Twenty-five industry professionals assembled on a beautiful Chicago morning at Andros Taverna, where the owners, Hsing Chen and Doug Psaltis, and their welcoming team,hosted Together Hospitality members and their guests. Our members shared various insights from lead times on construction supplies and dead times in operator leases, to the changeable nature of labor laws and the importance of presenting your business as low risk to insurance companies. 

Our guests included the owners of ice cream and bakery concepts, urban farmers, a socially impactful app and various service providers from large scale food service to boutique marketing and communications firms. In breakout sessions the conversations varied from group to group and focused on the prompt “what have you recently learned?” Groups responded with a number of interesting POVs including the struggles that operators are confronting, how to pay a liveable wage while keeping costs low, and a useful tip for managing TripAdvisor reviews. Ideas flowed alongside the coffee and kombucha, and meaningful connections and relationships were forged. Looking forward to the next meeting of minds on September 14.