Before he was greeting bar patrons, Michael Gross was a successful mortgage broker. His wife Carol was an established architect. But when the housing market dried up last year, so did their careers.

“The money’s running out, but the skill sets are still there,” said Michael. “So, we’re trying to find ways to reinvent ourselves and continue to earn an income.”

Michael and a business partner recently took over the Cheyenne Grille, an Atlanta sports bar. He puts in 115 hour work weeks. But Michael says his love for cooking and the people skills he developed in the mortgage business are a good fit for his new career.

“My dad taught me something a long time ago: Business is business,” said Michael. “So, if you’re successful here, if you understand how those skills translate. you can be  successful somewhere else.”

After getting laid off from an Atlanta architectural firm, Michael’s wife Carol started her own company — Woodruff-Gross Architects. And she holds weekly coffee meetings with other architects and designers to critique resumes, brainstorm proposals and offer each other support.

“It doesn’t make any sense to get depressed because nothing’s going to come of that,” Carol said. “You’ve got to try to keep your spirits high.”

Carol is hosting a design competition to renovate her husband’s bar.

Michael still runs his mortgage business, which he hopes will pick back up as the economy recovers. However, he says he plans to keep his new day job at the bar.

“Times like this, you just have to pull up your boot straps and go to work,” he said. “You just work, work, work. Stay focused on finding opportunities because it’s multiple streams of income that make it in an economy like this.”

To watch a video interview with the couple, please visit FOX News photographer Tom Jachman’s blog.