CHICAGO (CBS) — Keith Lee’s online food reviews garner millions of views and help spotlight small, struggling restaurants around the country—his boost to those restaurants has widely become known as the Keith Lee effect.
This week, Lee, who is based in Las Vegas, made an unannounced visit to a restaurant in Chicago’s Lakeview community that has been having a hard time—and the impact was immediate.
Amici is a relatively new restaurant located at 3933 N. Broadway, in a narrow storefront at the front of a blond brick building where Broadway splits off from Clarendon Avenue. Most recently, before Amici, the storefront housed Harold’s Chicken—and before that, it housed an assortment of other restaurants that came and went over the years, including a Quiznos sub shop. In the 2000s, when the area had a slightly seedier vibe, a video store specializing in adult DVD rentals was located directly upstairs.
Alfio Sciacca opened Amici about ten months ago. The restaurant specializes in homemade arancini—or fried Italian rice balls—but also offers Mexican, Indian, African, and Chinese takes on the dish.