Paul Ryll has cooked up a good life.
He didn’t have a recipe, but he had the ingredients: a thirst for education, a tolerance for risk, a knack for knowing when to pivot and when to hang on, a gift for spotting good opportunities.
The result is like a stew – a Mediterranean stew. And it’s a success by any measure.
A certified residential appraiser, Ryll owns two appraisal businesses, co-owns a Tipsy Taco franchise in Clemson, and co-founded the Parsley & Mint Mediterranean Eatery, with one location near Furman University and one that just re-opened in downtown Greenville.
Those achievements came after six years of active duty in the Marine Corps, plus two years in the reserves, where he learned to ask, “why not” instead of “why”?
The name of his first business, Oscar Mike Appraisal Group, says it all. “Oscar Mike” is military shorthand for “on the move.”
“When you’ve been through the Marines and what I went through overseas, starting a business is not risky. It’s not a risk to me. If I start a business and lose it, my credit is shot. But I’m still alive. Worst-case scenario, I’m renting an apartment and bartending.”
Easygoing and friendly, Ryll laughs and acknowledges that his life could have taken a different turn.
After high school, he enrolled at the University of Georgia.
“I had way too much fun,” he admits. “Instead of taking exams, I was signing paperwork to join the Marine Corps because I knew that I wasn’t going to last in Athens.”
After the military, Ryll bounced around the country working for various corporations. Then he took a bartending job at Folly Beach.Your stories live here.Fuel your hometown passion and plug into the stories that define it.Create Account
“I was a beach bum for two years,” he says. “One day, I woke up and thought, ‘I have to get it together.’ I was 31 years old.”
He began studying business at Southern New Hampshire University while training to be an appraiser. He graduated Magna Cum Laude and opened an appraisal firm.
“It just started coming together and fitting,” Ryll explains. “I realized that I had a little bit more ambition than I thought.”
He decided to continue his education and was accepted at Johns Hopkins University – Carey Business School.
He graduated in 2016 with a Master of Science in real estate and infrastructure, then amped up his appraisal business by bringing on trainees and an analyst.
“I came back with a lot more knowledge that I was lucky to have,” he says.
With the housing market soaring, mortgage lenders needed more appraisals. And though COVID-19 made things complicated, demand for appraisals was still increasing.
“It continues today. It hasn’t slowed down.”
So, “desktop” appraisals have become common. “It’s all about the data. If I could determine the quality and condition of a house and if it had sold in, for instance, the past two years, and I have multiple pictures and an accurate square footage, then I can do a credible desktop report.”
That’s when Ryll launched Oscar Mike Mobile Appraisals, a secure, online appraisal platform.
“We built the software so that we can send it to the end-user (a homeowner or real estate agent), and they can actually walk through the inspection and get me the data I need,” Ryll says.
Ryll partnered with a company in Finland that has an application to help the homeowner or real estate agent determine the square footage.
How does that innovation lead to yet another career twist — this time in the restaurant industry?
According to Ryll, the appraisal business had become successful enough that he was working fewer hours. Meanwhile, his fiancée was busy working as a respiratory therapist at Bon Secours St. Francis and studying toward a degree at Furman University.
“I’ve always been in the restaurant industry. Even when I was getting the appraisal business up and running, I was bartending at the Peace Center,” he says.
When he and Rion Mimms (who works at the appraisal firm and was once the food and beverage director at the Peace Center) discovered a franchise opportunity for a Tipsy Taco in Clemson, they snapped it up.
“We bought in. We built our store. From the get-go, we were slammed,” he says. “And then COVID hit, and we were shut down. Rion and I were sitting in our Tipsy Taco at noon March 15, 2020, in an empty restaurant.”
The two started brainstorming ways to make restaurants safer, yet profitable and faster through the use of technology. Plus, Ryll started another master’s degree at the Culinary Institute of America.
When the class studied the Mediterranean diet …. “Seeing the health aspects and the flavors – the light bulb went off.”
Ryll and Mimms took that cuisine, plus ideas they had squirreled away, and created the fast-casual restaurant, Parsley & Mint. It’s a concept similar to Chipotle; guests choose ingredients as they move down the line.
The partners sub-leased a spot at 600 South Main St. and opened last April. A second location, at 5052 Old Buncombe Road, opened in September.
But by December, Ryll determined that the concept, which worked well near Furman, wasn’t appropriate downtown.
“We needed to be a full-service restaurant downtown, instead of the fast-casual and delivery. We needed a bar. We needed to take the Mediterranean flavors and elevate them.”
Ryll closed the Main Street location in December. While he acknowledges that he could have shut the doors permanently, he started work on a new restaurant instead.
“I felt like I had an obligation. And I did have an obligation. I didn’t want to walk away. I have confidence in the new model. It’s exciting, and it’s fun. I’m the executive chef. I’m creating the menu,” he says.
“The appraisal business is running fine. I have an app that could change the appraisal industry, ready to go. I have two restaurants that are doing really well, and another restaurant that’s about to open.”
It’s about persistence, he says. “I moved forward with a gut feeling and a heart feeling. If I didn’t go forward, I wouldn’t be as excited as I am now. I’m fortunate.”
