Graves wrote the business plan and Silvey submitted it, for which Silvey received a C-minus grade. At the time, Graves worked at Guthrie's Chicken Fingers.[1] The business plan was rejected numerous times by potential investors, so Graves earned the needed money working as a boilermaker in a Louisiana refinery and fishing for sockeye salmon in Alaska. He and Silvey obtained a SBA loan, which they used to open their first restaurant, located in Baton Rouge at the intersection of Highland Road and State Street near the LSU campus.[2][3]