March: Treats & Eats in NYC
For Women's History Month, and especially for A Day Without Women, we're sharing our favorite NYC spots that are proudly owned and operated by women. We encourage you to dine and drink at these spots throughout the month (and always, really) to show your support for women-owned businesses in NYC!
Ample Hills: One of our favorite ice cream spots in Brooklyn is Ample Hills, which has locations throughout the boroughs (and Disney!) and sells its pints in stores around the city, as well. "At the beginning, it was the-little-ice-cream-shop-that-could. Ample Hills Creamery...prides itself on making ice cream completely from scratch. Owners Jackie Cuscuna and Brian Smith (partners in ice cream crime and married in real life) [are known for] their homemade Peppermint Pattie, Stout ‘n’ Pretzels (beer, chocolate ice cream, and milk-chocolate covered pretzels), Bubblegum (all natural and colored with beet juice), and more...Cuscuna wants to mix ice cream and neighbors together. “It makes me so happy to host...ice cream socials where strangers can gather and ride a bicycle and make ice cream and color and feel like kids again,” she says" to Donny Levit of Bklyner.
Lilia: "Missy Robbins is the chef, owner, and mastermind behind Lilia that is somehow both impossible-to-get-into and totally neighborhood-centric, an immaculate, airy, high-ceilinged palace of pasta opened in a former auto body shop. She's known for her disciplined work ethic and penchant for perfectionism" describes Hilary Pollack of VICE's Munchies. "Lilia ticks a lot of boxes for a restaurant in Williamsburg -- hipster crowds, repurposed space (it used to be an auto shop), and an open kitchen. But that's not a bad thing. Missy Robbins's Italian restaurant isn't buzzy because of the space -- it's buzzy because the food is mind-blowing." explain Jen & Staci from Hashtag Jetlag.
Ngam: When Laura Shunk of The Village Voice asks the owner and chef Hong Thaimee of East Village Thai restaurant Ngam what her life goals are, she eloquently explains "Be a better person. I kid you not. I'm a very ambitious person. I left Thailand six years ago. But Mother Teresa talked about doing small things with great love. That's how I see it. It doesn't matter how successful I am -- life has its beauty. I focus on how can I be a better chef, how can I be a better boss, how can I be a better wife, how can I be a better friend. I let life take care of itself.
Pig & Khao: Laura Dunn, of the Huffington Post, interviewed chef and owner Leah Cohen, of LES Filipino restaurant Pig & Khao, regarding women in the women in the workplace: "I personally have never felt that I’ve been treated differently in a kitchen because I’m a woman. However, I do think many women are underestimated in the kitchen solely because of their sex. But, if anything, I think being a woman working in a kitchen makes you tougher."