BBQ Unlimited owner Sean Green and family have a new home and brighter outlook
The Greens have a new apartment next to a new commissary, giving BBQ Unlimited better footing.
Most of the restaurant industry is slowly recovering from the pandemic. And now, chef Sean Green of BBQ Unlimited, who lost his family home this spring, can share a glimmer of optimism.
Fooda, the company that contracts food-service providers to serve meals at businesses, began sending BBQ Unlimited to more workplaces. And earlier this month, the family’s housing struggles were straightened out. He, his wife, Nikeah, and their school-age children moved out of their room at the New Castle County Hope Center, a shelter in a converted Sheraton Hotel in northern Delaware, and into an apartment. The center provided them $7,000 to facilitate the move, he said.
In what Sean Green calls a dream setup, the apartment is attached to a commissary kitchen, where he and his wife can cook for their Fooda clients as well as for their restaurant in the food court of Willow Grove Park, a mall in Montgomery County, Pa.
Since 2015, the Greens were making a comfortable living through in-office catering. But when businesses began emptying in March 2020, the work dried up.
» READ MORE: From May 2022: BBQ Unlimited owners lost their home
The Greens tried everything, while receiving nearly $33,000 in loans through the federal Paycheck Protection Program. They first set up at a ghost kitchen facility in North Philadelphia. When that arrangement became too costly, they leased an Old City restaurant at what was then a bargain rate. When that didn’t work, they struck a deal last spring for the stand at Willow Grove Park, now open Wednesday to Sunday.
Through it all, Green, 42, said only as the very last resort would he return to working for someone.
That didn’t happen.
Fooda now keeps the Greens busy at several office buildings — at 518 Township Line Rd. in Blue Bell and One Radnor Corporate Center in Radnor, as well as Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia in University City — “and people are loving the food, which explains it,” he said.
He added that having permanent housing will also help the children, who start first, third, and ninth grades this year. “It’s turning around for them, too,” he said.
As for his secret: “Stay humble and keep your faith in God.”