Queer Women We Love, Red Hot Entrepreneurs, Wonder Women

Workin’ It 2010

November 8, 2010 Cheryle Burke, Kat Long

Some chefs spend years in pricey culinary institutes trying to master natural foods. Deborah Gavito, proprietor of the snazzy NYC vegetarian restaurant Counter, learned the art of cooking with seasonal produce and edible weeds from her grandmothers. Gavito’s early fascination with natural cooking has grown into a long-time dedication to local and sustainable foods: her first venture, an all-natural baked goods business called Body & Soul, debuted in 1993. She sold her scrumptious treats at the Union Square Greenmarket, where she developed an appreciation for family farmers, and earned enough dough (pun intended) to open Counter in 2003. As Counter’s proprietor, Gavito designs fresh vegetarian fare, biodynamic wines and cleverly named organic vodka martinis (one is called “The Angry Lesbian”). “I waited on tables years and years ago, but other than that, I’ve only worked for myself,” Gavito says. “I don’t think I could take orders from any one else.”

45 of 2010’s Red Hot Entrepreneurs

Most of us have a junk-filled cabinet or closet in need of an intervention, and Jordana Jaffe is here to help. At just 24 years young, she founded her first business, Live Organized, a professional organizing company that can design a filing system for business papers or get your kids to put toys back in place. Though up and running for just a few years, Live Organized has been featured on NBC and in print media. Inspired by the positive response, and her success as a young business owner, Jaffe recently launched Embarkability—a firm offering entrepreneurial mentoring for other twenty-something women. “I realized how uncommon it is for women to start their own businesses in their 20s,” says this self-taught pioneer. “Right now, there are three mainstream post-college options: get a job, go to graduate school or take a year off. My goal is to include a fourth option: start your own business. I want to help create a shift in people’s mindsets so they no longer see this option as unconventional, but rather as a real possibility.”