Jordan Maddox
Audio By Carbonatix
Keith Lee is a food influencer who does good with his work. The former mixed martial arts fighter began documenting cooking for his family in 2020 with a straightforward, no-nonsense vibe. He’s leaned into helping small businesses, often places that are struggling, by leaving honest reviews and a good tip (thousands of dollars).
With philanthropy at its center, his TikTok page has blossomed into a following of 17 million. “The Keith Lee Effect,” as it’s become known, is typically fruitful. Lee moved to the Dallas area last year and still regularly travels and posts from across the country. More locally, he recently visited a matcha and plant shop in Denton.
The Brown Thumb is near Denton’s historic downtown square. Owner Monique Segovia began selling plants at the Denton Farmers Market several years ago and opened a shop specializing in plants and matcha in 2024. Segovia posted a video in October, asking Lee to pay her a visit, saying they had been working their butts off for the past four years and it was time to “reap what we’ve been sowing.” She said business is up and down, but some weekdays are painfully “suh-low.”
When Lee arrived a couple of weeks later, he didn’t want to be recognized and get preferential treatment, so he offered two people walking by his car 100 bucks each to go in and order his matcha. It wasn’t hard to find someone. (This is Denton, it’s full of students.)
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Lee liked that The Brown Thumb is collecting donations for families who had lost access to SNAP during the government shutdown.
On his TikTok video, after Lee takes his first big swig of matcha, he says, “If that’s not ceremonial grade matcha, you can slap me in the head, but I don’t think I’m getting slapped today.”
He compared an ube matcha topped with vanilla sweet cream to the quality he found in Las Vegas, where there’s a large Hawaiian population.
Lee pondered why business was slow while salivating over the drinks, mad that the spot is a long drive from his house. He doesn’t think it’s the location near the downtown square, where there is a lot of foot traffic, nor did it have anything to do with the matcha.
“I personally think it’s the marketing,” Lee says in his TikTok video. “I don’t think a lot of people know it’s a woman-black-owned coffee shop-flower shop in the area.”
Lee went into the store and left Segovia a $4,000 tip to pay it forward on a bevvy of drinks, and as a donation to her SNAP project. She gave him a plant as a thanks.
Days after Lee’s visit, a giddy Segovia posted on TikTok that business is up 1,000%.
We hope now that the word is out, people continue to buy plants and sip matcha to help this budding entrepreneur. You can check out the full menu of drinks on the shop’s website.
The Brown Thumb, 215 N. Cedar St. (Denton) Monday Closed; Tuesday – Saturday 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Sunday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
