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.
National Collaborations
Global Gourmet Dinner
Global Gourmet Dinner
Harvard Business School Women’s Association &
Let’s Talk Womxn
Oct 2, 6-8PM. At Vermilion. Chicago.
We invite all Chicago food aficionados to an epic multi-concept gourmet feast with wine & cocktail pairing
Hear “behind the business” restaurant insights
Tickets $150
Email: admin@hsbwa.org by 9/27
Vermilion. 10 W. Hubbard St. Chicago, IL
Women boosting women in business
Let’s Talk Change. Reinventing Restaurants. Vermilion 5-7pm.
Let’s Talk Change. Reinventing Restaurants. Vermilion 5-7pm.
Let’s Talk Change. Reinventing Restaurants. Vermilion 5-7pm. Tickets $60 for gourmet food stations, event & soapboxes by 10 leading nationwide women restaurateurs. Cash bar. Real opinions, insights & revelations with no holy grails by real restaurateurs! A dynamic gourmet evening for ALL who love dining out and restaurants. What’s working with our restaurants today? What’s not? How can we build better? On innovation, food trends, immigration, local & sustainable, wages, tipping, herd hypes & fads, fine dining norms, ethnic or global fare, pricing, charity & causes, economics, policy, elitism and much more. Gourmet Interactive Food Stations by: Mexican (Tacotlan). Mediterranean (Imee’s Kitchen). Vietnamese (Saigon Sisters). Soul Tacos (Taylor’s Tacos). Indian (Vermilion). Dessert (La Matriz).
Make your reservation for Let’s Talk Change here. Limited by availability
Let’s Talk Womxn National Restaurant Show Exclusive Dinner Experiences 5/19/24
Let’s Talk Womxn National Restaurant Show Exclusive Dinner Experiences 5/19/24
The National Restaurant Show is proud to partner with Let’s Talk Womxn to curate unforgettable dining experiences for you at 7 p.m. on Sunday, May 19th. Join us for gourmet collaborative dinners, each showcasing not one, but two-three Let’s Talk Womxn entrepreneurs and their concepts. Exclusively crafted, these unique dining experiences are open to all and offer a chance for diners to bond over their mutual passion for food. Your Let’s Talk Womxn hosts will not only craft unforgettable meals, but also share insights into their culinary journey, businesses, and collaboration movement as restaurateurs. Prepare for an evening of inspired conversation and cuisine that cannot be replicated elsewhere. See the details for these seven dinners at La Luna, The Dearborn, Vermilion, 1308, Saigon Sisters, Dandy Crown and Bistronomic
LTW National Restaurant Association Show Women Leaders & Owners Reception
LTW National Restaurant Association Show Women Leaders & Owners Reception
Let’s Talk Womxn invites all women in food and drink to attend the first Women Leaders & Owners Reception it is cohosting with the National Restaurant Association Show. The largest food service and restaurants convention with over 55,000 attendees. We invite ALL women to attend, meet, explore ways to promote our businesses and careers beyond platitudes & hear from industry leaders Michelle Korsmo (President & CEO National Restaurant Association), Adrienne Trimble (VP Chief Diversity & Cultural Officer Sysco), Kelly Higginson (President & CEO Restaurants Canada), Rohini Dey, Ph.D. (Founder, Vermilion & Let’s Talk Womxn). Presented by Sysco, a longstanding champion of our Let’s Talk Womxn.
LTW Nasdaq Bell Ringing, Social Innovation Award, CNBC & NY1
Recent Collaborations
Let’s Talk Womxn National Restaurant Show Webinar 4/17/24
Let’s Talk Womxn National Restaurant Show Webinar 4/17/24 Registration free at Maximizing Your Digital Presence for Growth.
More Than March
Click Here: Press Release & Participants Ticket link: https://www.exploretock.com/letstalkchicagowomxn “More Than March” is Chicago’s woman-power celebration of the year. Blends unabashed social & cerebral facets. Tasting stations & diva cocktails by 30+ leading Let’s Talk Womxn restaurateurs. DJ, black & bling drag show, dancing, the works. Come in BLACK draped in BLING to revel in…
More Than March Boston
3.07.24 at Boston Harbor Distillery. 7pm. Ticket link: http://tinyurl.com/4wtarnmj
More Than March Cincinnati
3.8.24 at The Grove Event Center. 7-10 pm. Ticket link: http://exploretock.com/letstalkcincinnati Sysco Co-Presenting National Advocate
More Than March Milwaukee
3.8.24 at Denizen MKE. 6-9 pm. Ticket link: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/lets-talk-womxn-live-out-loud-dinner-tickets-835199272507 Sysco Co-Presenting National Advocate
More Than March Atlanta
3.10.24 at La Panarda. 6-8 pm. Ticket link: https://resy.com/cities/atl/venues/la-panarda/events/lets-talk-womxn-more-than-march-dinner-2024-03-10 Sysco Co-Presenting National Advocate
More Than March Columbus
3.11.24 at Dos Hermanos Easton. 4-8pm. Ticket link: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/lets-talk-womxn-columbus-more-than-march-bash-tickets-845118170197
More Than March Seattle
3.21.24 Hosted by The Extra Ingredient at Tyee Lake Union. 5-8 pm. Ticket link: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/more-than-march-lets-talk-womxn-seattle-tickets-852668222607?aff=oddtdtcreator Sysco Co-Presenting National Advocate
More Than March New York
3.21.24 at Holiday Cocktail Lounge. 6-9 pm. Ticket link: https://www.exploretock.com/lets-talk-womxn-of-greater-ny/event/466824/more-than-march Sysco Co-Presenting National Advocate
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.…
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…
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
City Cohosts
ShaVonne McCants
Michelle Allen
Lisa Gutierrez
Liz Joy
Anne Quatrano
Nicki Laborie
Kate Taylor Martin
Thy Mitchell
Denise Taylor
Melissa Guzman
Josie Smith
Lindsey & Lisa Rusch
Kavita Kumar
Josalyn Holmes
Deborah Van Trece
Rosa Thurnher
Jen Ziskin
Nancy Cushman
Nancy Matheson-Burns
Julia Shell
Rohini Dey
Carla Chalkley
Joby Bowman
Terri Graber
Paula Haines
Alli Jarrett
Sharon Haynes
Ouita Michel
Anomalous Campbell
Dana Spandet
Marilupe Moreno
Desta Maree Klein
Barbara Sibley
May Fridel
Naama Tamir
Kat Cirar
MacKenzie DeVito
Jacqueline Nicosia
Angela Lawrence
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).
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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