I know of a Ryanair (it's a low cost airline here in Europe, kind of like Southwest - they fly 737s) who worked for 7 years in a supermarket saving every penny for flight training (his pay I guess was around $7-$8 per hour).
In my situation, I have to bust my ass working a huge amount of hours every week in a house removal company ("moving company" in US English?) to fund everything. Its tough going but slowly and surely I'm progressing.
Selling the restaurant sounds like a good idea to me too. Never give up
