Vietnam veteran Marty Randisi celebrated the grand opening of his restaurant "Bill Baker's" Wednesday in Williamsburg.
Randisi gives credit for getting his business off the ground to the city's Small Business Services and the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce.
"I'd rather open a business in New York City than anywhere else because you have support, you have agencies that work to help you," he says.
The city's acceleration program is free and can help speed up the process of opening a new business by nearly two and a half months.
"Restaurants can sometimes be a little bit of a challenge because of all its health codes, fire codes and building codes," says Robinson Hernandez, of Small Business Services. "We advise them to reach out to us so that they can talk to us and we can walk them through what those requirements are."
City officials say the acceleration program has helped more than 3,000 businesses since 2010.