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Proud to Be Open: LGBTQ+ Owned Restaurants on Inclusion & Hospitality

June marks global Pride Month, and we’re celebrating with a new list of the top LGBTQ+ owned and operated restaurants in America. From chefs bringing activism to the table to restaurateurs holding special Pride celebrations, we’re proud to partner with a stellar group of restaurants dedicated to both kitchen and cause.

In recognition of Pride Month and of these inspiring businesses, we asked a few featured restaurateurs to share their approach to inclusion and hospitality. From charity fundraisers to staff management, here are key ways restaurants can create a welcoming table for all.

Put yourself in their shoes.

“Pride month is a true reminder of what we should be celebrating on a daily basis,” says Kristen Kish, chef of Arlo Grey in Austin. “It’s really a celebration of anyone and everyone, and treating them with kindness and respect. Pride is a time of year when we can embrace our differences.”

Brian Riggenbach and Mikey Corona, husbands and partners at The Mockingbird in Nashville, know what inhospitable treatment feels like. “Those negative experiences have taught us to always put yourself in other people’s shoes in every situation, and it makes our duty of being hospitable that much easier.” Be genuine in your interactions with both staff and guests, and welcome them just as they are.

Speak up.

“The way we are viewed as a whole and treated individually has changed for the better since we both came out 20 years ago,” say Brian and Mikey. They attribute those changes to businesses, parents, friends, and family, who have all spoken up for the acceptance and tolerance of the LGBTQ+ community. Let people know they are welcome, and the message will spread far and wide. [Read more…]

Father’s Day Spotlight: Chefs Jason Neroni and David Nayfeld on Being a Dad in the Industry

This weekend marks Father’s Day, a perfect time to recognize the dads of the restaurant world. While it isn’t always easy being a parent in this industry, we’re inspired to hear stories of those working to balance a creative professional career and family life. This year, we talked to two California chefs – Jason Neroni of The Rose in Venice and David Nayfeld of San Francisco’s Che Fico – all about being a dad, eating with their kids, and celebrating Father’s Day. Read on, and happy Father’s Day!

Father's Day Spotlight: Chefs Jason Neroni and David Nayfeld on Being a Dad in the Industry

Jason Neroni, The Rose

Jason fell in love with kitchen life as a 16-year-old at Disneyland’s Club 33. He worked on the line at Chez Panisse before cooking at other iconic restaurants such as Spago (Beverly Hills), Le Cirque, and Blue Hill, and was also named the culinary ambassador in Spain. He opened his first restaurant, 10 Downing Food & Wine, in New York, then moved back to California after the birth of his son, launching Superba Snack Bar. Jason is now a father of two kids, ages six and 10.

The birth of your son brought you back to California after cooking in kitchens all over the country (and world). How did becoming a parent change your career trajectory?

Nothing ever changed the trajectory for me. I was always focused to open my own restaurant with great people involved. This business is so tough. The thing that may have changed for me is removing the selfishness of being a chef and making time to be with your loved ones and children.

What’s your approach to balancing career and family life in the industry? Any challenges or rewards?

Owning a restaurant is a 24/7 job, period. If you own a restaurant, that is your family as well.

My kids are definitely a fixture in the restaurant daily, and I love that. It also helps to see them more. The Rose is a beast of a restaurant. I have learned to empower great, passionate, professional people in key positions to allow me to focus on the restaurant as a whole and take more time to be with my family.

What tips do you have for other dads (or future dads!) in the industry?

They grow up fast. My kids are 10 and six now and, I see them needing me more than ever. And vice versa, because they will eventually grow up. Take every minute you can. [Read more…]

Will Guidara & Anthony Rudolf on Hospitality, Inspiration, and the 2019 Welcome Conference

Will Guidara and Anthony Rudolf on Hospitality, Inspiration, Tech, and the 2019 Welcome Conference

Chefs have food festivals, sommeliers have wine panels – but how do the experts in the dining room share insights and create community within their profession? That’s the hole Anthony Rudolf, founder of creative agency Co.Create NYC, and Will Guidara, co-owner of Eleven Madison Park, sought to fill when they created the Welcome Conference, a one-day forum for ideas and exchange centered on hospitality. Since its start in 2013, the event has drawn expert voices not just in food and beverage but across industries to explore how care and compassion can build business and change lives. The booming audience and influence of the Welcome Conference has made the event one of the most influential and powerful in the space.

As proud sponsors of this year’s Welcome Conference, we spoke to Will and Anthony all about this year’s event – stories and storytellers, tactical tips, social good, and the possibilities of tech. Keep reading to learn why hospitality is like parenting, how AI can make us more human, and why when it comes to restaurants and conference, one size fits one.

2019 marks the sixth anniversary of the first Welcome Conference. How has the event evolved since its birth?

Anthony: It’s evolved quite a bit, from number of attendees to format to the demographics of attendees and speakers. The very first year was in its purest form hospitality and hospitality folks, probably 99.9 percent of the people in the audience. We’ve evolved in size; we went from 200 to now nearly 1,000.

The speaker range has also varied. We started branching out to bring outside perspectives in that could both enrich the community and broaden the audience. This year we have a clinical psychologist closely related to food; in the consumer package world, we have Hamdi Ulukaya of Chobani. We’ll have a performance from an experience creator in Spiegelworld in Vegas. All of these things seem a bit outside hospitality, but they’ll thread the needle that hospitality is much larger than the restaurant world. A restaurant is really part of the food and beverage industry.

Hospitality really isn’t an industry so much as a way of life or thought process, a way we engage and interact with each other. Hospitality is as simple as letting someone who has their turn signal on merge in front of you instead of speeding up to the car in front of you.

[Read more…]

This Week in Restaurant News: Peak Fast-Casual, Delivery Apps, the Chef Who Lost His Name

Every week we’re rounding up some of our favorite articles with trends and tidbits from the world of restaurants. Tell us: what made your reading list this week?

The Chef Who Lost His Name – The Bitter Southerner

Does the Hospitality and Service Industries Need More People with Disabilities? – Forbes

Are There Too Many Fast-Casual Restaurants? – QSR

Chef Roy Choi Wants to Change America Again: This Time Through TV – Saveur

Five Mistakes Restaurant Owners Make that Put Data at Risk – Modern Restaurant Management

Diners Love Using Food Delivery Apps. Restaurants Say That’s Not Always a Good Thing – DCist

For minority chefs, restaurant partnerships bring opportunity, tension – San Francisco Chronicle

Synthetic Biology Is Changing What We Eat. Here’s What You Need to Know – Civil Eats

Letters From Washington: Your Employees Could Be Undocumented – The New York Times

Cheers! Celebrating the Industry at the 2019 James Beard Awards

James Beard Award weekend isn’t just about the awards. It’s a rare opportunity to gather leaders from across the country to meet face to face, celebrate each other’s successes, and push the entire industry forward. Medals and accolades rightly recognize visionary achievement – but what happens offstage is every bit as inspiring.

Before celebrating at the main ceremony, the OpenTable team toasted James Beard Award nominees and friends at the annual Rosé Bowl, co-hosted with Michael Murphy of If Only. The Rosé Bowl is one of our favorite events of the year because it gives us a chance to return hospitality to the chefs and restaurateurs who share it every service with their guests. (Also: rosé!) The party honored Patrick O’Connell, Chef at The Inn at Little Washington, who was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award. We were thrilled to host at Cabra, the gorgeous new restaurant from Chef Stephanie Izard and Kevin Boehm and Rob Katz of Boka Restaurant Group – incidentally, Kevin and Rob won the Beard Award for Outstanding Restaurateur the following night.

[Read more…]

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