The first time Jonathan Evola ever heard the name Keith Lee was when his phone rang at 6 a.m. on Friday.
The stranger on the other line yelled at him, saying he pocketed money given by Lee that was meant for employees.
Evola told the person he had no idea what they were talking about.
“Don’t play dumb with me. You know what I’m talking about,” the person said before hanging up.
It had to be a prank, Evola thought, and a weird one.
But then he received another phone call, and another. And another.
His wife, Aimee Evola, connected the dots. She followed Lee on TikTok and knew he was currently in Dallas reviewing restaurants. She realized that the Evolas’ catering business, Seasoned Street Food, must be getting confused for Sweetly Seasoned, a food truck Lee recently reviewed and was under fire for allegedly misappropriating a $4,000 tip from Lee.
Lee — who looks for small food businesses to promote with his massive online following — reviewed the Dallas food truck Wednesday. Shortly after, word spread that the food truck’s owner kept the entirety of a $4,000 tip Lee left for her and other nearby workers he met during his visit. The Instagram and Google pages for Sweetly Seasoned, which were inundated with angry comments, have since been taken down.
Since Friday morning, Jonathan, whose cellphone number is attached to his business Seasoned Street Food, has received more than 60 phone calls from irate strangers demanding he pay the workers Lee intended his tip to go to. Seasoned Street Food’s Google page has also been flooded with one-star reviews, some of which mention the Keith Lee tipping saga, and others that make claims of food poisoning. Some one-star reviews said nothing at all.
“We live and die by our reviews, and a one-star review is really damaging,” Jonathan said. “Someone who might want us to cater their wedding, if they see negative reviews for us, they won’t consider hiring us. I know I wouldn’t.”
The Evolas, who own several small businesses in the Dallas area, said they’ve worked hard to grow the catering business they opened in West Dallas a year ago. But the misplaced harassment they’ve received in a span of just 10 hours could be enough to shutter the ghost kitchen concept, which relies heavily on online exposure.
They’ve tried to contact Lee to ask him to tell his followers they’ve got their anger pointed in the wrong direction, but so far they haven’t had any luck. Lee also could not immediately be reached for comment by The Dallas Morning News.
The Evolas have also contacted Google to ask the company take down the false reviews, but it’s a process that can take a while.
“We are now thinking of shutting down our business and changing the name because of this,” Jonathan said. “It would be a huge loss. It’s not just about the money, it’s about the time. We’ve spent so much time on branding and developing a clientele base.”
None of this is Lee’s fault, Aimee said. She just wishes people would do their due diligence before firing off negative reviews and vitriol.