 For 3 years, he worked at Wendy’s hamburger chain as a manager learning professional restaurant operations which he felt was necessary to know before starting his own business.At age 26, in 1981, he opened J.P. Licks in Jamaica Plain with business partner Michael Herbert.They each invested $25,000 to start the store, but Herbert only remained part of the company for a couple years before Petryk bought him out for $100,000.