Keith Lee Returns to Pearland Dessert Shop With $50,000 Gift
The Puddery’s owner Janel Prator says she’ll use the grant to help remodel the space that will host her shop’s second location
Keith Lee has returned to the Houston area, this time giving what is likely one of his biggest tips yet.
The viral TikTok influencer and food critic who has amassed more than 17 million followers teamed up with Toast, the restaurant management software company, to gift Pearland restaurant the Puddery $50,000 and a free year-long Toast subscription. In a video he posted to TikTok and Instagram, Lee surprised the owner, Janel Prator, and her daughter at the shop, who were moved to tears. Prator says in the video that the money will be used to remodel the Puddery’s second location.
“The owner of the Puddery is one of my favorite people so far, and I’m honored to be able to do this,” he says, later stating, “I’m honored to call you my friend.”
Lee says that he and Toast will gift another neighborhood restaurant $50,000, and has called on social media users to nominate their favorite spots on TikTok and Instagram with the hashtag “#itsthelittlethings.” The person whose nomination wins will also receive $25,000.
Lee’s post about the Puddery has garnered more than 37,000 likes on Instagram and more than 120,000 on TikTok, in addition to comments from various influencers, including author and social media personality Tabitha Brown.
Prator praised and thanked Lee on Instagram. “I will never NOT mention your name and show appreciation for what you did for me and my family,” she wrote. “You single-handedly changed my life for the better.”
The most recent incident is indicative of what the public has come to know as the Keith Lee Effect. Lee says he initially decided to visit Prator’s shop after she reached out to him “a thousand times” asking him to visit her business, which was on the verge of closing. The video shows a clip of a tearful Prator stating that there have been days when she’s only had two customers and couldn’t pay her bills. Since Lee’s first visit, though, things have changed. Lee left a $2,000 tip and a dazzling review following his visit to the Puddery (“People do banana pudding, but they don’t do it like she do it,”), which inspired hundreds of Houston-area diners to visit. The restaurant saw lines out the door, and the shop had to temporarily close due to overwhelming demand.
Lee is no stranger to Houston. He ranked Houston the second-best food city in the country (behind New Orleans) following his visits in 2023. “I can’t think of one spot in Houston that we didn’t love,” Lee said in a video. Locals excitedly anticipated Lee’s moves as he made his rounds in the city in November 2023, visiting places like Stick Talk Cajun-Hibachi, a favorite of Olympian Simone Biles; Butter Funk Kitchen in Sunnyside, The Breakfast Klub in Midtown; and Mezza Grille.
It’s likely that Texas will see a whole lot more of Lee. The social media star, who has also made recent visits to Austin during SXSW, announced earlier this year that he’s moved to Dallas.
