Chef Jack Sinanaj, one of the three brothers who own a chain of restaurants in New York, came to America as a twenty-year-old in 1991 from Plav - in search of a better life, like many before and after him. His older brother Rustem Ras was already in America, and at the end of the 90s, the youngest Jafer Jeff Sinanaj joined them.
"I came illegally, and I had to pay 9.000 dollars... It was difficult to find a job without knowing the language. Nowadays, children know more English, and we didn't know it. When I found a job, I worked for 15, 20 dollars a day. And that was really difficult. You imagine America differently, that there will be more money to send to the family, to help the family in Montenegro," says Jack Sinanaj for the Voice of America.
After arriving in America, Sinanaj worked briefly as a construction worker in Connecticut, and then held various restaurant jobs in New York. In 2005, together with his brothers, he managed to collect enough money, thanks to investments in real estate, to open his first restaurant in Manhattan, and a year later he received American citizenship.
"The first two, three weeks were difficult, we had 20, 30 people each, and a large restaurant with a lot of workers that needed to be paid. However, we got good reviews in Timeout, then after eight weeks in the New York Times, and then it started to 300 people come every night... The most difficult thing is to survive and keep customers, to bring new ones".
In New York, the Sinanai brothers did not stop at just one restaurant. Over the following years, they opened 15, including an Italian one in partnership with famous actor Chaz Palminteri.
They had to close some because, as Jack says, the rent in Manhattan went from at least $200.000 to $700 a year. Now eight are working, among which is the popular chain of restaurants - Empire Steak House - with a branch in Tokyo.
The restaurants, as Jack says, are visited by actors, musicians, politicians - among them recently the rapper "50 Cent", then the Speaker of the House of Representatives Mike Johnson, his predecessor Nancy Pelosi, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton...
The Sinanaj brothers are part of the large Montenegrin diaspora in New York and its surroundings, and throughout America, which, as Acting Consul General of Montenegro Amer Cikotić told the Voice of America, must number tens of thousands.
"We are talking about people who came mostly in the 60s, 70s and later in the 90s, who in the beginning - I will quote a friend, a businessman from New York who said: When we came, we did the most difficult jobs in buildings and restaurants, and after 20 years, we became the owners of those buildings and restaurants... In Manhattan, they are among the four best steakhouses, two owned by people originally from Montenegro. The second generation are also lawyers, businessmen, and doctors," says Cikotić for Voice of America.
Many immigrants, not only from Montenegro but also from other countries from the former Yugoslavia, are employed by Sinanaji in their restaurants, where more than 230 people work.
"You are happy to help our people, and they are good workers," says Jack Sinanaj, who often helps his workers in the kitchen, where he prepares the restaurant's specialty - steak.
While planning to open new restaurants, Sinanaj enjoys life in New York, but he doesn't forget where he came from.
"Every summer I go with my children to Montenegro for almost two months, so that they can get to know our culture, our people... There is no more beautiful place, only jobs and money are lacking".
Sinanaj would like to do business in Montenegro, but believes that there should be much less bureaucratic obstacles for investors. In America, he attributes his success to persistence and hard work.
"We have to push harder, so that you don't feel sick getting up, you work... When I was working for someone else, and when they asked me if you were going to work tomorrow, I said yes. You will always use that money for something".
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