Prairie State Wire

Illinois Restaurant Association President and CEO Sam Toia said restaurant kitchens and dining rooms have provided centers of opportunity for new arrivals in America.

That dynamic may actually increase due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Toia told Prairie State Wire. 

“We have every type of restaurant you can imagine, Chinese to Korean to Colombians to Peruvian, obviously Mexican, you name it, we got it,” he said. “You just go to neighborhoods. You go to Little Village, you see the Mexican, you go to Albany Park, you see Asian/Korean, you go to Uptown, you see the Japanese, you know, you go to uptown, you will see African, too. And that's because this is one avenue for them to get ahead in America, the restaurant business.

Sam Toia | Illinois Restaurant Association

“It's one of the industries you still can enter,” Toia said. “Immigrants have always been the backbone of the hospitality industry here in the city of Chicago, throughout the state of Illinois, starting with the Eastern Europeans then the Italians, the Greeks, the Asians, the Africans, the Latinos/Mexicans.”

A 2017 Nation’s Restaurant News report, based on census data, said immigrants own 29% of all restaurants and hotels, more than double the 14% rate for all businesses.

Toia said despite closures due to the pandemic – estimates are 5,000 of the more than 25,000 eating and dining establishments operated in Illinois shut their doors in the past year – a new generation of owners is on the way.

“I do think that because immigrants are very entrepreneurial spirits and they're always looking for a deal,” he said. “And I think landlords, once they have a space to rent, they're going to look for potential tenants. And if you have a restaurant already built out with hood fans, dishwashers and booths and dining rooms and stuff like that, why wouldn't you rent it out to someone that knows the industry, an immigrant that's been working at it 20 years and now wants to open his or her own place?”

Another factor is that immigrant families are usually willing to staff restaurants themselves. In a labor-intensive business like the food industry, that is a major issue.

“So you get the mother, you get the father, you get the children. You get the aunts. You get the uncles. You get the primos, the cousins,” Toia said. “So if I'm a landlord and I look at this family coming in saying, 'Hey, I want to rent this place and I got it built out because it was a restaurant that went out of business.' And I meet the husband and I meet the wife and I meet maybe the husband's brother.”

The new owners often invest their savings to get the restaurant off the ground, he said, and they will work hard to protect that investment and build on it.

“They're going to work 18 hours a day. They're going to give good service,” Toia said. “We're going to get a phenomenal food. They’re going to make it because they're not scared of work.”

He said a distinct type of person owns and manages a restaurant.

“You know, you've got to remember, most restaurant owners-operators are type A personalities,” Toia said. “They're entrepreneurs. It's an industry that I think you always will attract immigrants to. From the Eastern Europeans to Italians to the Greeks, to the Asians, to Africans, to Latinos, to the Mexicans. 

"So I do believe that we will see, you know, a new wave of people getting into the restaurant industry because it is still one of the few industries that you can enter without a college education and get to the middle class. I think that we will still get a lot of people entering into the restaurant industry and then wanting to open their own restaurants, just like we've seen over the last 120 years.”

Toia’s family is among those who built successful careers serving food to the public.

“My grandmother was Sicilian. She opened Leona's, which was in the north side of Chicago, in Sheffield, in Lakeview area by Wrigley Field,” he said. “At one time we had close to – not when she was running it, but then my father got involved and then my brother got involved and I got involved – we got up to 12 locations throughout the Chicago land. She started it in 1950 by herself.”

Leona started in the restaurant business in 1948, working with her brother Pat at a pizza place. They had a falling out, so she opened her own place around the corner at 928 Belmont, Toia said.

Years later, he started his restaurant career there.

“Pizza maker,” he said. “I still say I'm the fastest pizza maker in Chicago.”

The Toia family business has opened Leona’s Restaurants across Chicago as well as two Hop Haus Sports Pubs.

Toia has led the Illinois Restaurant Association, a nonprofit trade association representing the state’s largest private sector employer, since 2012. He was the IRA’s board chairman before being named president and CEO.

Sam Sanchez is another product of immigrants who worked his way up the ladder of success in the restaurant industry. 

“Who didn’t? Who didn’t come from immigrants?” he said to Prairie State Wire.

Sanchez’s father worked in the restaurant business in Mexico and his uncle owned restaurants in Chicago. Sanchez was born in the U.S. but grew up in Sabinas Hidalgo in the state of Nuevo Leon, Mexico. 

Sanchez, who serves as chairman of the Illinois Restaurant Association, said immigrants are willing to start at the entry level and work their way up.

“Trying to make a living, trying to make a better life here,” he told Prairie State Wire. “So many stories, so many amazing stories and sad stories, but the most are stories of success. Those are the great stories.”

Sanchez owned three John Barleycorn locations, the Old Crow Smokehouse and two Moe’s Cantina restaurants, in addition to numerous other investments and operations. He was named 2016 "Mr. Restaurateur of the Year" by the IRA.

“Our industry is one of the few, probably the only one, you can start at an entry-level position, as a dishwasher and you can move your way up to owner,” he said. “So many of us have started washing dishes, busing tables, moving to server, bartenders and waiter, manager and then partner.”

Sanchez said he began three decades ago as a porter and later a bus boy. His first day as a porter was on St. Patrick’s Day. Memories of that crazy day elicit laughter.

“I know waiters who used to work for me...the owners of the Bottleneck, they used to be my servers,” he said.

Hard work is recognized and rewarded, Sanchez said. People who start at the bottom, such as many immigrant families, are willing to work hard and build their business.

“Restaurant offers one of the great opportunities to learn and move ahead fast,” he said. “You can be successful a lot quicker starting as a bus boy than any other industry. You never know who you’re going to meet who will give you an opportunity.”