Viral News

Viral critic Keith Lee swings back through Dallas to sell Microsoft AI

Keith Lee stands with Brunchaholics owner Jessie Washington

Assembly Inc.

TikTok-famous food critic Keith Lee is back in Dallas, this time helping Microsoft sell AI products.

Lee is the viral sensation who caused a stir when he came through Dallas in February, eating at local restaurants and drawing attention to local restaurants he felt were deserving.

Now Lee has partnered with Microsoft in a project called "The Reheat," which revisits three Black-owned restaurants across the U.S. — Pretty Soul Kitchen in Las Vegas, Brunchaholics in DeSoto, and Monday in New Orleans — whose business skyrocketed after Lee’s reviews.

The goal seems to be to show how Microsoft products can help them deal with the surge in business.

According to a release, it's a three-part series whose first episode debuts on June 10 with a visit to Pretty Soul Kitchen. Episode No. 2 is Brunchaholics, although no run date is yet specified.

Brunchaholics is a Cajun-Creole brunch spot in DeSoto whose catfish and Soul Food Burrito — with fried catfish or chicken, mac & cheese, yams, and collard greens wrapped in a jalapeño tortilla — earned Lee's raves.

Microsoft staffers show restaurateurs how to use Microsoft tools such as CoPilot, which processes emails. Here is a completely natural-sounding endorsement from Jessie Washington, co-owner of Brunchaholics.

“I have needed ways to stay organized to keep up with the demand," Washington says. "The Reheat with Keith Lee and Microsoft gave me the opportunity to see how AI can help me as an entrepreneur manage my business more efficiently. The fact that Copilot is integrated into the apps I use all the time is a gamechanger, and knowing more about how I can work alongside AI to support me will allow me to focus on other important things to continue to grow Brunchaholics."

Hopefully the appearance gives Brunchaholics another flurry of customers. No word if they signed up for CoPilot, which costs $30 per month.

RIP Mico

Restaurateur Mico Rodriguez, 'Godfather of Dallas Tex-Mex,' dies at 68

Courtesy photo

Mico

A Dallas restaurant legend has died: Michael "Mico" Rodriguez, dubbed the "Godfather of Dallas Tex-Mex," died on October 1; he was 68. According to a friend of the family, Rodriguez exhibited symptoms of a heart attack and died late Thursday night.

Rodriguez co-founded a number of successful Tex-Mex restaurant chains, most famously Mi Cocina, which debuted in 1991 at Preston Forest Village. Its combination of gringo-friendly Tex-Mex, as well as its signature Mambo Taxi frozen margarita-sangria swirl, was an instant hit.

But it was the buzzy celebrity-packed location at Highland Park Village, which opened in 1993, that sent the concept into the stratosphere, launching an entire chain. Under the M Crowd umbrella name, he helped launched a number of other concepts, including the pioneering Taco Diner chain.

Rodriguez was born on October 30, 1957 and entered the restaurant industry not long thereafter: busing tables when he was only 6 years old at El Chico, where his parents worked, until he went to work at Mia's Tex-Mex, the restaurant his mother opened in 1980.

He also experienced personal challenges, and was eventually ousted from Mi Cocina due to alleged financial improprieties.

Driven and ambitious, he went on to found other similar concepts, beginning in 2011 with Mr. Mesero (later shortened to Mesero), which he opened at 4444 McKinney Ave.

Mr. Mesero served as a template for the Mesero chain, which currently has seven locations across DFW and two outside Texas.

But in 2018, Rodriguez and Mesero Restaurant Group parted ways. He kept the original Mr. Mesero, now named Doce Mesas, and opened more locations before being ousted in 2025.

Most recently, he became involved in the Maple Street Food Hall, a food hall launched by entrepreneur Ray Quintanilla in 2022.

Rodriguez can be seen sharing some of his memories on a podcast with Jeff Crilley. He's survived by his daughter, Bianca, and his ex-wife, Caroline. Services have not been announced.

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