Despite what most of the city of Chicago might want you to believe, Mr. Santiago did not come from old money. His mother raised him alone while working minimum wage, and he took odd gigs around his hometown of Aurora, Illinois, to help out. Mr. Santiago started washing dishes at a restaurant, and he eventually became an assistant cook, but he wanted to do more.
So, he started taking night business classes at the local community college and later became his own us. His first restaurant was small and had a simple menu, but it was brilliant and popular with people. Benny asked for his first bank loan to open a place in Chicago, and his success took off from there. His restaurants won awards; the best chefs from the country wanted to work for him, and it snowballed from there. He was the most respected restorator in the area.
But as time passed, Mr. Santiago couldn’t manage to run his restaurants anymore because he could barely leave his house due to illness. His doctors explained that it might be time to get his affairs in order, and that’s how he ran into a dilemma.
Mr. Santiago didn’t have family left; he never found the love of his life, despite receiving tons of female advances, and he had no children too. “Or should I leave my estate too?” he often wondered. One of his lawyers suggested leaving it to a mentee or charity, but he wanted to think things through before formalizing his will.
