BALTIMORE — Faith, family, community, authenticity, and hospitality. This is the foundation on which Rooted Rotisserie on Hollins Street was built.
The restaurant's humble beginnings start with a love story—a bond between Amanda and Joe Burton. Two foodies who were able to take an out-of-country experience and turn it into a lifelong journey of ownership.
Now, they are getting the spotlight from a well-known social media personality.
One day, a friend of Amanda's came into the restaurant to enjoy a meal and made her aware of TikTok food critic Keith Lee.
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"She started showing me his videos and I became kind of obsessed with his story because his core values align with ours," said Burton.
Once she saw the content, she knew she had to try to get Lee into their restaurant.
She sent him a message, hoping he would show up; she knew the chances were slim.
But her mother always told her, "If you build it, they will come."
"Once I hit send, I fully had the expectation that he could roll in there. I was just like, he's coming. In my mind, he was coming," said Burton.
After a while, her confidence began to rise. She knew that with her restaurant's exemplary service and guest experience, there was no way Lee could avoid them.
When Lee comes to restaurants, his goal is to get the same treatment that everyone else gets. That didn't worry Burton.
She knew they were ready should he arrive.
One day, business was normal as usual at Rooted Rotisserie. Some people came in to place an order, but it was something about the order that caught Amanda's eye.
"Something was suspicious," she said. "After explaining the menu, they decided to get 10 fish. That's something that people get to go if they've never had it before. It's definitely something you should enjoy in the restaurant."
As usual, the customers' order was fulfilled, and business was running normally.
But what happened next.... no one was prepared for it.
Lee walks through the door with his family and makes himself known to Amanda and Joe.
"I recognized him immediately. I recognized the whole family immediately. I was just honestly, really emotional, like, I wanted to cry, like, Oh my God, he actually came, like, he actually walked through the door," Burton said.
On TikTok, Lee left a glowing review of Amanda and Joe's establishment.
He was in awe of the chicken and gumbo that he had his family pick up.
In the video, you can see Lee showing love to Amanda and shaking hands with Joe after he recorded his review in his car.
He also interacted with customers and stayed for pictures.
"They saw him walk in; it was just like an audible gasp across the restaurant, like, Oh my God, he's here. Everybody was polite, and nobody got in the way of service. Everybody approached him very nicely and very calmly. It wasn't like a crazy mad dash or anything," Burton said.
After interacting with customers and trying a few desserts, Lee left the restaurant, but not before leaving something for Amanda, Joe, and the rest of the customers.
Amanda confirmed to WMAR that Lee left a $4,000 tip and paid another $2,000 so customers could eat for free for the rest of the evening.
She says it brought joy to her face to let people know that their meals were on the house courtesy of Lee.
"Some guests were not aware he had come. You know, they had their reservation; they didn't know he had come. It was fun to deliver that news at the end of their meal. Like, your meals are taken care of by Keith Lee," Burton said.
Now that Lee has come and gone, Amanda and Joe are preparing for the 'Keith Lee effect' to run its course.
She says that they are booked for the week as far as reservations.
Although the customers will be vast, Amanda says she and Joe are ready for the influx.
"We are preparing," she said. "We're almost a year into this. We opened last year. We have a reservation system; we have a website. We have things that can help us manage the large influx of customers and reservations that we have been getting."
The work doesn't stop here.
She told me that they are working on hiring and putting in more orders to keep them prepared.
They are located at 1116 Hollins Street and are open Wednesday through Sunday from 4:00 pm to 9:00 pm.
If you would like more information, click here.
