Empire Steak House owner says most migrants here to seize American Dream — but they still need to follow the rules
The owner of one of Manhattan’s most popular steakhouses has some advice for migrants chasing the American Dream just like he did – work hard but “follow the rules.”
Jack Sinanaj, co-owner of Midtown’s Empire Steak House, knows a little something about making it in the Big Apple after coming into the country as an illegal immigrant himself.
“I came through with an American passport which was not even my picture,” Sinanaj, 53, told The Post on Wednesday. “I paid $9,000 to come here, and I didn’t have the money. I had to make the money here and give it back.”
Sinanaj fled his home in Montenegro, a small Balkans nation in what was then Yugoslavia, in March 1991 for what he said are many of the same reasons that today’s migrants leave their homes in Central or South America.
Yugoslavia was descending into the civil war that would eventually tear it apart. But perhaps more importantly, the country’s communist regime had stripped away the means for people to make something of themselves, he said.
“Everything was owned by the government,” he said. “You couldn’t get a job, there were no opportunities. If you were a busboy there, you were forever a busboy. You couldn’t grow.”
Today, Sinanaj and his brothers Russ and Jeff own seven different spots, including three Empire Steak Houses in Manhattan and one in Tokyo. And he has some thoughts about the current wave of immigration— which he says will benefit the US in the long run.
“These immigrants who come today, a lot of them they can be something [such as a doctor or lawyer] tomorrow,” he said. “Which is going to be good for this country.
“All these people say, ‘Look at what these immigrants are getting that they don’t appreciate,’” he continued. “I tell them that when I came here, my hospital was CVS. I was afraid to go to the hospital … because I didn’t have papers. I thought they were going to send me back.”
Most people coming to the US are “looking for a better life,” the restaurateur said.
“How many bad people are going to take 2-year-old kids and travel so long through those mountains?” he asked, referencing the long, dangerous journey to the US border that many migrants endure.
Still, recent arrivals searching New York’s city streets for a bright American future have to do the right thing themselves, he advised.
“Everybody has a right to come,” Sinanaj said. “But you have to follow the rules. You have to respect police. Do the right thing. Migrants have become like spoiled kids … if it’s a line, stay in the line! If you don’t stay in the line, we’re going to send you back!
“You can’t just say, ‘I don’t like this law,’” he continued. “You have to follow the rules.”
The business owner, who now lives in Westchester County, said he got ahead by doing just that.
He arrived in New York at age 20 after leaving his family’s small farm in Montenegro, he said. He lived in a tiny apartment with 10 family members in the Morris Park section of the Bronx, and followed his brother, Russ, into the restaurant industry.
He started as a busboy, then worked his way up to bartender. He opened a pizzeria in 1993, then sold it two years later and got a job at the Peter Luger Steak House.
In 2005, he opened Ben and Jack’s Steakhouse on 44th Street, and he and his brothers were off and running.
Now, they employ about 230 people across their seven restaurants, he said. And he’s looking to open another somewhere in Midtown.
Plus, he got his citizenship in 2006 — an arduous journey that he said probably cost him about $20,000.
He’s no different than any other New Yorker — he shares concerns about subway crime and the homeless who sleep on the streets, he noted.
But he pushed back on criticisms of the Big Apple levelled by people like Alan Rosen, the owner of Junior’s Restaurant, who recently went off about New York’s crime rate and its handling of the migrant crisis.
“We can bash on things, but New York City is the greatest city in the world,” Sinanaj said.
“We have to believe, we have to push ourselves,” he continued. “We cannot give up this city.”
