In October, Carlo Campagna opened Toro Food Concepts at 1018 East 11th Avenue; it serves a variety of eclectic ingredient combinations that can be ordered as a salad, burrito or bowl. "He's from Italy and I'm from Puerto Rico, so the food is inspired by our backgrounds and the places we have traveled — and the places we want to travel. He's a super-creative person who is a mad scientist in the kitchen," says Giselle, who is executive director of the GrowHaus, a nonprofit in north Denver, in addition to being a co-owner of Toro Food Concepts (no relation to Richard Sandoval's Toro, a restaurant in Cherry Creek).
"Carlo's entire career has been in the food industry," she notes, and after years of working for other people, he decided to pursue his dream of opening a place of his own. "He went to school to be an artist, so he built everything himself. He even did the murals," Giselle says.
But during its first few months,Toro's business was slow. "He had to lay off a couple of really good friends and work the kitchen by himself. I watched him one Saturday, wondering if he should even open," she shares. "To watch him like that, it was very, very difficult."
So on January 13, Giselle filmed a video of herself talking about her husband's struggles with the business. "As I was recording it, I got choked up. Honestly, it felt like a journal entry," she recalls. "At the time, I had maybe twenty followers on TikTok, but something in me said to just post it."
When she picked up her son later that day, she mentioned the video and said that she should probably delete it when she got home — "We're very private people," she notes — but by then, it had been viewed a couple hundred times. Soon, that number reached 1,500. "That evening when I went to bed, I told my husband, 'I think you should make a little extra pork,'" Giselle recalls.
The next day, Carlo went to work as usual and Giselle made a nice breakfast for herself and her son. But she soon realized that she hadn't heard from Carlo. "Usually we're texting each other all day," she says. "I picked up my phone and I screamed at the top of my lungs, 'Oh, my God!' It had gotten 125,000 views overnight."
She drove over to Toro, and "I knew, this is it," she says. "Everything is changing. People from all over Denver came. The food influencers, they were all there. I can't tell you what overcame me. Being in the nonprofit world with a focus on feeding people, I know that food can bring us together. To see everybody rally on a cold, cold winter day, I just can't tell you what that felt like."
On Sunday, January 14, Toro Food Concepts sold out of all of its food in just two hours. "You really don't know what the real-life implications will be after the flurry," Giselle cautions. "I hope people are kind and patient as we undergo this wave." As of mid-day January 16, the total views are over 469,000.
The attention has definitely boosted morale. "It has changed our lives — even just giving us hope," Giselle says. The bigger takeaway, though, is that "it's okay to ask for help," she adds. "It's okay to talk to people when we're not having our best days, and it's okay to post reality on social media. We should be using it to tell our stories — not just the perfect, shiny parts. It can be used as a tool for truth."
Giselle and Carlo first met when she was seventeen; their paths crossed again later in life, and now they have been married for more than sixteen years. During their relationship, "he has been the one that's pushed me. I think I did this because this is my one chance I have to push him," she jokes.
Going viral wasn't something she expected, but she's grateful for the outpouring of support. "Go after your dreams," she says, adding that you should not be afraid to "ask for help, talk to your community. Speaking out and asking for help is meaningful."
Toro Food Concepts is located at 1018 East 11th Avenue and is currently open at 11 a.m. Tuesday through Sunday. Closing time depends on the availability of food. For more information, visit tastytoro.com.
