For the first few months after it opened, Rooted Rotisserie was a neighborhood secret, said co-owner Amanda Burton. Then came TikTok restaurant critic Keith Lee, whose rave review of the eatery late last month brought attention from around the world. One recent customer came on the recommendation of their mom, who lives in Belize. Sales at the restaurant have doubled.

“One influencer can kind of change your life,” said Burton, who confessed to being exhausted but also thrilled by the business.

Burton hopes that the attention also brings the spotlight to the surrounding Hollins Market neighborhood, particularly as its public market reopens this week after $2.1 million in renovations. “People walk in all the time and ask me about the building across the street,” Burton said. “It feels like its going to be really symbiotic.”

On Tuesday, city officials celebrated the market with a ribbon cutting. Mayor Brandon Scott shouted out Lee’s visit during his remarks, saying the reviews proved that “If you want the food to taste good and look good … you come to Baltimore, not D.C.”

When the market was still in soft-opening phase last week, customers were already pulling up to buy turkey necks from NaFasi Catering, one of the new prepared food stands at the market. Chef Maynard McMillan created the dish, braised in Shaoxing wine, as a more affordable alternative to oxtails.

“I’m exhausted right now, but I love it,” said the chef, who was up until 2 a.m. the night before going over workflows for his small business. After selling his “rasta pasta” and other globally inspired fare at local farmers markets, McMillan is thrilled to have a permanent place to interact with guests.

It was at a farmers market that McMillan met Hollins Market manager Ezra Rosenberg, who asked if he would be interested in setting up a stall. McMillan was, but there was a problem. “I didn’t have the money for it,” he said. “Still don’t.”

So officials worked with the NaFasi chef and other vendors to come up with affordable rent deals. Baltimore Public Markets, the nonprofit that manages the city-owned markets, picked up the tab for the stall build-outs and kitchen equipment, said its CEO Paul Ruppert.

“The amount of money that a vendor needed to get into Hollins Market is a smaller amount than in the past,” Ruppert said. Business owners like McMillan can pay back the cost of their equipment over time. “This is a new approach that we are taking,” he added. “We want to make sure that the opportunities at Hollins Market and our other markets are open to a broad range of folks.”

The revamped Hollins Market is designed to serve the surrounding community, which includes seniors on fixed incomes and many who rely on public assistance. Five of the six stalls are SNAP-eligible, Scott said. Near the Arlington Avenue entrance is a small grocery store stocked with produce and other ingredients that is operated by Baltimore Public Markets, though the hope is to find another company to take it over. Ruppert said the shop will become a template for future stores at the newly rebuilt Lexington Market and the Avenue Market, which is preparing for renovations.

The market was initially scheduled to reopen last fall, but as often happens with historic buildings, construction ran into unexpected roadblocks. Drain pipes were more than 50% blocked from years of use, said Ruppert, and the entire drainage system needed to be redone. Before launching, the market and its individual vendors needed over 100 inspections, and “that always takes longer” than expected, Ruppert said. In remarks Tuesday, he thanked “mayor of Hampden,” Lou Catelli, for helping expedite things.

The longer-than-anticipated closure was “deeply felt” by the community, said Laura Dykes, president of the Hollins Roundhouse Neighborhood Association. Many residents in the area don’t have cars, and the area is considered a food desert, or a healthy food priority area. Another large grocery store, Jumbo Fresh, just opened in August about half a mile away.

“We had nowhere to go,” said longtime resident Hattie Stanfield. Since the renovated market began allowing the public in, she’s visited several times. She’s glad to see it finally open, but wants to see the vendors keep their prices low so she and her family can shop there.

But by some measures, the timing of the market’s reopening couldn’t be better. “Hollins Market is seeing a rebirth that is partly due to the renovation of the market building but is amplified by a number of new businesses going on surrounding blocks,” Ruppert said.

Influencer and TV host Tim “Chyno” Chin is excited to see the neighborhood getting on the map of area foodies, noting that the locale is “far more diverse” than many of the city’s other restaurant-centric areas like Hampden and Fells Point. While some well-loved businesses like Zella’s Pizzeria and Neopol Smokery have been operating in the area for years, they’ve often flown under the radar. The new attention “isn’t just the Keith Lee effect,” Chin said, referring to the TikTok star.

But Lee hasn’t hurt, either. Last week, people lined up for hours to buy fried fish sandwiches from street vendor Oh Honey on the Bay! located near Rooted Rotisserie that Lee also spotlighted during his recent food tour of the area.

One customer was Mickell Holt, who said it was her first time in the area in years. The Baltimore County resident grew up close by and used to come all the time, getting her nails done and stopping by Hollins Market afterward to pick up groceries. “It was a great place to come and get fresh produce and fresh meat,” she said. She hadn’t known about the market’s reopening, but said she would be interested in shopping there in the future — especially after hearing that it will have a butcher shop.

More work remains. Still untouched is the Hollins Market Headhouse, which Ruppert said in a past life hosted everything from dances to a basketball game played on roller skates. What comes next, he said, will be up to the neighborhood: His organization is asking residents what they want to see from the spooky 19th-century structure.

Visitors had a chance to creep up the aging wooden stairs and peek inside following the ribbon-cutting. As she walked out, one woman compared it to the movie “Saw” and said she would be having nightmares.

Online, residents were more enchanted. “It’s the structure of a grand building,” one restoration carpenter opined on X. “Strong and resilient. The last of its kind.”

Baltimore Banner reporter Krishna Sharma contributed to this article.