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

A born-and-raised New Yorker, Jen Nelson discovered her affinity for bodywork after two colleagues convinced her to enroll at the influential Swedish Institute for Massage Therapy. After a grueling three-plus years of training, Nelson found that “interacting with people on a one-on-one basis, helping to solve their anatomical woes, and offering informed advice on how to maintain a healthy body and lifestyle [became] my greatest passion.” With her best friend Jesse Kile, a master Pilates trainer, Nelson launched Remedy Room NYC to offer whole-body wellness care. A grassroots collective of healers, Remedy Room is a woman-owned and woman-run referral service, bringing affordable and life-shifting bodywork—including all kinds of massage, Pilates, yoga, peri-natal services, Doula and post-partum care for new moms and many more wellness techniques—to achy, stressed-out New Yorkers. “We believe our ‘family’ vibe has really been the key to our success so far,” Nelson says. “We want the success of our peers just as much as we want our own success, and we trust, as a collective, that this will happen.”