Meet Chad Dillon, the founder and proprietor of The Boiler Seafood & Crab Boil, an Atlanta-based Black-owned restaurant. Fried lobster tails, fried king crab, fried catfish, hushpuppies, and other dishes are popular at the restaurant.
Dillon, whose parents are Jamaican, grew up in Brooklyn, New York, and has always been interested in business and market gaps. His entrepreneurial abilities aided him in identifying a market gap and bringing the seafood boil experience to Atlanta.
“I found that as Atlanta’s outskirts were growing in the seafood boil industry, the actual city of Atlanta hadn’t been tapped into,” he told Travel Noire. “So I created and launched a seafood boil restaurant, The Boiler Seafood, in Atlanta’s most prominent neighborhood, Buckhead.”
According to Travel Noire, he previously applied to be a franchisee of The Juicy Crab but was denied. This prompted him to put everything on the line with his concept, resulting in the development of The Boiler Seafood and Crab Boil.
In August 2019, the 31-year-old secured a building lease in Atlanta’s prestigious Buckhead district to launch his restaurant. Despite the pandemic, he stayed strong and determined to realize his company objective.
At the height of the pandemic, the restaurant eventually opened in 2020. The company quickly grew in popularity, eventually becoming Buckhead’s number one seafood and crab boil restaurant. His eatery has already made $8 million in sales in less than two years of operation.
“I am a thinker and innovator, so even without a culinary background, I enjoy finding voids in the business market and creating solutions; creating restaurant concepts from ideation to execution, coming up with new menu items, and creating amazing customer experiences,” he told Travel Noire.
“I’m also very hands-on. I spend about 10+ hours a day being in the restaurant, running errands, and handling needed logistics for the restaurant.”
Dillion launched his restaurant business with no culinary background. What is more, he has managed to build The Boiler into an ATL hotspot. Meanwhile, the restaurant has welcomed some celebrities, including Allen Iverson, Offset, Queen Najia, Ja Rule, and others.
Dillon credits his early success in the restaurant business to his dedication and consistency.
