On the 5th of April, US-based, Nigerian woman, Simileoluwa Adebajo posted about her intentions to quit her job as a financial analyst and open a Nigerian restaurant in San Francisco.
So I've quit my job as a financial Analyst to open the first #Nigerian restaurant in the city of San Francisco. Tbh I'm not sure of exactly what I'm doing but I'll do my best with what I have. Wish me luck, guys. 🙂 pic.twitter.com/dAJQQJSdIW
— Simileoluwa. (@simileolu) April 5, 2019
Her post immediately went viral with over 56, 000 likes and 16, 000 retweets. And her followers went from about 400 to over 2000 people.
Hailed for taking such bold step to follow her passion, many are actually shocked that a Nigerian restaurant is absent in San Francisco, which is recognised around the world as a place to get different cuisines.
Last year July, alongside her career as a financial analyst, Simileoluwa launched her restaurant, Eko Kitchen, but it was hard juggling her day job and her side hustle. She sold her food through food delivery services, through delivery services like Uber Eats and Postmates but they were expensive to run.
Also, she wasn’t happy at her primary job.
“The truth is, I’m a good financial analyst. I can do a three-year projection for you right now and draw up charts and graphs and strategic recommendations, but I haven’t been happy. I was spending eight hours a day staring at a spreadsheet. I realized plating just one plate of food gave me more satisfaction than eight hours of being a financial analyst could ever give me,” she told San Francisco Chronicles.
Thankfully, Simileoluwa got an offer to move to Joint Venture Kitchen, a collaborative restaurant pop-up space for San Francisco cooks. After months of sold-out events, she got an offer to become a permanent resident at the building, and with that opportunity, she quit her job at Twitch and decided to fully focus on her business.
I am not the best chef in the world but I strategically positioned myself as the first and only Nigerian food in the city of San Francisco and I'll always be proud of that achievement.
— Simileoluwa. (@simileolu) February 21, 2019
“I would rather not be the person who is half-assing through life. I was giving 40 percent of myself to my job and 60 percent of myself the restaurant, which I was only doing on the weekend at the time. I decided I’d rather be the person who was really good at this one thing in particular than just average at a few menial things,” she noted.
As Simileoluwa begins a full operation of her food business next month, she will become the first Nigerian restaurant in the city of San Francisco.
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