TikTok food critic Keith Lee turned business around for Frankensons Pizzeria, located in Las Vegas, with a single positive review that went viral in January 2023. Now, in another startling reversal of fortune, owner Frank Steele’s restaurant is in trouble again, and he has launched a GoFundMe fundraiser to keep the doors open.
As PMQ previously reported, Frankensons, located about seven miles off the Vegas Strip, became an overnight sensation last year after Lee’s review. Prior to that, it was facing imminent closure after just a few months in business.
An email from one of Steele’s employees caught Lee’s attention—the employee noted that Frankensons was struggling due largely to weak marketing and asked the influencer to try it out. Lee, who lives in Vegas, headed over to the pizzeria and was highly impressed—“Frank was so dope,” he said, and went on to give Steele’s pizza a 9.8 rating out of 10. “Frank, from me to you, this is my opinion: There’s no way you should be behind on rent or struggling to pay rent. [The problem is] marketing. That’s 100 percent what I feel like. That food is delicious. The service is amazing.”
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After Lee’s review dropped on TikTok, Steele found himself with a packed dining room day after day, night after night. The video had garnered more than 30.6 million views and 6.2 million likes on TikTok and drew crowds not only from Las Vegas but from around the country to Frankensons Pizzeria. The sudden turnaround earned a heap of free news coverage—from CNN.com and Today.com to the Las Vegas Review Journal and Business Insider—for Frankensons as well.
“I had tons of new customers, more customers than I knew what to do with,” Steele recently told The Blast. “I had to hire a whole bunch of new people. That went on for a good seven months. I was probably the most viral restaurant in Las Vegas, and everybody wanted to come out to see us.”
To maintain the momentum, Steele started using TikTok and Instagram extensively, often appearing on camera in front of a large Frankensons mural in his restaurant and speaking directly to customers about his latest specials. The videos aren’t flashy or polished, but they feel genuine and honest—a small business owner who doesn’t put on airs, inviting locals to drop in and chat with him while he fires up their pies and touting various deals for customers on a budget.
Even as inflation kept rising last year and consumers tightened their belts, business remained pretty good for Frankensons—for a while. Not so much anymore.
“Now, with the last…six, seven, eight months, it has just gone downhill,” Steele told The Blast. “We can barely keep our doors open now.”
Adding to Steele’s woes: he spent three weeks in the hospital “with major health problems,” as he explained in a video posted on TikTok and Instagram. “During that time, I racked up a lot of bills not only with the hospital but also with my restaurant.”
He started a GoFundMe campaign on July 9 to seek financial assistance. “I’ve beat my head every way trying to figure out how I would be able to catch up on all these bills,” he wrote on the campaign’s page, “but none [of the options] are very favorable. My last option is to close the doors and sell the business, but that would hurt my employees, my customers and, of course, me too.”
The GoFundMe campaign has a goal of $100,000 but had raised just $8,294 as of August 19. Steele continues to remind his social media followers about the fundraiser in regular posts and has repeatedly expressed his gratitude to those who have contributed.
On the other hand, Frankensons’ website doesn’t appear to be working, and it’s unclear whether the restaurant accepts online orders—practically a must these days.
Even so, Steele has continued focusing on value deals in recent posts. In a back-to-school Instagram Reel on August 16, he touted his BOGO offers and a weekend family special featuring a 20” one-topping pizza, 24 wings and a sub sandwich for under $60. “You cannot beat that,” he noted. “Give me a call. Come down here to see me…I look forward to seeing y’all and talking with y’all, especially those that come [from] out of town and my Las Vegas and Henderson residents.”
Steele’s videos also showcase dine-in guests who visit his restaurant from out of town and even out of state. “Everything was good,” one woman from Southern California said. “My favorite part was the pizza. The pizza is absolutely bomb. Like, bomb.” Another guest from Arizona said she “fell in love” with Frankensons during her first visit. “Frank was really cool…He sat down and talked with us, and that was really cool. I just enjoyed the atmosphere and overall just being here and the experience.”
Steele clearly hopes that personal touch will continue to make an impression in hard times. “We’ve gotta support these small family businesses,” Steele said to his customers in another video. “A lot of these mom-and-pop places are struggling at this point in time with our economy. And I know you’re out there struggling also as well. That’s why I’m offering you these special deals.”
