Today we’d like to introduce you to Rey Regalado.
Hi Rey, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start, maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
My dream came thru when I found a small space in Midtown Atlanta 18 years ago. From 540 sf to 2300 expansion and four more stores all around the state, I was able to honor my father, who was part of the dream behind our success. Bringing the flavor that is due to our family recipes, I was blessed with the opportunity to offer it to the American customers who, during all these years, have been very supportive of our business and whom I’m very grateful for it.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not, what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
It hasn’t been. It was times when the struggle was very stressful and I was almost at the point to throw the towel. At the beginning of our first opening back in 2003, just a few Cuban restaurants were operating in the city, so Cuban food wasn’t very popular. I remember when I was standing at our glass windows in my Midtown location and saw people walking by rushing to the restaurant across the street from us and I used to tell myself, “Our food is better tasty and better quality than theirs. Why are they not coming here?” Fortunately, I have friends and families who were very supportive and who remind me that my Dad, who wasn’t able to enjoy the dream, was looking down at me very proud of what I was trying to achieve.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
In Cuba, I graduated from the University and became a mechanical engineer in 1987. I worked in a medical equipment factory until 1991 when I decide that to be a successful business person, America was the place to be, so I scape from the Island in a fishing boat stolen from the government and without the knowledge of family and friends. When I first arrived to the US, my first job was as a delivery driver for Dunkin Donuts. For one and a half year, I was driving all over Atlanta from Jonesboro to Griffin, Covington, Airport, Kennesaw etc.
After that I work for a maintenance company doing pressure washing in the parking deck of 191 Peachtree street building in downtown Atlanta for like six months until I met the person who introduced me to the painting business when for the first time in 1993, I became a contractor which was my first opportunity to be a self-employed. Ten years will pass until one day when I was driving from a job my company was doing in then the new apartments in Juniper and Ponce de Leon saw the space in the corner of Ponce and Myrtle that caught my eyes and the rest is history. That, I think in my opinion, is what set me apart from the rest and what so far I have been known for it. Always focus and putting my mind in the future. Hard work, common sense, modesty, be an example to your employees, humbleness is a soup of ingredients for success.
Is there a quality that you most attribute to your success?
Focus, hard work. Not giving up. Common sense. Treat everyone with respect and kindness.
Contact Info:
- Email: REY.REGALADO@PAPISGRILL.COM
- Website: www.papisgrill.com
- Instagram: papisgrill
- Facebook: @papisgrill
- Twitter: @papisgrill
Image Credits
3owl agency Lia Batista
