From renting out luxury cars and a career in tech to getting scammed on his first restaurant venture, the road to success for chef/entrepreneur Chad Dillon has had its twists and turns. But the founder of the wildly successful The Boiler Seafood and Crab Boil—an upscale seafood boil experience in Atlanta’s prominent Buckhead neighborhood—wouldn’t have it any other way.
“When you have a business, believe in it. Pursue it no matter what happens,” he shares about his personal success mantra. It’s a philosophy that serves him well. Dillon reveals the popular seafood boil restaurant earned $8 million in its first year when it opened in 2020.
A Drive For Success
Born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, to parents who emigrated from Jamaica, Dillon’s entrepreneurial journey began shortly after graduating from Howard University.
“Somebody wanted to get rid of this Bentley and I got a really great lease on it,” he recalls about the car that drew so much attention. So much so that people were clamoring to rent it from him. The luxury automobile paid for itself within six months. Dillon started his first company, Rent My Bentley and added three more cars to his fleet.
“I had plans on expanding the company to Atlanta,” says Dillon. “In New York, no one owned cars and there was no parking. So having cars on hand [for rental] was essential. But in Atlanta, it was the complete opposite. Everyone had vehicles, nice vehicles. So, I had to switch industries and explore new business ventures.”
Bumps On the Road To Success
With a desire to put his business/marketing degree to work in the tech sector, Dillon eventually made his way to Atlanta, a city he often visited during his college years. “I always had an eye for coming back to Atlanta to do business here,” says Dillon, who also saw opportunity in the city’s culinary scene and wanted to become part of it.
A self-described “hands-on” chef, he opened his first Atlanta restaurant when the opportunity to sublease an established kitchen space became available. “While I was building out the restaurant, I got a chef in, and I learned hands-on [the culinary skills] and I also did Uber Eats. We stayed open until 4:00 AM, so after the clubs closed, everybody came out to get some food [from us]. We served chicken wings, fries, Cajan pasta. It did very, very well,” recalls Dillon.
That is, until the eviction notice arrived.
By Jocelyn Amador
