Long maligned by comedians for our fashion sense, TomboyX founders Fran Dunaway and Naomi Gonzalez know lesbians have a style all our own. That’s why they created the comfy, chic and totally unique TomboyX collection, designed to fit the eclectic, rough-around-the-edges lesbian aesthetic.

What do you do and why?

We saw a need for a clothing line that recognizes the white space between menswear and women’s wear. We were tired of frilly, patterned clothing made for 20-year-olds. One day Naomi asked me, “How hard can it be to start a clothing line?” Ha!

What did you do before you started your company?

I am a partner in a media strategies firm and produce political ads for democrats and campaigns nationwide. Naomi is a sports massage therapist and was on staff for the U.S. Women’s Olympic Soccer team when they won gold in Athens.

What’s the single most important piece of advice you received when first starting your company? What would you tell a young entrepreneur in turn?

My dear friend Sue sent me a Goethe quote that I printed and put on the wall. The condensed version is: “Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it.” — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

What aspect of business ownership came as the biggest surprise to you?

The challenges associated with raising money.

What do you find most rewarding about owning your own business?

Having had an idea, then implementing plans with Naomi. We are partners in business and in life. We became financees (I like to say Beyonce because she put a ring on it) a few months ago and are still going strong. There is no way we could have come this far without the other being part of it. This is an all consuming endeavor. At least, I get to spend all this time working with someone I love and respect so much.

Where do you see yourself / your company in five years?

To be an internationally recognized brand that women feel represents the proactive, confident and courageous parts of themselves. We want to have a full line of clothing for women of all sizes, of varying backgrounds and varying levels of tomboyishness. We want women to feel seen and recognized by a brand that represents their independent spirit.

What resources would you recommend to someone who is contemplating starting her own business?

Perseverance. Courage. Determination. A solid, well-thought out business plan, mentors in the business you’re seeking to get into and three to six months of financial reserves in the bank. Also, don’t quit your day job. Plug away until you reach success. And a rich aunt wouldn’t be a bad thing either.

What obstacles did you face in establishing your company and how did you overcome them?

We didn’t have any fashion experience so we just jumped in. Today, we know so much more than we did two years ago. I’m a big believer in informational meetings. I ask a lot of questions. So every time we got to the next chapter in the book “Fashion for Dummies,” we’d find someone with pertinent experience and set up a meeting. We’ve had some incredibly generous people offer guidance and advice every step of the way. We brought on advisors in a more formal capacity who we could rely on for ideas, encouragement and suggestions. I think we’ve tried to remain open to all recommendations, but at the same time have kept true to our personal vision.

Is there anything we didn’t ask you about that you’d like to share with our readers?

I think that sometimes it’s challenging for people who aren’t trying to run a small business to realize that reaching a vision takes time and baby steps. We often hear from people about expanded sizes, more styles and cheaper prices. Of course, we want to get there, but we had to start somewhere. Despite what it might look like, we really are three women working on this for no salary, out of a garage. It takes most small businesses three to five years to hit profitability, so the most that our community can do is support small businesses and understand that we are listening and we care, but give us time to get there. We don’t have the funding of a big brand. We’re working hard to stake a claim in a fashion industry that has ignored us for too damn long. So help us show them that we are a force to be reckoned with and wear TomboyX with pride.

Follow these fabulous fashionistas on Facebook and Twitter.

The post Enterprising Women: Fran and Naomi, TomboyX first appeared on Lesbian.com.

What do you do and why?
I’m owner and creator of Haus.

Tell us about Haus.
Haus matches and grades homes for consumers to:

1. Find homes based on needs and lifestyle
2. Save time while searching for homes
3. Make better decisions with transparent, easily digestible data.

Our matching algorithm curates and grades homes for consumers based on a combination of personalized community, lifestyle and home search criteria.

As a multiple-time home buyer, real estate agent and real estate broker, I was stunned to learn that there was no easy way to get a comprehensive picture on a home or a neighborhood that could help facilitate an informed home purchase decision.

Buying a home is one of the biggest financial decisions you make in your life and there is was way to be able to sift through the scores of homes out there without it being a full time job. I wanted to solve that problem and come up a better way to search for homes.

What did you do before you started your company?
I’ve been in real estate over 10 years. Before I started Haus, I was a top-producing real estate agent first with Keller Williams where I was a member of the Regional Agent Leadership Council, and later my own brokerage HausAngeles.

Prior to real estate, I ran the U.S. Professional Services division for a Global Software company and built a profitable, customer-centric professional services group engaged in ecommerce, enterprise and Internet marketplace/exchange implementations.

What’s the single most important piece of advice you received when first starting your company? What would you tell a young entrepreneur in turn?
‘It’s a journey,’ no wait, that was the advice I got when starting to try for kids, but it works in this case as well. For the young entrepreneurs out there: Be bold, think big, don’t overthink — getting it wrong is just part of the journey and delegate (you can’t do everything by yourself).

What do you find most rewarding about owning your own business?
The opportunity to change the existing status quo by creating a better, innovate product that simplifies people’s lives and promotes integrated living.

Where do you see yourself and your company in five years?
Ideally with Haus positioned as a market leader in its space and a great personal work life balance. We have two sets of twins under six, so the ability to spend quality time with family is extremely important.

What resources would you recommend to someone who is contemplating starting her own business?
Meet with and talk to a lot of people. Talk to people who have succeeded, are currently working on their businesses and those with failed businesses. It’s amazing how much you can learn from listening to people talk about their experiences. There is a lot of wisdom our there, prime for harvesting.

What would you say is the single most important key to sustaining a business long term?
Grit, perseverance and optimism, sprinkled with liberal amounts of realism.

What obstacles did you face in establishing your company and how did you overcome them?
Our biggest challenge was probably right out of the door when I first launched Haus back in Sept 2015. I was trying to build both the consumer and the brokerage sides of the business at the same time. Key changes in team and partners along with consumer feedback forced me to re-evaluate, and decide to focus on the consumer side of the business alone. Though a hard decision at the time, in retrospect, it turned out to be a great pivot.It really helped us focus on the part of our offering about which the consumers were most excited.

Learn more about Avantika Shahi and Haus at her website GradeMyHaus.com or on Facebook or Twitter.

The post Entrepreneur creates dream home finder, Haus first appeared on Lesbian.com.

To say Crista Luedtke is a renaissance woman is an understatement. She’s all over the place. She is a successful mortgage broker who runs the successful boon hotel + spa, boon eat + drink and big bottom market. The hotel, restaurant and market are all in the Northern California town of Guerneville. She works her mortgage mojo in San Francisco. She splits her time between the two, in between her travel adventures.

She took a few minutes out of her busy schedule to share the secrets of her success.

What do you do and why?
I always wanted to have my own restaurant. Growing up, my family was in the business so we grew up knowing and doing everything related to it. I couldn’t get it out of my blood. One day, I told my mom that I wanted to open my own. She said, “Are you crazy? Didn’t you learn anything? It’s a 24/7 job. Maybe you should do a BnB or something.”

What did you do before you started your company?
Prior to starting the hotel, I worked first as a regional sales manager in Biotech, then as mortgage broker at a small firm in San Francisco. In fact, I still do mortgages today for friends, past clients and their referrals. It helps keep the other side of my brain happy. I needed to hold on to the day job for the first few years until my businesses were able to cash flow more comfortably. Now, I do it because I have loyal clients I can’t turn down and it’s fun.

What’s the single most important piece of advice you received when first starting your company? What would you tell a young entrepreneur in turn?

When I first started the hotel, I interviewed several hotel owners in the area. There was a couple from England who were so helpful and supportive they said to me “the bread is in the bed.” I took it to heart. I really heard them and decided to do whatever I could to make the beds the most important feature. People are paying for a place to sleep, make it the best night ever and they will be back.

It worked. As for the restaurant scene, it was to keep it simple and use the best quality ingredients.

For young entrepreneurs, I would say talk to people in the business, but not just anyone, talk to the successful ones. Ask a lot of questions. Find out what works and what doesn’t and where to focus first.

What aspect of business ownership came as the biggest surprise to you?
I think the biggest surprise of being a business owner was how much time you dedicate to dealing with employees and employee issues. From hiring to training to firing to other people’s personal problems now becoming your own, this was definitely more than I had planned for. I feel like a therapist at times dealing with it all. It’s both a blessing and a curse to be so involved at such an level. I have about 35 employees right now. They are all like family to me. I wouldn’t be where I am today without them.

What do you find most rewarding about owning your own business?
I wanted to create a spaces that people just really felt relaxed, really enjoyed being away from wherever they came from, and for them to connect with the food and the place. I see people form friendships over a meal sitting next to each other at tables or sitting around my pool. It’s so fun. It makes me so happy when I hear people “ooh” and “ahh” about the food or rave about the hotel or when locals to say that I changed the town. It feels really good and it makes me want to keep doing it day after day. It’s really rewarding seeing what I dreamed up become such a success on many levels.

Where do you see yourself / your company in five years? Hopes / dreams / plans?

I still have a few concepts of my own that I would love to open, but I actually have begun consulting with other business to help them create brands, open restaurants and hotels, etc. That’s the direction I’m heading. I love the creative start up phase and I want to do more of it.

I am working on a few concepts of my own as well in other parts of California and Mexico. I’m still undecided as to which is next, but i get anxious if I don’t have 50 balls in the air at any given time. I love to be busy.

What resources would you recommend to someone who is contemplating starting her own business?
Do your research. Get as much information as you can. Work in the industry first either as an intern, apprentice or anything. Remember, it’s your dream but it’s still work. You need to love it.

What would you say is the single most important key to sustaining a business long term?
Good employees. You can’t do it alone. Everyone who wants to be a business owner needs a strong team to support them and to keep the vision going. I am blessed with really amazing people who I hand picked or who found me because they loved the vision. It also helps to ensure that the work will continue to be fun when you are surrounded by people you like and who share your goals.

What obstacles did you face in establishing your company and how did you overcome them?
Being over budget. It’s hard to start with less working capital than you plan. I had to really scramble in the beginning. I also hit a bunch of unknowns.

Luedtke is offering Lesbian.com readers a 10 percent discount at her stunning hotel for Sunday through Thursday visits until the end of 2014. Use the code LESB2014 when calling to book.

Do you know an enterprising woman who you would like to see featured on Lesbian.com? Just drop us a line at info@lesbian.com with the name of the business, the entrepreneur and her email address and we’ll get to work on it.

The post Enterprising women: Crista Luedtke, Boon hotel + spa first appeared on Lesbian.com.

When Christine Svendsen’s first book was turned away by publishers, she launched her own publishing company.

Now, four years later, she’s got a stable full of award-winning lesbian authors and her own award-winning books published under the pseudonym Isabella via Sapphire Books.

“Believe in yourself. Rejection isn’t the end of a story, it can be a beginning,” Svendsen said. “Looking back, I didn’t think in terms of what if this doesn’t work? I only thought of the possibilities.”

Sapphire Books is offering anyone who likes their Facebook page a free book. After you like the page, email to Svendsen.

Svendsen took time out of her busy schedule to share the secrets to Sapphire’s success with us.

What do you do and why?

I’m the publisher and an author at Sapphire Books Publishing. I started Sapphire Books Publishing in 2010. We publish lesbian novels, written by lesbians. Our authors include Linda Kay Silva, Kim Pritekel, Beth Burnett, Karelia Stetz-Waters, Linda North, Lynette Mae, Riley Adair Garret, Lorraine Howell, Rhavensfyre and Stephanie Kusiak.

What did you do before you started your company?

I do the same thing now as I did when I started Sapphire Books, I work as a community college instructor in California. My current job affords me the luxury of working remote for most of my work load. The flexibility allows me to set my own hours, which really helps with the publishing company.

How did you come up with the idea for your company?

I had submitted my first manuscript to two publishers and was rejected by both. One said they weren’t looking for my type of story at that time. The other company wanted me to completely rewrite the story and resubmit. I thought long and hard about rewriting it. After talking to my wife, I decided that I’d try and publish it myself.

I researched self-publishing, looked at all the options and decided to start a publishing company. I’d always thought about growing the company at some point, but that was in the future. When Linda Kay Silva, a popular lesbian author, left her publishing company, I sent her an email. We met and discussed writing, publishing and motorcycles. It clicked for us and the company took off from that point. We’ve signed some really awesome writers. I have to say that I’m thrilled to work with some really talented ladies.

What do you find most rewarding about owning your own business?

I get to work with some amazingly talented women. They write books that blow my socks off.

Where do you see yourself / your company in five years? Hopes / dreams / plans?

Sapphire Books isn’t going anywhere. We’re in it for the long haul and plan on adding to our already growing list of fantastic authors.

What resources would you recommend to someone who is contemplating starting her own business?

Research the industry. Do your homework and ask questions. Learn everything you can and even then there will still be things that surprise you, so plan to be surprised. Roll with it, flexibility is important in today’s business world.

Social media is starting to play a huge role in business and it’s important that you treat social media as a tool in the business tool box.

Go to conferences, meet people in your industry and make sure to check out the competition. See what they are doing right and notice what isn’t working. IBPA and SPAN are great resources, if you really want to get into publishing.

Finally, be persistent.

What’s the process for an aspiring author to get published with Sapphire?

First, write your book. Polish the manuscript. Send the best work possible, you only get one chance to make a first impression. Sapphire isn’t the traditional lesbian publisher. We don’t have a formula. I like to think we publish great books that a lot of other publishers wouldn’t touch. For example, we’ve published books that were over 500 pages, most publishers in lesbian fiction won’t publish long manuscripts. We’ve published some truly scary books about serial killers and fetish killers. We also have published erotic books, Sci Fi, paranormal as well as romance. We just signed an author who writes the Happy Lesbian Housewife blogs and she has been referred to as “the love child of Erma Bombeck and Chelsea Handler,” so we are pretty open as long as they have strong lesbian characters, written by lesbians. Writers can contact me at publisher@sapphirebooks.com.

What would you say is the single most important key to sustaining a business long term?

Have a plan and be flexible. I can’t say that enough. The industry is constantly changing and we need to change with it.

What obstacles did you face in establishing your company and how did you overcome them?

I think the biggest obstacle I faced was being taken serious, both as a writer and as a publisher. I won an award for my first book and that started the ball rolling. When we signed Linda Kay Silva, a lot of people started to take notice.

After that, we signed some pretty awesome talent and our authors started winning awards, which moved Sapphire Books up on the list to be noticed.

Follow Sapphire Books on Facebook and Twitter.

The post Enterprising women: Sapphire Books, Christine Svendsen first appeared on Lesbian.com.

She shared the secrets of her success with Lesbian.com.

What do you do and why?

We specialize in high quality leather bracelets, wristbands and belts. We have several collections with a wide variety of styles and every item is made to order for a perfect fit. We make it all in our Los Angeles workshop.

What did you do before you started your company?

I had another company where my business partner and I made custom mosaic furniture and installations from tile, wood, slate, stone and glass. That was fun, but it was a lot of hard physical work.

How did you come up with the idea for your company?

It started off as one of those crazy coincidences. I had closed the furniture business and was not really sure of my next venture. I was looking into making some leather bracelets and cuffs for myself, just for fun. I mentioned it to a friend who just happened to work at a place with a leather shop. From there, pieces started falling into place as if it was always meant to be.

What’s the single most important piece of advice you received when first starting your company? What would you tell a young entrepreneur in turn?

I was never much for taking advice when I was starting out. I would advise someone to pace themselves. Don’t try to grow too fast or push too hard. Work your butt off, but give yourself enough time to learn what you need for each level of business that you reach. The challenges change as you grow and you will need different skills and resources. Also, do it for the love of whatever you are doing. As the saying goes, “follow your bliss.”

What aspect of business ownership came as the biggest surprise to you?

The biggest surprise was that success can be your downfall. Dealing with a rapidly growing company actually takes out a lot of small companies. You think the trajectory will keep going up forever, you might over invest, grow too quickly, underestimate the growing overhead that comes with growing sales. There is a learning curve to managing more sales and payroll, inventory and so on.

What do you find most rewarding about owning your own business?

The most rewarding part of my business is knowing that I MADE THIS. From each bracelet design all the way up to years worth of loyal customers, I made it happen. Not without lots of help and support, of course, but there is a lot of pride in having built something of which I am proud.

Where do you see yourself and your company in five years?

Personally, I plan on growing my skills in jewelry making and design. I am beginning to dabble in working with silver and other metals. I think I will keep growing in the direction of jewelry design. I am sure I will incorporate my new skills into my Lucky Dog Leather designs as well.

Gerbino is offering Lesbian.com readers 20 percent off with the code LES20. Shop now at LuckyDogLeather.com. Follow Lucky Dog Leather on Facebook and Twitter.

The post Enterprising women: Lucia Gerbino, Lucky Dog Leather first appeared on Lesbian.com.

Why did the chicken cross the road? To get to the Hip Chick Farms, of course.

Former Chez Panisse chef Jen Johnson and superstar event planner and non-profit exec Serafina Palandech hatched their sustainable, healthy business when Johnson’s healthy creations for her private chef clients, The Gettys, were a hit with kids.

Now, the dynamic, do-gooding duo lives on a family farm in Sebastopol, California, with their daughter Rubyrose and a menagerie of furry friends.

Serafina shared the secret sauce that’s made Hip Chick Farms a health food store sensation.

What do you do and why?

Along with partner, Jen, we own and operate Hip Chick Farms, a producer of organic, non-GMO, humanely-raised frozen chicken products: chicken meatballs, chicken fingers and chicken wings. Our chicken is sourced from Mary’s Chicken, a producer of humanely-raised, organic, free-range, non-GMO, antibiotic-free chicken. Each package is made fresh in small batches, then fast frozen to preserve taste and texture. Our products are available in more than 250 natural foods stores, supermarkets and gourmet shops throughout the western United States, including Whole Foods stores in the Northwest, Northern California, and Southern Pacific regions.

What did you do before you started your company?

I was a non-profit executive, project manager, strategic planner and event organizer for more than 15 years, helping nonprofit organizations access private funding streams through event production and management, donor cultivation, corporate support and in-kind partnerships. Just prior to launching Hip Chick Farms, I ran Tugboat Events, a boutique event production company, which produced charity events for organizations in the Bay Area.

How did you come up with the idea for your company?

For the last 20 years, my partner, Jen, worked as a professional chef, first for Alice Waters at Chez Panisse for 10 years, then for the last 10 years as executive private chef for Ann and Gordon Getty.

When Mrs. Getty started a Montessori school in her home, Jen’s role expanded to cooking a family-style lunch for around 25 children every day. The kids in the school loved her food, and when they went home at night, they would ask their moms for Chef Jen’s Chicken Fingers. The moms started asking Jen for her products because they felt good serving their kids food that was so lovingly prepared and made with impeccable ingredients.

What’s the single most important piece of advice you received when first starting your company? What would you tell a young entrepreneur in turn?

Business should be an opportunity to express your values, not compromise them. You have to align your heart and your head — do the work you love while being the person you want to be. As soon as you start compromising either one — doing something you don’t like, or acting in a way that is outside your nature — then you are not aligned. We have two goals at Hip Chick Farms. First, to provide delicious, thoughtful, natural and nutritious chicken products for all members of the family; and second, to build a business that models our values and reflects the beliefs of our family, including donating to the community and raising awareness about humanely farmed animals. Entrepreneurs succeed when their work and their values are aligned.

What do you find most rewarding about owning your own business?

In both of the businesses I started, Hip Chick Farms and Tugboat Events, I was lucky to let my business be a vehicle for furthering my values. Before, I helped non-profits raise money and expand their good work in the world. Now, I’m helping busy families enjoy good, organic, wholesome food that is super-convenient while respecting the environment with organic and sustainable food production and supporting local farmers and suppliers. Our values-based mission and business model is not only key to our business success, but also to our personal fulfillment.

What would you say is the single most important key to sustaining a business long term?

Building good relationships with your suppliers, distributors, retailers, consultants — everyone in the process that enables you to do what you do, and being fanatical about quality. Treat people with respect and don’t cut corners — these are the two most important pieces of our business model. The most important relationship is the one you have with the end-user: they have to be able to trust you, that your product or service lives up to the promises it makes.

Learn more about Hip Chicks Farm on their website, Facebook or Twitter.

The post Enterprising women: Hip Chick Farms first appeared on Lesbian.com.

Looking for a unique gift filled with good karma for the lesbians in your life? Well, look no further. We’ve put together a list of great holiday gifts from fabulous lesbian companies.

WOLFE VIDEO

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
LUCKY DOG LEATHER

TOMBOYX

SEE JANE RUN

THAT GAY SITE

SOUL NUMBERS JEWELRY

The post Great holiday gifts from lesbian-owned companies first appeared on Lesbian.com.

Frustrated at not finding sex toys designed for lesbians, Alice DeRock decided to design her own and launched Wet for Her.

What do you do and why?

I am the founder, creator and owner of Wet For Her, a sex toy company that designs and manufactures products specifically for women. Why? I was inspired and motivated to launch Wet For Her once I discovered that the majority of the sex toys available on the market were not only designed by men but also mostly created to replace the one organ we women do not have, namely the penis. Our goal was to invent sex toys that would enhance a woman’s pleasure, particularly between lesbian couples. We are women who love women and we know what makes us feel good. We felt that we needed to fill a gap in our sex-toys life.

What did you do before you started your company?

I was a Room Division Manager in the luxury hotel industry. I was managing 250 peoples and taking care of all the VIPs. I always wanted to be an entrepreneur and create products. The world is so big and there are so many ideas. What made me choose Wet For Her was that my desire to bring something different and new and do something for my community. WetForHer gathers all those elements.
It was important for me to create a business where I would have an undisputed legitimacy and credibility.

How did you come up with the idea for your company?

A few years ago, my girlfriend and I were looking for sex toys and all we found were realistic ones with this thing that we hated: a ball sac. We really wanted to find something that was designed and manufactured by lesbians for lesbians. After some extensive research, we were surprised to see that there actually was no sex toys made by and for lesbians … and that’s how we found our new professional careers.

What’s the single most important piece of advice you received when first starting your company? What would you tell a young entrepreneur in turn?

The most important advice is that without money and/or sales you don’t go anywhere. You need to create products that innovate. If you can’t sell easily your products or create the demand it will be hard to establish longevity. When we see a successful company we think that they did it very quickly. More often than not, it actually requires years to reach a comfortable level of success, not to mention a lot of financial investment and hard work.

Another important advice was listening to customers’ feedback. You have to learn quickly from good or back feedback to adjust your strategies. And lastly, you have to enjoy the process of being an entrepreneur and be willing to put in long hours and persevere.

What aspect of business ownership came as the biggest surprise to you?

At the beginning I have to say that although I knew I was going to have to do it all, I just had no idea what “doing it all” really meant.

Handling everything from the designing, the shipping of orders, mounting the website, supervising sales and trades, etc, was extremely taxing. Once I got the routine down, then came another challenge: Having to answer thousands of questions from customers who were interested in learning more about the company and the products.

What do you find most rewarding about owning your own business?

The most rewarding aspect of running your own business is to have happy customers, to see your business grow and going where you want to take it without changing your mission statement.

Where do you see yourself / your company in five years? Hopes / dreams / plans?

In five years, I hope Wet For Her will be known and recognize worldwide as the best and the No. 1 lesbian sex toys designer and manufacturer.

My goal is also to have released on the market additional new and unique products for lesbian couples so they have fun in bed and never fall into a dreadful sex routine or worse, the mythical lesbian bed death.

What resources would you recommend to someone who is contemplating starting her own business?

I would highly recommend reading books from successful entrepreneurs, such as Donald Trump or Anthony Robbins. Personally, I also follow one motto, which is F.O.C.U.S (follow one course until you succeed).

What would you say is the single most important key to sustaining a business long term?

Don’t rush. Be patient and grow slowly. We always think that when you grow to soaring heights you make more cash, but this is wrong. To grow costs a lot because you constantly have the re-invest in your business, and you need to have a very good cash flow. So yes, my advice is grow slowly.

What obstacles did you face in establishing your company and how did you overcome them?

Being in the adult industry, I had to face lot of denials from banks, insurance, website payment process, etc. They don’t want their name to be associated with the adult industry, much less a sex-toy company. What helped me were my existing business industry relationships. Other established business owners can easily recommend you to people with whom they work. That definitely made it easier to get my foot through the door.

Learn more about Wet for Her.

The post Enterprising Women: Alice DeRock, Wet for Her first appeared on Lesbian.com.

It’s tough having good chops and the “Butcher Babes” have got the best to offer at the West Side Market in Cleveland, Ohio.

Emma Beno, 24, and Alexia Rodriguez, 32, owners of the Pork Chop Shop (1979 West 25th Street, Stand E4; 216-394-0382; ThePorkChopShopWSM.com) at the market infuse the flavor of the neighborhood and their own tastes into their pork in the Ohio City neighborhood.

The women dress up their bacon, pork chops, sausages and more using a variety of flavors from ale to spice and everything in between, they say. More >

The post Butcher babes bring home the bacon first appeared on Lesbian.com.

Alki Beach is where sun-seekers flock to enjoy a summer day at the beach and take advantage of breath taking panoramic views of the Seattle city scape and the Olympic Mountains. It’s also a vibrant neighborhood with some foodie gems and rich with history and a beach culture all its own.
Food tasting tours are a great way to get to know a neighborhood as they are a true sensory and culinary experience.

Sampling great cuisine is a given, but you also see amazing sights, hear about interesting historical facts & learn the “back-story” of how local businesses came to be.

Taste Seattle Food Tours is pleased to be launching a unique biking foodie tour along Alki Beach beginning on July 18. The tour is a really fun activity for both visitors and locals alike and provides that ocean salt-water smell that leaves no doubt you are beachside. Cruising along the Alki bike trail affords amazing views of Puget Sound, Elliot Bay, the Olympic Mountains, Bainbridge Island and the city of Seattle.

One of the bonuses of this food and biking tour is eating all those delicious bites is guilt-free because you are riding approximately 3 miles each way, working off the calories as you go.

One of the best ways to experience the highlights of the Alki Beach neighborhood is to spend an afternoon with Taste Seattle Food Tours.

Taste Seattle Food Tours is owned by two lesbian women, Felicia Watson and Roen Ako, both of whom are West Seattle residents and are excited to share the unique culture of Seattle’s largest neighborhood.

Roen serves on the board of the Greater Seattle Business Association (GSBA), a Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Allied business and professional chamber of commerce. They were recently married this past January and were one of the first couples married in Hawaii after the Hawaii Marriage Equality Act made same sex marriage legal in Roen’s home state. Together, they share a passion for great food and guiding both locals and visitors off the “eaten path.”

Seattle has a wealth of amazing food, and Taste Seattle aims to allow their guests to sample tasting portions, which allows eating at multiple locations to give a broad sampling of the best the neighborhood has to offer. They partner with local, artisanal businesses that offer superior and unique products that showcase Seattle’s rich food scene. Eating and biking your way through a neighborhood is a fun and flavorful interactive activity.

The afternoon is spent sampling your way along the beach on a beach cruiser bicycle (provided as part of the tour in partnership with Alki Kayak Tours) with stops at five eateries. The eating is kicked off at Marination voted by ABC’s Good Morning America as the best food truck in America. Guests will sample a few examples of this Hawaiian-Korean fusion-style street food.

Next, it is on to a relative newcomer on the beach, Slices on Alki, a pizzeria owned by a husband and wife team. Slices focuses on carefully selected ingredients (organic whenever possible) and fresh daily house-made sauce and dough that is then hand-tossed in a thin-crust style and paired with a craft micro-brew from neighboring Ampersand Cafe. Next it’s onto Seattle’s oldest fast-food restaurant, Alki Spud Fish and Chips, which has been on Alki Avenue since 1935 (celebrating 80 years next year). They use the original recipes for their fish and chips, which are still hand-cut and prepared. The tour is capped off with a sweet ending at Salty’s on Alki Beach. Salty’s is a local favorite for special occasions with one of the most impressive views of any restaurant in the area and award-winning cuisine.

“It’s been a privilege and a joy to offer Seattle’s gorgeous skyline view to our dining guests at Salty’s on Alki Beach, so we were especially eager to partner with Felicia and Roen on their new Alki Beach, Bikes and Bites Food Tour. The history of West Seattle is rich with stories and we are honored to be included,” says Kathy Kingen, Salty’s co-owner along with husband and founder Gerry Kingen.

Taking the Alki Beach, Bikes and Bites tour provides a taste for Seattle’s beach neighborhood while revealing stories of its origins like answering why there is a replica Statue of Liberty on Alki Beach. The tour visits several points of cultural interest like the former site of the Luna Park amusement park, a few of Seattle’s oldest residences still standing today and a working lighthouse on Alki Point.

Stories of the neighborhood come to life in between bites, as guests are guided alongside a knowledgeable tour lead who offers insight into Alki’s colorful past and present incarnations, pointing out hidden gems from quirky public art to a working lighthouse.

Skip all the long summer lines, planning and fuss and let Taste Seattle Food Tours entertain you for a few hours replete with tasty riches. The new tour begins July 18th and will run on Friday and Saturdays at 11 a.m. through the rest of the summer. Alki Beach is easily accessible from Seattle’s waterfront by taking the King County Water Taxi from Pier 50 to Seacrest Park where the tour begins and ends.

To buy tickets or for more information on taking Taste Seattle Food Tour’s newest Beach, Bikes and Bites tour, please visit their website.

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