Chad Dillon is the 31-year-old founder and CEO of The Boiler Seafood Atlanta. A native of Brooklyn, New York, Dillon has a special talent for identifying businesses that a community may be in need of. He was inspired to start his restaurant realizing that Atlanta was lacking food businesses within the seafood boil niche.
After being denied as a franchisee of The Juicy Crab, Dillon decided to take a risk in opening his own concept with the goal of providing an upscale seafood boil experience within Atlanta’s city limits.
“I found that as Atlanta’s outskirts were growing in the seafood boil industry, the actual city of Atlanta hadn’t been tapped into,” he said. “So I created and launched a seafood boil restaurant, The Boiler Seafood, in Atlanta’s most prominent neighborhood, Buckhead.”
Dillon created The Boiler Seafood concept in January 2019, signed the building lease in August 2019, and opened December 4, 2020. Though it was not easy building and launching in the midst of a global pandemic, he remained persistent, determined to bring his vision to life.
Despite opening at such a challenging time, and despite having no culinary background, he has managed to build The Boiler into an ATL hotspot. Now known as Buckhead’s #1 seafood and crab boil restaurant, the restaurant took the Atlanta hospitality scene by storm, bringing in over $8 Million in its first year of business.
Celebrities who have dined at The Boiler include Allen Iverson, Offset, Queen Najia, Ja Rule, and others. Dillon says dedication and consistency have played a key role in the restaurant’s success.
“I am a thinker and innovator, so even without a culinary background, I enjoy finding voids in the business market and creating solutions; creating restaurant concepts from ideation to execution, coming up with new menu items, and creating amazing customer experiences. I’m also very hands-on. I spend about 10+ hours a day being in the restaurant, running errands, and handling needed logistics for the restaurant.”
The menu of The Boiler offers a wide range of seafood items, from snow crab legs and blue crabs to mussels and crawfish. The seafood is placed in a bag along with potatoes, corn, and the restaurant’s special sauce, and shaken.
But that’s not all. Customers interested in options outside of their famous seafood boil bags can enjoy seafood egg rolls and fried options such as shrimp, cracked crab, fried salmon, and more. The most popular item on the menu, however, is the Fried King Crab, which sells for $200.
“Our Seafood Egg Rolls are coming in at a close second, a must-try appetizer stuffed with a house seafood mix including shrimp, crab meat, crawfish, and lobster meat. Customers also love our specialty drinks and flight cocktails such as our Margarita Flight and Candy Martini Flight, which includes five drink variations per order.”
The Boiler Seafood currently has offers for franchises in 48 out of 50 states, so you may soon see one popping up near you. In addition, Dillon is currently in the construction phase of a three-floor Asian fusion restaurant in Midtown Atlanta and an experiential ice cream parlor in Buckhead.
“We’re definitely growing, and I’m excited to expand my portfolio as a restauranteur.”
For more information on The Boiler, visit www.theboileratlanta.com and follow the restaurant at @theboileratlanta.
Related: Mychel ‘Snoop’ Dillard Is Behind Some Of Your Favorite Black-Owned Atlanta Restaurants