Women Owned Restaurants in Lima

I often get asked about restaurants owned by women. Many restaurants have women pastry chefs and many bakeries are owned by women. For example, Tanta is owned by Astrid of Astrid y Gaston. Astrid is a pastry chef. But now Tanta now serves much more than pastry.
Here are some other places that I’ve found that are owned by women. (see addresses for most on my list of 100 places to eat in Lima)
Kjolle: owned by Pia Leon of Central. Open on Mondays.
Matria: the owner also comes out to the dining room to greet people.
La Grimanesa: an anticucho-maker made famous by Gaston Acurio at Mistura.
SeƱor de Sulcro: one of the institutions.
Las Tres Suecas: three Swedish women own this cafe.
Las Vecinas: Zonia, a Fulbright photographer and Peruvian American owns this place in Barranco.
Kilo: one of the few Asian women in the steakhouse business. She is rare. Apparently she also treats her staff well.
KG: a friend of Kilo’s owner. But the place is not very good.
La Red: Isolina started this place and since then her son has opened La Isolina and Las Reyes in her honor.
La Vaca Negra: a hole in the wall in Barranco where the first generation Chinese Peruvian owner ages her steaks and hamburger meat. Also serves ribs and chicken.
Quinoa Cafe: healthy cafe owned by women.
La Bodega de Trattoria Membrino: one of the classic places started by a woman who turned her dinner party hostessing skills into a business.
Aji555: owned by a Thai woman.
And a few other mentions:
Dhaasu: Also co-owned by a woman.
Rolly & Co: co-owned by a woman
El Cacaotal, the chocolate library shop: owned by a woman.

Amazon Woman

img_1964I doubt that this beautiful lady’s life is some romanticized imagining, but, she certainly didn’t need to smile or even tolerate me. She could have told me to eff off. Instead, she put up with my lens.

img_1940This lady, in her practical rubber boots and long sleeves (and ripped t-shirt), was a strong contrast to the locals who dress up in traditional costume for the tourists every day. img_2246

I wish her well.img_1954

In the Company of Jungle Men

So I went on a vacation in the Amazon. It was a “camp” with about 20 cabins, a pool, air conditioning, WIFI, etc.

At first, I didn’t notice it. Then I did. It was almost comical how there were only men working at our Eco-camp in the jungle. When my friend and I first got there, we and all the other customers, were women…

Me, being me, had to ask. I was expecting the standard tourist sanitized answer. Instead, our guide/handler said, “Well, Mr. Big Cheese (I can’t recall his name but he was from Scandinavian stock in Wisconsin or Minnesota), said when he opened this camp (40 years ago) that it was better to hire only men because local women have a baby every other year so they would only be in the work force for half the time.”

Manual labor.
Manual labor.

Well, that was not the answer I was expecting (oops, sorry, not). We were certainly not in modern day Scandinavia.

Thread and Bare – Spa Life in Dhaka

Getting threaded by the skin of her teeth.
Getting threaded by the skin of her teeth.

Another of the good things about life in Dhaka is getting pampered. While the spas and salons may not be as high end here as one would expect elsewhere, it is relatively inexpensive. I have had haircuts for 600 Taka ($8) which is not as cheap as it is for the locals but still inexpensive to me. The prices make it easy to go to the salon (usually ladies only) and get plucked, massaged, waxed, threaded…

Threaded bare.
Threaded bare.