In 2012, Greg and Subrina Collier opened a restaurant called Yolk but the restaurant was engulfed in fire two years after it began operations, consuming their business. That did not deter them from their desire to run their own business.
They bounced back in 2021 with the launch of Uptown Yolk Cafe in Charlotte, NC. The restaurant offers a menu that includes brunch options such as shrimp and grits, French toast with dulce de leche and maple whipped cream, a sweet potato waffle, and fried chicken sandwiches, among others, according to Afro Tech.
“There’s fire dish, which is our smoked chicken gravy biscuits and jalapeno jam, which was one of the first things we created on a new menu very specifically because we had a fire,” mentioned Greg.
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When their new venture was just about to take off, they faced another challenge. The business was hit by the COVID-19 pandemic. This compelled them to relocate to Charlotte’s South End.
Today, Greg and Subrina Collier own three restaurants and a food festival in the city through their restaurant group, BayHaven Restaurant Group. This is after overcoming the fire outbreak that consumed their first business and the COVID pandemic.
Another major achievement of the duo is being able to pay it forward to other businesses.
“There’s probably 12 to 15 business owners or leaders of business who’ve come through our restaurant group in some kind of way,” noted Greg. Also, Subrina commented: “We have laid and planted so many seeds that nobody can take that from us. That’s more important than any award you can get.”
The couple started their journey in Memphis, TN, when they met at a wing restaurant, as per CBS Mornings. For a fresh start, they moved to Phoenix, AZ, at the request of Greg. The plan was to invest in the culinary industry, and Subrina joined him.
“I said if I go to Atlanta, I’m just going to be a more country me, or if I go to Chicago, it’s going to be cold me. If I go to New Orleans, it’s going to be a swamp me. So, I knew that in order for me to figure out who I was, I needed to go a place where I didn’t think I existed,” Greg told the outlet.
After spending some five years in Arizona and getting married in 2010, the duo moved to Rock Hill, SC, after their plans to move to the Southern U.S. did not materialize due to the cost of rent in the area.
“It was a little rundown shopping center, and they were like, ‘Here $1,200 a month.’ There was still food on the grill that had been there for nine months,” recalled Subrina.
