Norman Restaurant Gets Wave Of Support Thanks To Customer's Facebook Post

A picture can be worth a thousand words—but in this case—it was worth thousands of shares. 

A social media post drove an influx of support for a Metro-area restaurant. Nick Chappell said he and a friend went to Norman on Wednesday for hazmat training classes provided by the Oklahoma Army National Guard. He said it has been a tradition of theirs to eat hot dogs every Wednesday, so they searched on Google and found Spirals: Hot Dogs & More at 2203 W. Main St. in Norman.

Chappell said they arrived at about 11:15 a.m. Wednesday and got their food. But he noticed that business was slow and the restaurant owner was looking out the glass door while waiting for customers. This prompted Chappell to snap a photo.

"I thought it was just a wholesome time or a wholesome moment that I needed to capture on camera," Chappell said.

Later that morning, Chappell posted the photo on Facebook, along with Spirals' menu and a picture of the hot dogs he ate. The post went viral, getting shared thousands of times. The photo of the restaurant owner looking out the glass door had more than 3,800 shares as of Friday evening.

"I don't even know how to put it into words on how I feel about it," said Chappell. "It's more than I ever thought would have happened."

The owner of Spirals is Scott Hosek, who said he's grateful for the wave of support from the community. Hosek said on Thursday alone, the very next day after Chappell made the post, his restaurant had an entire week's worth of customers.

"I was incredibly surprised that that many people would get involved that quickly," said Hosek. "I think we did 120 loaded fries. We might do five or six on a normal day. So that was a pretty explosive experience just in one food item."

Hosek added that he had never been as busy as he was on Thursday.

"I just know that I got behind the line roughly at 11 o'clock and I never moved until an hour after we closed," said Hosek.

The momentum continued on Friday. When News 9 arrived at around noontime, the place was packed. Among the new customers was Alexis Durham, who saw Chappell's Facebook post.

"Just the networking that can happen on social media. Millions of people can see something and change people's lives, so I love that," Durham said.

Visit Spirals: Got Dogs & More on Facebook for more information on hours and menu items.