"He wanted to go out back to see our smoker in action," says De Los Santos. "We had an event that night for Juneteenth, so I had a bunch of briskets on the smoker. He was excited to see that, and had one of his staff take pictures of him with the meat on the smoker."
"East Durham is a historically Black community, it's not a neighborhood full of folks who are supporting Trump," says De Los Santos. "I think the optics of showing up at a Black business on Juneteenth, and just being around some regular folk, the campaign wanted to show this is a demographic that they care about."
The restaurant visit has become a staple of political campaigns, because eating in public remains one of the most humanizing things a politician can do.
"My staff was like, Mike, I think FBI agents are here," he says. He had been contacted by the local Democratic party about renting out the restaurant on a day when it was closed, to host a private event, but they wouldn't say who for.