literally on food stamps,
trying to figure out where my next meal was gonna
come from. So from to be here now? Again, I
don't do many media interviews. I don't do many like
speaking engagements to boost who I am because I truly
believe whatever's meant for me, it's gonna be for me.
I just do things like this because again, it's a
check off the bucket and I just want to show
(22:08):
my kids later like, whatever you put your mind to,
you can absolutely do it.
Speaker 4 (22:11):
So you've just been in a food critic for like the
past year nine nine much Okay, okay, wow, just last year.
Speaker 7 (22:16):
He was going fu SAMs. That's crazy.
Speaker 4 (22:18):
Absolutely, That's another thing you could do, showing people who
are on food stamps, you know, what meals they could
be eating out.
Speaker 7 (22:25):
Like my homegirl Colleen Witch.
Speaker 4 (22:26):
She has a podcast called Eating While Broke and basically
she brings people on to talk about, you know, affordable meals,
meals that you can create on a budget.
Speaker 3 (22:36):
I just do what I feel like I'm supposed to do.
I don't I didn't write this out. I didn't plan
this out. I didn't write this out. If you would
have asked me at the beginning of the year when
i'd be here, I look at you and laugh. So,
so what's the future, Like, whatever it's supposed to be,
I'm gonna be everywhere I'm supposed to be. I believe
I'm gonna walk in every room I'm supposed to be
in and I So the reason we went on tour
directly is because a lot of TV companies, every TV
(22:58):
producer you can think of, each to us in March
and they were planning our shows and they were putting
our shows, but it was very cookie cutter. It was
really like, we already had to show plan, but we
just want to make you the host of it. And
they kept reversing diners driving and dash at my saying
that right, yeah. They kept referencing that, and they were
basically like, we just want to make you the host
of this show that's already created.
Speaker 1 (23:18):
And I don't like that.
Speaker 3 (23:19):
My family moves with me everywhere, so I want to
make sure my family has involved in anything that I do.
So I took it upon me and my family and
we just hit the role on our own, and we
went out to show these TV producers and these TV
companies and everybody else that we're blessed enough for this
to work and it can work in every market. So
we just going and we're doing it on our own.
So by the time we go back to these companies,
(23:40):
we already have concrete evidence and concrete facts of how
many businesses we've been blessed enough to help with the
system that we have. So by the time we get there,
ain't no changing up.
Speaker 6 (23:48):
And are you feeling right now?
Speaker 4 (23:50):
I would love to see that, because I when you
think about it, I can think of guy Guy Fi
pronounce this last name right, Anthony Boardin.
Speaker 1 (23:57):
We ain't got many that looked like me, not at all. Everywhere.
I got dred, I got locks.
Speaker 3 (24:04):
I'm a black man, I got a black wife, I
got black children. So it's like, it's very important.
Speaker 7 (24:08):
What do you think of Darius Cooks?
Speaker 1 (24:10):
You know, I don't think of nobody.
Speaker 7 (24:12):
Okay, I.
Speaker 2 (24:16):
Don't think nobody we got we gotta run to the rumors.
But we appreciate you for joining us. And and again,
I don't want you to feel like I was belittling
you by saying hood whatever, No, No, What I was
saying was.
Speaker 7 (24:25):
He's not gonna grab you after Mary. Relax.
Speaker 2 (24:28):
What I'm saying because I want to eplain it because
I don't I don't ever want somebody to do I'm
belittling him. What I wanted to What I was saying
was I was doing it to saying no, I don't
have a restaurant coming. But I was saying, is I
love the fact that you go to restaurants that we
go to. I don't see a lot of people critiquing
the restaurants.
Speaker 1 (24:45):
That we go to, and the restaurants we go to
ain ghetto.
Speaker 2 (24:47):
No, they said that what ghetto? He stopped saying. I
said that. The reason I said that, I did not
say yetto ghetto didn't come in my word. I said,
you said, hood I loved the restaurant. No, I said hood.
I said the restaurants that we come in my hood.
When I talked about Queens, that's my hood. When I
talk about Brooklyn, it was of my hoods. I don't
mean ghetto. But the fact that is, you see somebody
do a critique of taal, you'll see critique somebody do
(25:07):
a critique of carbones. When it comes to a taste
of seafood, or when it comes to cuts and slices,
you never see that. And I love to see my
own people doing it. That's what I meant by it.
And I didn't mean to belive you if you felt
that way, I apologized, but that.
Speaker 1 (25:20):
Was he didn't mean.
Speaker 6 (25:25):
Charlotte didn't mean to be on.
Speaker 3 (25:26):
His phone, you know, because I love it. I love
that for you, of course, and I think you capreciate you. Also,
media platforms keep un the scuorely. We just dropped merch
uh and this is one thing that's really big for me.
(25:48):
We just dropped merch and my family and myself created it.
My cousin created it for us and a bunch of companies.
We was going back and forth because they really wanted
us to charge the highest because it's a really high quality.
They wanted me to charge one hundred and eighty to
one hundred nine jollas for our hoodies. We charged seventy five.
They want us to charge one hundred and twenty one
hundred and thirty for our t shirts. We charged in
forty five. Because the profit isn't the mango for me.
(26:08):
The mang goal is to have people who follow me
and people who support me to be and stuff that
I am proud of and stuff that I will wear,
and I just walk on my purpose and I'm just
apprecia to be here.
Speaker 7 (26:17):
You can give me one for free so I can
critique it and see if the fabrics.
Speaker 6 (26:19):
You don't get nothing for free, so you need to
buy it.
Speaker 1 (26:21):
God bless y'all, appreciate you'a having.
Speaker 2 (26:24):
It's the Breakfast Coming love for y'all.
Speaker 1 (26:26):
Wake that ass up in the morning. The Breakfast Club
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