Isabel Milan, on Dec. 8, posted a 10-second video on Taco-Bout-Joy's TikTok account of her mom, store owner Sisouphanh "Joy" Milan waiting for a customer to walk in on a slow business day. Isabel captioned the video: "I wish I could give her customers for Christmas." The video instantly went viral, and Buzzfeed News reports that the restaurant went from earning $100/day to $100 per order.

Before the viral video, the family business only served fewer than 10 customers daily. Thanks to TikTok's algorithm, the video has been viewed nearly 40 million times, received over 6 million likes, and racked up nearly 70,000 positive comments encouraging more people to support the taco store.

The incredible goodwill of hundreds of thousands of social media users brought customers to frequent the restaurant in droves. Some even shared that they had to drive from all over the Chicago area to try the restaurant's food, with other commenters mentioning they drove two or more hours to visit in person.

When searching for the term "Taco-Bout-Joy's" on TikTok, it now shows hundreds of videos from happy customers who visited the restaurant and are raving at the stellar Birria tacos or filming the long line to prove packed the place had become.

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"I'm seriously still processing all of this. I think I've seen around a thousand customers daily, which is crazy to think about considering we used to have about 5–10 customers a day." With the unexpected boom in business, Isabel mentioned that they had to enlist help from their entire family to get through that first post-viral day," Isabel told BuzzFeed.

She also posted a follow-up video on her personal account where her mother and aunt were tearing up while they counted the cash in their register. The caption read, "This was the first time they were able to pay themselves since opening up the restaurant together."

Illustration shows TikTok app logo
Reuters