Hustles
Joe Fontana left a corporate job for Fry the Coop
Joe Fontana and his wife sold their house to open a chicken sandwich shop in Chicago. He tells Upflip the line came after a near-empty start.
Joe Fontana spent years in a California corporate job he hated, reading restaurant books at night. The shop he eventually opened did not match the concept he had been sketching.
He and his wife sold their house, moved home with a newborn and borrowed from family to open Fry the Coop, a chicken sandwich counter in Chicago. Early days, he says, the door stayed quiet.
One review turned into a line around the block. He talks about days when the sandwich shop brings in on the order of $39,000. That number is his account of a busy day, not a promise.
A simpler shop than the plan
The Upflip episode stays on the move, the family loan and the weeks when almost nobody walked in. He contrasts that with the line that showed up later.
The sandwich is the whole menu idea. The story is a corporate job he left for a counter that almost did not catch.
