LET’S TALK IS A COLLABORATION OF WOMEN RESTAURATEURS TO BUILD COMBINED ECONOMIC POWER. IT IS NOT AN ORGANIZATION, IT IS NOT AN ENTITY, IT IS AN ACTION-LED MOVEMENT BY WOMEN BUSINESS OWNERS AS PEERS.
City Cohosts
Denise Taylor
Melissa Guzman
Josie Smith
Lindsey & Lisa Rusch
Anne Quatrano
Heather Bublick
Kavita Kumar
Josalyn Holmes
ShaVonne McCants
Michelle Allen
Lisa Gutierrez
Liz Joy
Nicki Laborie
Kate Taylor Martin
Thy Mitchell
Deborah Van Trece
Rosa Thurnher
Jen Ziskin
Nancy Cushman
Nancy Matheson-Burns
Julia Shell
Rohini Dey
Carla Chalkley
Joby Bowman
Terri Graber
Paula Haines
Rohani Foulkes
Alli Jarrett
Sharon Haynes
Brie Golliher
Ouita Michel
Anomalous Campbell
Dana Spandet
Marilupe Moreno
Desta Maree Klein
Barbara Sibley
Maricel Presilla
May Fridel
Naama Tamir
Brooke Maynard-Perez
Kat Cirar
MacKenzie DeVito
Kate Vrijmoet
Jacqueline Nicosia
Angela Lawrence
National Collaborations
Chicago Womxn Hangout. By Let’s Talk Womxn. With Partners United Airlines, Sysco, BCG, McKinsey, Toast, BMO. And WBEZ/Chicago Sun-Times.
Chicago Womxn Hangout. By Let’s Talk Womxn. With Partners United Airlines, Sysco, BCG, McKinsey, Toast, BMO. And WBEZ/Chicago Sun-Times.
Format: 5-8pm. Thursdays. Soapboxes. Food. Drink. Conversation. At Vermilion.
Dates & Champions: 11/16 United Airlines, 11/30 Sysco, 12/7 BCG, 12/14 McKinsey & Co., 12/21 Toast, 12/28 BMO
Goal: Come together across silos. Create a community for Chicago professional women to meet across all walks and levels. Showcase Chicago’s leading Let’s Talk Womxn restaurateurs and rich cuisine. Come for the conversation, hear four powerful soapboxes by marquee Chicago personas, throw your hat in the ring for a soapbox, see “Behind the Business” chats with two featured Let’s Talk Womxn restaurateurs with LTW founder Dey, try complimentary LTW tastings, enjoy diva music & women-power cocktails. Informal. Easy. Weekly. Cash bar & food. Bring colleagues and friends. No tickets, no rsvp, no fuss. Just show up.
Soapboxes: Four 3-minute open mics on: Personal Crossroads. Power. Happiness. Our Democracy.
See more at: https://www.instagram.com/letstalkwomxnchi/
Details about featured guest below.
Chicago Womxn Hangout Featured List
Chicago Womxn Hangout Featured List
Rohini Dey, Vermilion, Indian-Chinese, LTW Founder/Host
11/16 Laurence Noguier – French
11/16 Taylor Mason – Tacos
11/30 Heather Bublick – Soul & Smoke BBQ
11/30 Ashley Ortiz – Antique Taco
12/7 Danielle Kuhn – Scratch Board F2T
12/7 Deann Bayless – Frontera Grill Mexican
12/14 Melanie Casati – Casati’s Italian
12/14 Tigist Reda – Demera Ethiopian
12/21 Lori Seay – Soul Veg City Vegan
12/21 Margarita Challenger – Guanajuato Mexican
12/28 Mary Aregoni – Saigon Sisters Vietnamese
12/28 Julia Shell – Dandy Crown Bar
LTW Nasdaq Bell Ringing, Social Innovation Award, CNBC & NY1
City Collaborations
Check back soon for upcoming events!
Recent Collaborations
Social for LTW Women Owners Boston. October 17.
Let’s Talk Womxn Columbus. September 18.
Let’s Talk Womxn Toronto. August 22.
Let’s Talk & Celebrate. Greater NY. March 6th. Gold. Glamour. Gourmet.
Tickets
Let’s Talk & Celebrate. Minneapolis-St Paul. March 8th. Gold. Glamour. Gourmet.
Tickets
Let’s Talk & Celebrate. Atlanta. March 3rd. Gold. Glamour. Gourmet.
Tickets
Let’s Talk & Celebrate. Seattle. March 2nd. Gold. Glamour. Gourmet.
Tickets
Let’s Talk & Celebrate. Columbus. March 6th. Gold. Glamour. Gourmet.
Tickets
Let’s Talk & Celebrate. Milwaukee. March 8th. Gold. Glamour. Gourmet.
Tickets
Let’s Talk & Celebrate. Kentucky. March 2nd. Gold. Glamour. Gourmet.
Let’s Talk & Celebrate. Houston. March 5th. Gold. Glamour. Gourmet.
Tickets
Let’s Talk & Celebrate. Cincinnati. March 5th. Gold. Glamour. Gourmet.
Join us for a foodie celebration by 16 members of Let’s Talk Womxn of Cincinnati. The event will be held at 21C Museum Hotel in Downtown Cincinnati from 5-8 pm and will include 16 food and beverage tasting stations (vegetarian options available at all stations), alcoholic tastings, henna tattoos, DJ Monet and an in person…
Gold. Glamour. Gourmet. Celebrate Women’s History Month with AZ Women in Food
Tasting stations, wine, cocktails, DJ, Burlesque entertainment, and an all around good time with our family of women entrepreneurs in Food and Drink. March 2nd 5-9pm The Farish House 816 N 3rd St Phoenix, AZ 85004 Tickets
Let’s Talk & Celebrate. Boston. March 1st. Gold. Glamour. Gourmet.
Join Let’s Talk Womxn Boston on March 1st for a night of Gold, Glamour & Gourmet to celebrate the women in food & beverage of Boston. This LTW Gala is a collaboration of over 15 Women-Owned Boston Restaurants + Distilleries + Bakeries + Breweries and promises to be a night filled with delicious food and…
Let’s Talk & Celebrate. Chicago. March 2nd. Gold. Glamour. Gourmet.
Come drenched or accented in gold and glamour. Chicago gourmet bash with a national LTW footprint. 30+ tasting stations & cocktails all evening. Feast, Drink, Gold Drag Show, DJ, Dancing, Meet YOUR Restaurateurs. All men and women are welcome. Revel in your city’s gourmet power. National celebrations to kick off Women’s History Month. By 700+…
Let’s Talk & Celebrate. March 1st-8th. Gold. Glamour. Gourmet.
Look out for details by city. Come drenched in gold and glamour. To our gourmet parties with a national footprint. Tasting stations & cocktails by 10-30+ restaurants in each city. Hosted by women owned businesses. For the entire city, all men and women are welcome. Revel in your city’s gourmet power. Feast, Drink, DJ, Dancing,…
Making Our Industry Better
A no holds barred candid lens into our industry with panelists Andrew Zimmern, Kimberly Brock Brown, Rohini Dey, moderated by Adrienne Trimble. Gourmet Dinner by Let’s Talk Womxn Chicago Diana Davila, Julia Shell, Maya-Camille Broussard, Sarah Stegner and Rohini Dey. Hosted by Let’s Talk Womxn. With American Culinary Foundation. Presented by Sysco. Tickets
Let’s Talk & Celebrate Soirée – Miami
The MIAMI chapter of Let’s Talk Womxn is coming together to host the Let’s Talk & Celebrate Soirée at the new 545 Wyn Rooftop on Wednesday, March 30. Over 25 women participants will collaborate on unique menu items for one special evening. Guests will sample it all while enjoying live music by Yoli Mayor and…
Some News
Our Credo
- The goal of Let's Talk Womxn is to build the camaraderie, counsel, visibility, bargaining and economic power of its women entrepreneurs. Together.
- Let’s Talk Womxn launched in the thick of the pandemic in 2020 for women restaurateurs to learn from & support each other. It has explosively evolved to much more. It is a magical innovative B-cube model of “competitors as collaborators.” Started for women restaurateurs, it has grown to include all women entrepreneurs and makers of food and drink.
- Started with 15 restaurateurs in Chicago in 2020, LTW has grown to 850+ women entrepreneurs in 15 cities in the US and Canada, with three additional city offshoots. Many more US and international cities are in the LTW waitlist and pipeline.
- LTW launched 3 additional cities in 2020 who morphed to offshoots: Let's Talk Womxn Philadelphia, Let's Talk Womxn DC and Let's Talk Womxn LA. These morphed into Philly Sisterly Love, DC Women in Food & LA RE:Her (see inception GMA, NewsNation, LA Times).
- This action movement is entirely voluntary. And kept lean deliberately with no dues, overheads, bureaucracy, fancy office, CEO. The frills and financial drain of many conventional entities in our industry. All LTW support and revenue flows to its women entrepreneurs to boost their core businesses.
- The crux is monthly sessions by city with "Deep Dives" into business issues to learn from each other, share counsel and referrals. "Pulse" is to know and help each other. Complete candor & confidentiality underlie these business sessions.
- Each Let's Talk city is cohosted, nourished and led by leading city women restaurateurs. Founder Dey cross-pollinates learnings across all LTW cities & nationally, founds new cities, runs the sessions, seeds initiatives and builds sponsors & external national forums for LTW.
- Additional LTW collaborative initiatives - apart from ongoing, all-year learning and counsel - focus on amplifying visibility, boosting aspirations, cross-promoting each other, bolstering revenue, and unstinting referrals and access. See details here LTW National Press Release 2023. Much more is afoot on both the city & national levels.
- Let’s Talk Womxn participate actively in keynotes, talks, panels & forums to share their collaborative positive empowering B-cube model for parity. This model extends across sectors, applies within corporations for "intrepreneurs," and across countries.
- For entities, corporations and cities who champion women entrepreneurs, backing Let's Talk Womxn is a natural choice. All LTW members are owners, employers and tastemakers with a mass following at the intersection of dining, consumer and retail. We are sponsored directly or via our 501c3 fiscal sponsor. LTW works actively with its city CVBs, SRAs, COCs, corporations and other partners.
- The X factor in Womxn is an algebraic expression of explicit openness to women owners of all sizes, stripes, color, creed, format, scale, race, orientation, identities, startups or celebrities. All are peers.
- Within six months of inception, LTW was included in NRN Power List Top 50 for inclusive impactful leadership alongside industry giants. A multitude of awards, accolades and media has followed organically along the way.
- Women entrepreneurs in culinary are tired of the deluge of manuals, guidelines, conferences & webinars. Positive intentions that cause glacial change.
- Women owners are tired of being on the fringe of involvement, whether on boards, policy, the media spotlight, or financing. This is dictated by economic power, PR heft, the fawning-over-the-beloved-few "TV celebrity" herd mentality. Let's Talk aims to redress this.
- Let’s Talk Womxn deliberately has no mission statement, no statement of values and no five-year plan. The universe abounds with these well-meaning, murky, unaccountable, lofty articulations.
- Let’s Talk Womxn is founded and led by Rohini Dey, Ph.D. Vermilion restaurateur in Chicago. Formerly McKinsey & Co., former World Bank, and former trustee/founder/chair of the James Beard Foundation Women's Leadership Program for a decade (2011-2021).
Talk to us on Instagram
Donate
Donate to Let's Talk Womxn to directly support women restaurateurs and entrepreneurs.
Stay in Touch
Subscribe and get the latest news from Let's Talk Womxn.
JOIN US. PARTNER WITH US. SHARE US.
Reach out to Let's Talk Womxn. If you are a woman business owner in food and drink in a city we're in and would like to join us. Our forum is open to all and we'd love to have you.
To corporation, associations, and media, we're open to all help.
- share our collaborative Let's Talk Womxn model, a force beyond DE&I initiatives
- leverage our expertise on all things restaurants, food, drink and entrepreneurship as 550+ frontline owner operators
- tap our pulse as consumers and women with a combined vast following
- partner with us to unconventionally and directly foster change and help women scale