Washington, D.C
What Keith Lee got wrong about the food scene in Washington, D.C.
In his most recent tour de food, popular TikTok food reviewer Keith Lee made his way to the Washington D.C. area much to the excitement of his countless online fans, including myself. The fact that Lee had chosen the DMV (short for D.C., Maryland and Virginia) — an often overlooked area within the food and restaurant spaces — as his next destination spot was major. Upon his request for local mom-and-pops that serve up “great food and service, but could use the marketing,” Lee received over 20,000 recommendations from his 16.5 million followers.
Lee, a Las Vegas-based mixed martial arts fighter and beloved online food critic, is best known for spreading positivity through his honest, yet well-mannered reviews. Through his efforts, Lee helps promote the “Keith Lee Effect,” in which he provides generous tips and donations to struggling, mainly minority- and family-owned local restaurants in an effort to boost their sales.
That doesn’t mean Lee isn’t afraid to leave behind a bad review. If a place has poor customer service or is simply not on par with his own taste, Lee is quick to say, “I’m not the target audience,” and refrains from showing videos of the restaurants that left him unsatisfied.
Unfortunately for D.C., the city earned few praises and a handful of complaints from Lee. He criticized the D.C. dining scene, saying it’s “geared directly towards alcohol,” and added that for those who don’t drink (like himself), “it seems like slim pickings.”
Indeed, many D.C.-based restaurants take pride in their happy hours and the nation’s capital, as a whole, is also hailed for its bottomless brunches. But to conclude that the city’s main focus is solely on alcohol is erroneous and takes attention away from the diverse cuisines that D.C. has to offer. Yes, the city caters to those who enjoy drinking — whether it’s socially or in a more professional setting. But it also caters to those who choose not to.
In his criticism, Lee added that only six of the 12 D.C. restaurants he visited and reviewed would be named and featured on his TikTok account. “A lot of food we’ve been recommended since we’ve been here looks like this,” he said, showing pictures of several unappetizing, and what appeared to be soggy and discolored, foods. Lee also alleged that several restaurants, which he left unnamed, followed unsanitary practices and risked cross-contamination with shellfish, to which Lee said he’s allergic. Lee did not post or name those specific restaurants out of respect for their owners and business.
As for the restaurants he did mention, Lee visited Okonomi Asian Grille, a fast-casual Asian-American restaurant in Fairfax, Virginia, that serves rice and noodle bowls. Lee was pleased with some of the bowls he tried and gave them a rating of 8.5 out of 10. Lee then made his way to Flavor Hive, a food truck based in Alexandria, Virginia, that went viral for its “walking nachos.” Customers bring their own bags of chips, which are then filled with their choice of protein, vegetables, and sauces for just $10 each. Despite the cool concept, Lee wasn’t all that impressed after trying three large bags of chips. The beef and Fritos bag earned the highest rating of 7.9, while the chicken and gyro meat bags earned much lower scores.
Lee’s favorite spot was Dukem on U Street. The family-operated Ethiopian restaurant received widespread support on TikTok after Lydia Tefera, the daughter of one of the owners, said the restaurant was on the brink of shutting down. Lee gave the short ribs a 9 out of 10 and praised Dukem as “the best food we’ve had in D.C.”
Lee also ventured into Southwest D.C., where he stopped by Hong Kong Delite Carry Out to try fried rice and chicken wings coated in the District’s famed mumbo sauce (he gave his $12 takeout order a rating of 8.6). He also visited Cane, a Trinidadian spot on H Street that earned its highest rating of 7.9; along with Smize & Dream, Tyra Banks’ D.C.-based pop-up shop.
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Where Lee fell short was his choice of restaurants. Aside from trying Ethiopian food (a cuisine the DMV area is especially known for due to its large Ethiopian community) and mumbo sauce, Lee didn’t try any other notable D.C. specialties. Those include half-smokes, a type of hot dog that’s made from coarsely ground meat (usually half pork and half beef) and is spicier in flavor; pupusas, a thick, stuffed corn cake that’s the national dish of El Salvador; Peruvian chicken; Ghanaian food or, even, a jumbo slice of greasy pizza. There’s also the Chesapeake blue crabs and oysters, (but for the sake of Lee’s health, he can pass on those).
If Lee decides to give D.C. a second chance, he should consider popping into Roaming Rooster, a DMV chain that serves delicious fried chicken sandwiches, wings and fries; along with Stachowski’s Market, a chef-driven butcher shop, deli and market that touts a half-smoke with onions and mustard. There’s also Ercilia’s Restaurant, which serves tacos, pupusas, burritos and various Central American foods; and Hedzole, a hot spot for Ghanaian-American food.
D.C. isn’t the first major city that Lee (politely) criticized. He garnered backlash last October for his not-so-positive reviews of Atlanta’s food scene.
As for whether Lee will return to D.C., only time will tell. As for whether he should, the answer is a confident yes.
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Washington, D.C
The director of the Congressional Budget Office—known for its gloomy national debt data—is very optimistic that a crisis will be avoided entirely | Fortune
Dr Phillip Swagel is an optimist, both by nature and when he looks at the U.S. economy.
This fact is perhaps at odds with what one might assume: Swagel is the director of the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), the nonpartisan agency that offers independent budgetary and economic analysis to Congress.
Very often—an inevitable occupational hazard—the subject of national debt and the interest the U.S. Treasury pays to maintain is its central focus. The numbers are eye-watering: Public debt stands at more than $39 trillion. The interest expense on that borrowing now exceeds $1 trillion a year. Indeed, the latest budget update from the CBO highlights that the government—according to preliminary estimates—paid out nearly $530 billion between October 2025, when the fiscal year starts, and March 2026. This equates to more than $88 billion in interest payments a month, or more than $22 billion a week.
The CBO’s figures are routinely cited by policymakers, think tanks, and lobbyists as alarming evidence that the U.S. needs to find a more sustainable fiscal path or risk dire straits.
Swagel doesn’t subscribe to the notion that the U.S. will face a crisis of its own making. His justification is simple: He was at the Treasury during the 2008 financial crisis, and joined the CBO months before the COVID pandemic began. He has watched as the U.S. economy, seemingly against all odds, has clawed its way out of economic crises before.
That’s not to say Swagel isn’t a staunch advocate of setting the U.S. on a more sustainable fiscal path—rather, he trusts the people in power to do so when the time comes.
Why the optimism?
Among those concerned about national debt are notable names: JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, and Bridgewater Associates founder Ray Dalio. Tesla CEO Elon Musk is also worried about federal spending and has endorsed a plan floated by Berkshire Hathaway founder Warren Buffett that would render members of Congress ineligible for reelection if they allow deficits to exceed 3% of GDP.
On the other hand, optimistic economists suggest that, despite the value of the debt, it’s not actually an issue: the bond market is holding steady, indicating a reliable market of buyers. Likewise, the U.S.’s own central bank buys huge swaths of the debt, meaning, in the simplest of layman’s terms, the economy can essentially print its own money. There are holes in this argument, not least the fact that Fed chairman nominee Kevin Warsh has suggested he would like to reduce the Fed’s balance sheet and may therefore be less inclined to finance borrowing.
Swagel’s positive outlook doesn’t rely on the argument that a crisis hasn’t happened yet, so therefore it never will: “[My optimism] is rooted in my experience,” Swagel tells Fortune in an exclusive interview in Washington D.C. “First being at Treasury during the financial crisis and seeing very difficult times and the country coming together with an effective response—not saying it’s perfect, lots of controversy—but it was effective.”
“The second thing is policymakers are smart, they’re thoughtful. Interacting with members of Congress makes me optimistic. I know you read about all the squabbles … I’m completely aware of this, but the policymakers that are thinking about these things are thoughtful and effective. Not necessarily always effective at passing legislation, but that’s part of our political system, it was set up to make it difficult ot pass legislation.”
Decisions on the horizon
Swagel’s optimism that Congress will be pushed into action will be tested sooner rather than later, likely at some point in the next six years, he told Fortune. This is partly due to the fact that, according to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget (CRFB) both Social Security and Medicare will become insolvent within that time period.
“Making progress to address the fiscal trajectory would be a positive for the U.S. economy,” Swagel said. “Credible steps would lead to lower interest rates that would make the subsequent adjustment easier, there is a reward to virtue. It’s a positive thing, we can’t go on [with] the scolding narrative. My sense is that members of Congress understand the fiscal situation, it’s not that everyone single one has looked at our one-pager of numbers and understands the debt to the third decimal point, but they understand something needs to be done.”
“It doesn’t have to be done immediately, but at some point reasonably soon.”
Swagel is of the opinion that bond investors haven’t increased risk premiums not because they’re not worried about a fiscal crisis, but because they have priced in preventative action from Congress—in his mind “a vote of confidence that my optimism is not misplaced.”
“As a country, we face up to these problems. It’s not happening now, I’m not sure it’s going to happen in the rest of this year or even the next year, or the next two years. But we will face up to it, and the market in some sense expects us to, because otherwise interest rates would be higher,” he explained.
The Cheesecake Factory
The role of the CBO, to some extent, is to provide policymakers with their options if and when they do choose to take action on federal deficits. It’s a menu not unlike the Cheesecake Factory, Swagel says: Large, inclusive of a range of modifications and options, and delivered without judgement.
“Right now it’s maybe a pick three, and you’re looking at a six or seven course menu,” joked Caleb Quakenbush, director of fiscal policy at the Bipartisan Policy Center, in an interview with Fortune. “The longer you delay, the more you’re gonna have to add to your tab, and those options become more expensive.”
Indeed, economists and analysts aren’t necessarily worried about the absolute level of government debt, rather the debt-to-GDP ratio. Depending on whom you ask, the debt-to-GDP ratio stands at around 122% of GDP at present. This measure demonstrates an economy’s spending versus its growth, and the risk associated with lending to a nation that isn’t growing fast enough to handle its spending. To rebalance that ratio, an economy could either cut spending or increase growth—the latter being by far the less painful option.
The growth option is becoming less feasible, Michael Peterson, CEO of fiscal think tank the Peter G. Peterson Foundation, told Fortune in an exclusive interview: “I think it requires government action because we’ve waited so long. We’ve added so many trillions, and the current deficit is so big at 6% that the level of growth you would need really exceeds what is feasible.
“Growth needs to be a part of it, but it’s sort of a vicious cycle. The longer we delay, the more debt we have, the slower growth is going to be. The more we get this under control, I think the greater optimism there is, interest rates go down, more growth comes from that. It’s sort of a virtuous or vicious cycle depending on your policy response.”
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WCTV) – Seventy-two veterans took a trip Saturday to our nation’s capital to visit memorials honoring their service in the armed forces.
This year marks the 12th trip to Washington, D.C. for Honor Flight Tallahassee.
Early Saturday morning, veterans and their guardians met to take a charter flight up to D.C.
Throughout the day, veterans were taken to the World War II memorial, as well as the Korean and Vietnam War memorials. The veterans also visited Arlington National Cemetery and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.
More Tallahassee news:
The day ended with a wonderful welcome home celebration.
Our Jacob Murphey, Julia Miller, Taylor Viles, and Grace Temple accompanied the veterans, capturing moments from throughout the day.
The team will have live coverage from Washington, D.C. on Monday to share more from the day’s events.
We will continue to have coverage throughout the month of May, leading up to our Honor Flight special on Memorial Day.
To keep up with the latest news as it develops, follow WCTV on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Nextdoor and X (Twitter).
Have a news tip or see an error? Write to us here. Please include the article’s headline in your message.
Be the first to see all the biggest headlines by downloading the WCTV News app. Click here to get started.
Copyright 2026 WCTV. All rights reserved.
4 things to know about the weather:
- Chances of rain in the morning
- Gusty Sunday
- Chilly Monday
- Temps will rise again through the work week
Download the NBC Washington app on iOS and Android to check the weather radar on the go.
After a nice and warm Saturday, changes arrive for part two of the weekend.
The first half of your Sunday will have a chance for showers. Winds will pick up with our next system and are expected to gust to about 20-30 mph. Cooler air will settle in, and lows Sunday night fall into the 40s.
Highs temps Monday will reach only into the mid to upper 50s.
However, temperatures will rise through the week, so you won’t need your jackets every day.
QuickCast
SUNDAY:
Showers, then partly cloudy
Wind: NW 10-15 mph
Gusts @ 30 mph
HIGH: Lower 60s
MONDAY:
Partly cloudy
Wind: NW 10-15 mph
Gusts @ 25 mph
HIGH: Upper 50s
Stay with Storm Team4 for the latest forecast. Download the NBC Washington app on iOS and Android to get severe weather alerts on your phone.
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