TikTok’s Keith Lee Says D.C. Dining Is Too Boozy. Insiders Disagree.

The Washington Post / Warren Rojas, Emily Heil

17:33 JST, August 25, 2024

TikTok food critic Keith Lee has a beef with the D.C. dining scene. But it doesn’t have anything to do with the actual food served at the handful of restaurants he’s reviewed from the passenger seat of his SUV during a whirlwind tour of the DMV, or the countless others he’s passed over.

“All their restaurants are geared directly towards alcohol,” the avowed teetotaler told millions of online fans while parked outside Cane on H Street NE. “If you don’t drink, it seems like it’s slim pickings.”

Industry professionals, stunned by Lee’s snap judgment, say he should try harder.

“You can’t say a whole city sucks because you have to drink to eat. That’s an idiotic statement,” Todd Thrasher, a cult bartender turned rum distiller, told The Washington Post.

The owner-operator of TNT Tiki, a three-level rum distillery and rooftop tiki bar at the Wharf, rattled off several restaurants he’d visited lately without having a drop to drink – including Albi in Navy Yard, Mi Vida at the Wharf, Rooster & Owl in Columbia Heights and Thompson Italian in Falls Church.

“You can make a choice,” Thrasher said. “You don’t have to drink to eat.”

He also charged Lee with trying to create controversy for his own benefit. “It’s just people trying to stir things up to get their followers up,” Thrasher said. “God knows we’ve got to get some likes, right?”

Lee did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.

Brent Kroll, owner of Maxwell Park wine bar, bubbly haven Pop Fizz Bar and cocktail lounge Trouble Bird, said D.C. regulations blow Lee’s argument out of the water.

“If you don’t have a tavern license, you’re required to have a minimum percentage of food sales,” the sommelier turned business owner said. “So the city actually legally forces more food.”

“But they don’t do anything to force alcohol. Ever,” Kroll noted.

Fabian Malone – a veteran of the D.C. hospitality scene who has worked in local restaurants, bars and even hosted his own pop-up dining experience – scolded Lee for “not doing his homework” before coming to the area. “More and more places are offering mocktails on their menus. All he has to do is just open his mouth and ask,” Malone said.

Whereas alcohol-free drinks were sought after only by pregnant people and designated drivers maybe a decade ago, Malone said, booze-free bitters, mixers and liqueurs are now shaking up beverage options all across the District. But he noted that traditional bars and restaurants serve alcohol because it plays a major part in keeping the lights on.

“He fails to realize that 60 to 80 percent of profit in restaurants comes from alcohol, with a profit margin of anywhere between like 18 and 500 percent,” Malone estimated, referring to drink markups. “So right away, his statement told me that you do not know the math of running restaurants. And you don’t know this town.”

Some of Lee’s followers, too, were perplexed by the assertion – and many suggested that he just hadn’t found the right spots to represent all that the area’s restaurants had to offer. “I don’t understand this,” one viewer chimed in. “No one is forcing anyone to drink with their meal? It’s not like you can’t get great food without alcohol.”

Other viewers, though, concurred with his assessment that Washington is a drinking town. “We are a very boozy city…” commented one. “It wasn’t until I moved to the DMV that I found out Brunch is a whole day event,” another agreed.

A few suggested that the city’s reputation as a place where work gets done was the reason so many office drones just wanted to blow off steam. “DC is alcohol city cause we work so hard,” one wrote.

The local food scene’s official boosters were, of course, quick to note that Washington isn’t only for drinkers.

“I promise that there’s more on the menu than just cocktails,” said Shawn Townsend, president and CEO of the Restaurant Association Metropolitan Washington, in a statement.

The association said that last year, Washington had the most restaurant openings per capita in the country and that 90 percent of the city’s restaurants are independently owned – meaning Lee had plenty of options. It touted the fact that national James Beard awards this year went to two local chefs: Michael Rafidi of Albi was named outstanding chef, and Masako Morishita of Perry’s took the honors for emerging chef.

“We appreciate Mr. Lee’s support of small businesses,” the association said in a statement. “But in DC, there’s always something delicious for everyone – with or without a drink in hand.”

Thrasher and Malone said it’s not too late for Lee to still make the most of his time in the area.

“I think Mr. TikTok could go to Albi and not drink and he’d be fine,” Thrasher said.

Or, as Malone advised, he could “just stick to food … and chill.”