TikTok video showed mom’s empty taco shop. Then customers flooded Illinois restaurant

Her mother sat in a booth in her empty restaurant, noticeably upset as her taco shop remained empty.

But a viral TikTok post by Isabel Milan changed the misfortunes for Taco-Bout-Joy’s in Glenview, Illinois, sending a massive wave of customers to their door the following day.

“It breaks my heart to see my mom watching the door everyday waiting for a customer to walk in,” Milan wrote in her TikTok video on Wednesday, Dec. 7.

She wished for a Christmas miracle, and the family received one through TikTok. Milan’s video has more than 39 million views a week later, and the taco shop has been slammed with new customers.

On Thursday, the shop said in a Facebook post it was “extremely busy,” with wait times up to an hour. It sold out of its birria tacos by 5 p.m.

Milan, who works at the shop with her mother, Joy Milan, said they had to call in reinforcements to deal with the heavy volume of customers. It’s normally just the two of them in the restaurant, but a video showed the kitchen packed with workers to fulfill the shop’s frenzy of orders.

Customers said they traveled hours to try their tacos.

“Drove 3 1/2 hours and definitely worth it. Love supporting small businesses.” one customer said on TikTok.

“Food was definitely worth the wait,” said another customer.

Now the Chicago-area eatery is hiring for kitchen positions because of its sudden wave of popularity, which carried over after Thursday.

“The TikTok community really pulled through for us today with an outstanding amount of sales,” the restaurant said on Facebook. “It was so nice seeing many new beautiful faces today.”

This story was originally published December 14, 2022 at 10:03 AM with the headline "TikTok video showed mom’s empty taco shop. Then customers flooded Illinois restaurant."