If I would sit here and tell you that I had a vision for the kind of food I was going to
serve what I'm serving now I would be absolutely lying to you the fusion came in the mixing the
regular Sharm Gourmet wraps with a bag of Flamin' Hot Cheetos with nacho cheese when your eyes fall
in love first with something you just want to get your hands on it is this really what it is
does it really tastes good and we just took off after that honestly hello my name is Ali Elreda
I'm 47 years old and my restaurant Fatima's Grill brings in over $1 million in sales a
year I wanted to infuse The Best of Both Worlds like who would not
like Mediterranean food like and Mexican food
welcome to Fatimas Grill in the city of Downey this is our dining area this is where the people
enjoy their food the walls you're going to see a lot of nostalgic pictures and photos and Banners
and whatnot we have our signature lebamex hot sauce that we make in house now we're
going to take you in the kitchen that's where the magic happens come on we have our charred
grilled here our taco grill our quesadilla grill we have our meats on this side right
here pretty much from carne salad to chicken our beans no large in the beans Nacho cheese
this is where we get all the orders ready on this side right here orders come in through the
system tap them out bag them label them and send them all out this is Fatima's Grill ladies and
gentlemen Muslim Americans live a different lifestyle pretty much you know we pray five
times a day we don't eat pork we don't don't drink alcohol but we were very welcome I was the
one always getting in trouble always getting expelled from school I only really enjoyed
going to school because I got to see my friends almost every single day but it was just not for
me I was more ashamed because coming from a Muslim American household that's not
something look that we do in prison you get to pretty much sign up for a few jobs and
what you want to do whether it's laundry or in the kitchen I chose the kitchen because
I was always a kitchen rat around the house I just wanted to be around food
and there was some culinary you know classes opening up so I just jumped in and said why
not lessons that you learn from prison go with you throughout your life journey for your whole life
because you always want to remember the times when it was a downfall for you when we prepare for big
orders catering orders whatnot how fast to prep when you want to feed a party of 15 20 or 20 to 30
people speeding up the process to where they're just getting that stuff all at one time those
lessons in prison really help out a lot because they just prepare you for the actual real life
itself the only thing that was on the menu was pretty much just tacos that's
it because there was no room for anything else and then tacos became into burritos
and burritos became into quesadillas quesadillas became into Gourmet wraps
so we just you know put a small menu together and let's say let's rock and
roll the Meat Market and grill had very limited parking customers would pull up and park these
were customers that come to eat so that collided with the consumers coming in for the me market
there was just no room so we knew sooner or later that we had to make that move I was was
driving down Firestone Boulevard and I happened to see a for lease sign at the location that
I'm currently in right now got in contact with the landlord and it was history after
that I took over an existing kitchen that was once a Chinese food spot so that helped
tremendously I did not have to build no hood no grease straps nothing and everything was still
there Fatima is my daughter so I pretty much just went
with that she is my pride and joy so that was a
no-brainer I was 100% Hands-On everyday daily operations on Instagram I was the voice behind
the burritos getting wrapped I was the voice behind the cheese getting splashed on quesadillas
I owe all to social media like all of it people started driving from Las Vegas people started
driving from Chino Hills from San Fernando from the valley and these are people taking
45 to an hour drives like mind-blowing and it was because of social media and I tell a lot
of people social media can make you or break you it is a tool that you really have to know how to
use my daughter's a big hot chip eater she told me one day hey why don't you try throwing some chips
in a burrito or in a sandwich or something and you know sometimes we brush kids off but they they
are the future for a reason cuz they know what they're talking about so I went ahead and gave
it a shot and just never looked back and now when you know we have these conversations with Fatima
you know she has a little chip on her shoulder because she knows that she made that right
decision we had wait times over 2 to 3 hours we had people lining up around the block and
that's exactly when I know all right I have something here like I have something major here
it took a big burden off of us in the city of Downey our cooks our employees
and whatnot because our weight times were super
overwhelming we charged 35,000 for a franchise just to retain the name of course we charge 6%
royalties and 1% for advertisement so a total of 7% our first couple of franchise locations
came within the southern California area and of course New York City because I'm a Yankees fan
so being able to walk in and pull the doors open at a out of state location is just a dream come
true you know you're not purchasing a McDonald's or a Subway or a Chipotle where you can sit back
and maybe have those checks come in like when you purchase Fatima's Grill you really have to
be hands-on because this is a hands-on business and I'm still hands-on years
later I still manage my own self putting in my own hours from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00
p.m. at the flagship store in the city of Downey do I ever think about stepping back
I I think it'll be unfair for the franchise owners that have you know invested not just
their money but their time into something for me to send them pictures of me smoking
a cigar or drinking a pina colada on the beach somewhere but I love what I do so as long as I'm
healthy and you know being able to stand on my feet I'd like to be hands-on as long as I
can