Newark McDonald's Operators Earn 'Street Fighter' Award

Celest Quintana has a simple recipe for business success: “Wherever you have your footprint, give back to that community.”

She and her daughter Jessica, who together own 10 McDonald’s restaurants in Newark, Jersey City, East Orange and Irvington, recently won the McDonald’s New York Metro Street Fighter Award, given out to recognize franchisees who have gone above and beyond to serve their host communities.

In the case of the Quintanas, that has included teachers' nights at their locations, where funds are donated to the participating educators’ schools, holiday toy drives, “haircuts and Happy Meals” -- a charity drive in conjunction with Newark hair stylists-- and other initiatives.

“Serving the people in Newark, where I was raised and where I went to school, is a pleasure, because to me, that’s home,” said Celest Quintana, a graduate of East Side High School. “We are so thankful the wonderful people of Newark allow us to do business in their backyard. Ninety-nine point nine percent of the people in Newark are wonderful.”

For the Quintanas, McDonald’s is a family affair. Celest opened her first store in the early 1990s when her daughter, Jessica, was still in grade school. The younger Quintana soon gone into the business herself -- but didn’t catch any breaks for being the boss’s daughter.

“You’d think I had special treatment, but I didn’t. I worked my way up….I quit once, I was fired once. I had to go through the same training as my mother.”