Viral TikTok Saves Taylor Taco Shop from Closure

Detroit Loves Tacos 2 in Taylor went from the brink of shutting down to packed crowds every night. Owner Alexander Quinones posted a 30-second TikTok that got major traction on the Internet. Just two weeks earlier, the 19-year-old Taylor High School graduate was preparing to lock the doors for good.

Quinones launched the taco shop last November. He scraped together $5,000 from what he'd saved and graduation gifts. His mother, Julie Stevens, chipped in too. But customers didn't show up. The shop barely made enough to pay for ingredients and one worker.

"We had a difficult discussion that day. We're gonna have to close if something doesn't give," Stevens told WXYZ.

The young owner felt crushed. "I felt like I was failing in life a little bit. I put all my money into this, I put all my time into this. So it really, really hurt me," he said.

Desperate, Quinones filmed one last plea. "No shortcuts, no big investors, just me working every single day, long nights, with a vision," Quinones said in the clip. He posted it and hoped.

Stevens woke up to a shock. "I woke up in the morning, and he was viral, literally, like overnight. It was like a blessing," she said. The video had taken off while they slept.

People started driving in from Michigan, Ohio, Minnesota, and Canada. Siblings Breanna Huynh and Jordan Huynh came from Windsor to taste what everyone was talking about. Isabel Zuniga and Breanna Niese made a two-and-a-half-hour trip from Ohio.

Quinones fell in love with restaurants at 12. He started at Detroit Loves Tacos in Corktown, which grew out of his mother's catering business. Stevens now cooks at the Taylor spot because they can't keep up with orders.

"Restaurant's like my passion. I love serving people with food. I love seeing their smiles. It means the world to me," Quinones said.

The teenager now dreams bigger, wishing for more locations and food trucks. He sells out almost every day and scrambles to stock enough supplies for the waves of hungry visitors who keep coming.