Community rallies to bring business to Denver restaurant after going viral on social media
Carlo Campagna has been cooking up a dream inside his scratch kitchen, Toro Food Concepts, for the last two months.
"I've got Caribbean, I've got Spanish, I've got Italian," said Campagna, listing off several cuisines featured on his menu.
He's worked in the food industry for years, but this is his first time owning his own food business, located off E. 11th Avenue and Ogden Street.
Yet, they have faced challenges keeping the business afloat.
"Getting people through the door, for sure," he said. "People walk by, they don't notice you, and you've got food here for them and no one to serve it to."
His wife Giselle Diaz Campagna wanted to do something to help change his luck.
"I noticed that he was a little depressed and kind of even wondering, 'should I even open today?' and it was a Saturday, so I knew that things were really bad emotionally," said Diaz Campagna.
She took to TikTok on Saturday morning with an emotional plea to help keep the dream from burning out.
"I kind of forgot about it, thought, 'I'll just get home and delete it'," she said. "I realized a lot more people are seeing this than you ever expected it."
Campagna had no idea his wife had posted anything by the time it had thousands of views and likes.
"It was like 'wow, I'm not ready for this,'" he said.
When he came into work Sunday morning, hundreds of people showed up or placed online orders after seeing his wife's video.
"20 [people] a day was good, [or] 25," he said. "There were 25 here in the first 10 minutes on Sunday. It carried through 'til we ran out of food, and we made more, and then we ran out again."
People braved dangerously cold temperatures just to step inside and order food.
"Chef Carlo is in there cooking away and was like, 'I'm so stressed right now, I have so many orders and don't know what's going on,'" said Nick Howard. "I'm like, 'get ready bro, get ready.'"
Howard, who's the face of Mile High Food Dude, a social media food blog, was the first one in the door.
"It kind of goes to show that if we come together as a community, we can help just as much as any other major city," he said.
It was an outpouring of support that continued to stun the Campagnas on their second day at the restaurant since the video went viral.
"Quite heartwarming to be honest, after seeing what wife said it almost made me cry," said Campagna.
The video has nearly 500,000 interactions and counting as of Tuesday night.
"It was a game changer for us, a life changer," said Diaz Campagna. "We are uplifted to know that we're surrounded by people that [are] really our neighbors."
While they're unsure how much this viral video will continue to draw in crowds, they hope they can keep up with the momentum.
"Basically, we hope that people fall in love with the food," said Diaz Campagna.
They also plan to hire more staff to meet the demand.
"I hope it's not just us," said Campagna. "I hope people realize that there's others like us, that [people] could help them too, support them."
