Female hospitality leaders on opening businesses during the pandemic

Opening a business as a woman comes with unique challenges, even during so-called precedented times. The past two years have been not that, to say the least. The New York City hospitality industry has been particularly shaken. 

In spite of the tumult, female business owners have been working to bring jobs back to the sector, illuminate would-be vacant spaces and create destinations that make people feel like they’re getting back to normal. We asked a few local restaurant and bar professionals about what it took to open a business as a woman during the pandemic, thus maintaining NYC’s status as one of the greatest eating and drinking destinations in the world. 

Some quotes have been edited for brevity and clarity.

August DeWindt, owner, Kinky’s Dessert Bar

DeWindt’s “sweet and sexy” shop opened this past Valentine’s Day. 

“Kinky’s is a sex positive space where all genders, races and sexualities are welcome. I want Kinky’s to be viewed as not only a dessert bar, but a place where people can feel free to be themselves without judgment.

The pandemic actually helped me secure my store location. I was looking for a place to rent prior to the pandemic, but landlords were not taking me and my concept seriously. However, during the pandemic a lot of places have been sitting on the market and landlords were more willing to give me a chance. I think the timing of when we opened was great as well because all the mandates are slowly being lifted and people have been itching to get outside and enjoy the city once more.

Opening a business as a woman is unique because this was something that wasn’t always possible. As a Black woman, I feel honored to be in the position that I’m in. My grandmother was a sharecropper in Memphis, TN, born in 1926 and is still alive today. For her to see me open up my own businesses means a lot. As I am sure I’m an inspiration to many other women.”

Ria Graham, owner, Kokomo

Graham’s “Caribbean experience” opened in July of 2020. It was one of Time Out New York’s best restaurants of that year and won a Time Out Best of the City award last fall.

“We are women owned and Black owned. We are extremely passionate about Caribbean food and Caribbean culture. We’ve used our restaurant as an opportunity to showcase the diversity of Caribbean culture. 

It was a bold move that was born out of necessity due us being fully committed prior to COVID. It took extraordinary courage from our team and a willingness to adapt to an ever changing environment.

Opening a business as a woman requires a different level of strength. You feel more pressure to get it right the first time–but as they say, with extreme pressure, diamonds are made.”

Sherry Grimes, owner, Pig & Butter

Grimes opened this spot with the assertion that “breakfast makes everything better” one year ago this March. 

“It’s a creative and unique non-traditional take on brunch. Yes, the chicken is orange and it is delicious. It’s a place where people come to have delicious comfort food and Bloody Marys.

“Patience and creativity,” were key to opening, Grimes says.

“Being in the restaurant industry requires a certain level of flexibility and being able to naturally move with the ebb and flow that comes with owning a restaurant. When I opened, I knew what I was signing up for and was prepared to roll with the punches. Having a small space has had its challenges but we’ve been able to make it work. I knew I had a great product and came ready to do what I had to do to be successful.

Being a woman, particularly a Black woman, is challenging in any industry, but especially the food industry, which is not for the faint of heart. Women sacrifice when they open a business and do it successfully while caring for their families and squeezing out time for themselves, and to me, that’s powerful.”

Michelle Morgan, owner, TLK

Morgan’s TLK, for Tiger Lily Kitchen, began as a “ghost kitchen” in December of 2020. It opened its brick-and-mortar location two years later.  

“We are a Pan-Asian, gluten free, vegetable forward restaurant offering unique cocktails and experience,” that involved “a stroke of luck” to get going, Morgan says. 

“The location where I launched the original Tiger Lily Kitchen delivery concept from was a restaurant that was closed because of the pandemic, so I was able to work in their space and kitchen. Also there weren't many openings when we launched at the end of 2020 so it stood out from the crowd. I found it actually harder to open the brick and mortar location during the Delta/Omicron variants. Shortages of resources, increase in gas prices, folks afraid to come out and dine. My opening weekend unfortunately was not what I imagined because of the virus surge.

The unique thing about opening a business as a woman is the support you receive from other females wanting you to succeed. Female staff are excited to work with me along with males too.”

Edie Ugot, co-owner and culinary director, Sidney’s Five

Ugot opened this restaurant and bar with a dedicated martini menu last May. It was one of our best new restaurants of 2021 and also won a Time Out Best of the City award last fall.

She says that Sidney’s emerged, in part, out of necessity in a rapidly changing landscape where people were still committed to the work. The team also knew that opening a restaurant would be difficult even during the best of times, and believed that they had the concept and experience to build a business. In doing so, they dealt with personal pay cuts and constantly shifting job descriptions, in addition to the ever-evolving COVID guidance and regulations that informed a driving desire to keep guests as safe as possible.

“Our core team–David Lowenstein, Kai Woo, Walker Chambliss and myself–we did a lot of the cleaning, painting, and plumbing ourselves with a great deal of help from friends and family.

One of the reasons I decided to be a part of this project was because I wanted to help shape what the restaurant industry would become after the pandemic—to take everything I knew and learned, the good along with the not-so-great things that I had experienced and grown from, and build something else from that–a new foundation. And it took a lot of listening to our gut instincts and hope that the world, that New York City, would come back again. 

[What’s unique about opening a business as a woman] is such a tough question to answer sometimes, because there are so many layers. I suppose being a woman in any industry pre-pandemic had its own set of difficulties as well, no? Add being a woman who also happens to be a POC—it sometimes can feel like so many odds are stacked against you—let alone having to open a business during a pandemic, with the majority of your partners being male.

Thankfully, I do have partners who value my contributions regardless of gender—otherwise I sincerely doubt I’d have gone into business with them. But the amount of times women have been overlooked when they stand alongside their male counterparts (and I speak from so much experience, as many women unfortunately do), it’s just too many times to name. I have stood in many kitchens that I have run and operated, including at Sidney’s alongside my male business partners, and I cannot tell you how many times someone has come in and assumed any one of them is the chef. It’s sometimes difficult to not always think ‘If I was a man or looked differently or had a deeper voice or whatever, would people question my authority as much?’ Unfortunately I don’t always love the answer to that question, so the advice I give to myself is to just own it. Whatever you do–do your research, perform it with conviction, and proceed knowing that your plan of action is the right plan of action. Own your victories and accomplishments. And when you fuck up and make mistakes, own that humbleness as well, learn from them, and move on.

There have been so many instances where people have asked what my role is at Sidney’s, and [there’s] genuine surprise that emanates when I respond with ‘chef/co-owner.’ Most people mean the best of intentions of course, but that’s part of what I’d like to change; where it’s more common for women and women of color to hold these titles, so much so that it’s no longer shocking when they do.”

Naina Yamasaki and Sara Yamasaki, co-owners of Santo Parque and Santo Brúklin

The Yamaski cousins opened Santo Brúklin in the early days of the pandemic and followed it with Santo Parque last October. 

“Santo Parque arrived in Williamsburg with the same intentions the older sister Santo Brúklin arrived in Carroll Gardens: Looking to create fun cocktails, to find some chemistry between Brooklyn comfort cuisine and Brazilian flavors, and of course, to make new friends! The Santo fam loves dining out and genuinely loves hosting. To us, this is not a business transaction. We are just some real people, cooking some feel-good food, offering our guests the hospitality we offer our friends in our homes, keeping the real world troubles outside the door.

To open Santo Brúklin during the beginning of the pandemic took creativity to reinvent the business each week, and the support of our friends and the freaking amazing New Yorker community. EVERYBODY stepped up to help each other. Restaurant-goers ordering take-out, vendors and distributors going way beyond their ways to supply restaurants, online communication platforms spreading the word on hardworking businesses, and private companies coming up with supportive programs to keep the dining industry [going].

Opening Santo Parque in 2021 [during that wave] of the pandemic, it was a romantic gamble, a scream of hope that things would go back to normal soon. This time we had winter and a mostly indoor space, so we really had to count with the community responsibility of getting vaccinated and caring about their safety and others' in order to get the authorities to gradually lift COVID restrictions. And it was a good bet. Once again, New Yorkers proved themselves caring, respectful and supportive. How not to love to cater for a bunch like that?

Like most others, the restaurant industry is still mostly led and run by males. This has been changing. Every day we hear and read about some incredible kitchens and thriving bars and restaurants led by strong and creative women. It is inspiring. But so much goes unnoticed when opening and running a business as a woman. [We] believe in a work environment based on understanding, kindness, respect and contribution. That goes for how we treat each other in house, as well as our partners, customers, suppliers and competitors. These are major feminine qualities in the business leading style. Surely at times some will try to take advantage of them, perceiving them as naiveté or weakness. But haters will be haters. In reality, we have been welcoming and building a solid circle of business and people who are becoming true friends and expanding what we call family.”

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