Nineteen-year-old Tyla-Simone Crayton founded the first Sienna Wings restaurant in Missouri City, Texas, at Harvest Market. In 2017, she and her mother began selling wings from their home every Friday. Crayton told the Houston Chronicle that they set up seats in their dining room as a waiting area. The kid recalls going to school with chicken-scented clothes and hair because she was not only the cook but also the manager, cashier, and dishwasher.
Today, she has opened a restaurant fueled by the amazing response from people in her local area. “It’s a great experience when people taste our wings for the first time and fall in love with them; I want to share that with as many people as possible,” said Crayton, according to Black Business. “I also want to encourage other young people to follow their dreams.
She continued, “Harvest Market was one of the first stores to carry Sienna Sauce, and the neighborhood has supported us from the beginning. So, it’s a full circle moment for me and it’s important that we remember our roots and start with the first location right here in our community.”
Cryayton founded Sienna condiment, a condiment company, at the age of 14 before establishing Sienna Wings. She later appeared on Shark Tank in 2021, pitching her Sienna Sauce brand to a group of investors on the show in order to demonstrate her business idea for possible investment.
Kendra Scott, a Shark Tank investor who was impressed by her idea, quickly made an offer following her presentation, saying she would give Crayton $100,000 in exchange for a 20% ownership in her company. Crayton accepted the offer, and her appearance on the show also helped her sell $300,000 worth of merchandise in 24 hours, according to InsideEdition. Crayton, now 19, stated in February of this year that she had yet to receive the $100,000 from Scott.
“We didn’t receive the $100,000 because we’re still in due diligence. We’d love to have her. We’d still be interested but it just hasn’t come into fruition,” she told Inside Edition. Representatives of Scott also said at the time that they are doing due diligence on the deal made on Shark Tank, and added that they are yet to come to an agreement as it relates to the financial investment.