Woman owned businesses to support this spring

It’s important to us that all of our Blueground guests feel at home in their new communities as soon as they arrive in town. Whether you’re in town for a month or a year, one of the best ways to get acquainted with a new city is to shop local.

Here are just a few of our favorite businesses owned and/or run by women that you can help support in Blueground’s US cities.

Austin

The capital of cool in Texas is home to plenty of women owned businesses, including a hip salon, an amazing gay bar, and a bakery that sells tiny pies.

If you’re looking for a fresh hairstyle, look no further than Austin’s own Modesty Hair Studio. Located in Central East Austin, this business has been a go-to for stylish residents since 2010. Services include cuts, color, styling, extensions, and keratin treatments. Be sure to check out the salon’s Covid-19 safety protocols before booking.

Cheer Up Charlie’s is one of Austin’s premier LGBTQ venues, and just happens to be woman-owned. This laid-back Downtown Austin bar is a great place to hear live music and make new friends. There’s kombucha on tap and a full vegan menu as well as some tempting happy hour specials each weekday from 4 to 6pm.

They say that everything is bigger in Texas, but that’s definitely not the case at Tiny Pies. This bakery with three locations in Austin specializes in savory and sweet hand pies made from tried and true family recipes. We love the banana cream and the Texas two-step, a pecan mini pie layered with a gooey chocolate brownie.

Boston

Our favorite spots in Beantown include a killer fitness studio, a buzzworthy Turkish fusion restaurant, and a one-stop shop for woman-made apparel, jewelry, and papercrafts.

Farm-to-table Mediterranean restaurant Oleana is run by not one but three talented female chefs. Executive Chef Ana Sortun, who opened the restaurant in 2001, now works side by side with Chef de Cuisine Paige Lombardi and Pastry Chef Sophie Gees. The menu has everything from shareable hot and cold mezes like Turkish green olives and sweet potato dolmas to a decadent lamb gyro platter served with crispy potatoes.

TRILLFIT, a Black woman-owned boutique fitness studio that attained cult status through its cardio hip-hop classes, currently offers a variety of online classes as well as outdoor classes and personal training sessions. If you want a challenge, test yourself with Ass & Abs or Cardio Boxing. Beginners might prefer Sculpt: Restore, a candlelit class that puts equal emphasis on stretching and strengthening your muscles.

Alyssa Davis quit her 9-to-5 corporate gig to become a jewelry designer and opened Wyllo (it’s pronounced like the tree) in 2020. This cute Beantown boutique was not only founded by a woman, it carries designs from more than 50 woman-owned brands. You can shop online or in person for apparel, accessories, jewelry, paper goods, and more.

Chicago

Our Chicago must-do list includes a beloved community bookstore, the perfect coffee shop and a tasty Vietnamese restaurant.

Chicago French Press founder Kris Christian, a former Wall Street analyst, got tired of overloading her coffee with cream and sugar just to make it palatable to her and began to develop her own java blends. She wants to make gourmet coffee accessible to all, so the staff at Chicago French Press is happy to chat with you about home brewing, and all of the shop’s delectable blends are available to purchase in bulk.

Located in the West Loop, Saigon Sisters Restaurant is a labor of love from Vietnamese sisters Mary Nguyen Aregoni and Theresa Nguyen. The menu features mainstays like pho and pad see ew as well as a BBQ jackfruit bahn mi, sriracha wings, and other fusion dishes that reflect the chefs’ marriage of traditions from Laos, Vietnam, and Chicago. The full menu is available for delivery and takeout.

Semicolon is one of Chicago’s most happening new woman-owned bookstores. After happening upon an empty gallery space, founder D.L. Mullen opened the shop in the summer of 2019 and was immediately embraced by the local community. Semicolon stocks books that “nurture the connection between literature, art, and the pursuit of knowledge” and doubles as an exhibition space for local artists.

Denver

Some of our favorite woman-fronted haunts in the Mile High City include an inclusive fashion boutique, a chic home-goods store, and a gourmet food truck.

Fashionista Debra Mazur opened Common Era in Denver’s Highlands neighborhood in 2007. Her style philosophy is to stock “clothes that represent the here and now” and while each piece is unique, the prices can be surprisingly reasonable. You can shop for apparel, jewelry, handbags, and more in person or online.

Modern Nomad, a cavernous home goods store in Denver’s trendy RiNo neighborhood, has a little something for everyone. Proprietor Becky Miller makes it her mission to curate items and artifacts with soul, and the 5,500 square-foot warehouse-style shop is home to 10 locally owned, self-funded small businesses.

Devon Hill spent more than 10 years in the food industry before she founded My Friends & Pie, a food truck that delivers New Zealand-style hand pies throughout the Denver Metro area. Her handmade pies are the ultimate portable snack and you can throw in an order of curly fries if you’re extra hungry.

New York City

Have you recently landed in NYC? Make a day of it and shop for books, artisanal cheeses, and the latest Bushwick fashions.

Kalima Desuze’s Crown Heights bookstore and cafe is aptly named Cafe Con Libros. You can browse the latest staff picks to find your next perfect read, or get an expertly brewed cup of coffee or tea to go. The shop also offers a monthly book subscription that highlights intersectional feminist books “by, for and about womxn and girls.”

If you want to assemble the perfect cheese plate, head to Brooklyn to check out Monger’s Palate, a cute shop that stocks cheeses and cured meats from around the world. Owner Carol Johnson, a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America, completed a cheesemaking apprenticeship and worked at NYC’s legendary Murray’s Cheese before striking out on her own.

Sincerely, Tommy is a must-visit boutique in Bushwick, Brooklyn that carries emerging women’s wear labels. Founder Kai Avent-deLeon selects thoughtful designs that help you stand out in a crowd. You can also shop the carefully curated collection of accessories, footwear, and clothing through their online storefront.

Los Angeles

Hooray for Hollywood! Our LA picks include an artisanal bakery, an eco-friendly emporium, and a woman-owned wine shop. If you’ve just arrived in town, read up on the best things about living in Los Angeles.

East Hollywood bakery Friends & Family was founded by pastry chef Roxana Jullapat, who is known for farm-to-table pastries that highlight the freshest produce around, and her husband chef Daniel Mattern. Whether you’re in the mood for something savory or something sweet, you will find the perfect pastry awaits at this bakery. We won’t tell if you end up ordering a pistachio croissant and a trouble cookie.

Otherwild Goods & Services, a queer-identified woman-owned store, is a one-stop shop for sustainable, ethically made products. The store has stylish clothes and accessories for men, women, and children as well as a fun selection of household items. Although the storefront is currently closed due to Covid, you can shop the entire collection online.

Coly Den Haan, a certified sommelier and beer specialist, opened Vinovore as a showplace for alcohol produced by women. In addition to its impressive selection of woman-made beers and wines, the store carries books, gift boxes, and upscale pantry items. You can shop in person or online for delivery and pickup, and Vinovore also ships within California and to several other states.

San Francisco Bay Area

Beautiful San Francisco Bay is dotted with cool spots. Our current favorites? A woman-owned tattoo shop, an artisanal chocolate shop to die for, and a single-origin spice purveyor.

Local hotspot Black + Blue Tattoo, established in 1995, is now back and better than ever after closing due to Covid. (Walk-in appointments are not yet available, as strict sanitation and safety protocols are in place for each client.) The female- and queer-run, gender-inclusive tattoo studio rents out chairs to an eclectic range of tattoo artists with different styles and specialties.

The company doesn’t have a dedicated storefront yet, but you can find Diaspora Co. single-source spices in upscale food markets throughout the Bay Area. Founder Sana Javeri Kadri was born and raised in Mumbai and became disillusioned with how little profit spice farmers in India realized from their labor. She started Diaspora in 2016 in order to source high-quality organic spices for distribution in the U.S. while paying farm partners ethically.

The handmade, single-origin truffles at Kokak Chocolates, the home base for chocolatier Carol Gancia, are almost too pretty to eat. Kokak got her start in the Bay Area working on cooking TV shows and opened her adorable San Francisco shop as a passion project. Years later it’s a must-visit for locals, and the gorgeous confections make perfect gifts. You can stop by in person or have a box of truffles delivered to you within the Bay Area or shipped to other parts of the US.

Seattle

Whether you love the Mariners, the Twilight franchise, or the Fifty Shades franchise, Seattle is an easy place to call home. You could spend a rainy day exploring this cheeky bakery, avant-garde gallery, and beloved local bookstore.

You may think you’ve died and gone to geek heaven when you walk into Ada’s Technical Books. (The store’s name is a nod to pioneering computer programmer Ada Lovelace.) Where else can you pick up a coronavirus coloring book, a dense manual about search algorithms, and White Fragility in the same trip? All books, as well as items from Ada’s vegetarian cafe, are available for pickup or delivery, and there are limited hours for browsing in person.

Ghost Gallery is the brainchild of independent curator Laurie Kearney, who wanted to create a space to highlight local and regional artists and designers. If you’re not an avid art collector (yet) you can still find something you love so much you have to take it home in the gallery’s collection of apothecary items, handmade jewelry, and tarot cards.

Beloved local bakery Hot Cakes got its start in 2008 at the Seattle Farmers Market, where Autumn Martin sold her signature molten chocolate cake dough. Fast forward to today, when Hot Cakes has two Seattle locations, one in Ballard and one in Capitol Hill. The molten chocolate cake is still a hot-ticket item, but there’s also a peanut butter version that’s winning hearts and minds and a variety of other delectable baked goods.

Washington, DC

The US capital is home to some amazing woman-powered businesses, including a family-friendly bookstore, a distillery run by former Capitol Hill power brokers, and a fashion and home goods brand incubator that focuses on advancing the local community.

When Laurie Gillman’s neighborhood bookstore Trover’s closed in 2009, the Seattle native got a bee in her bonnet. Neighborhoods get their character from bookstores, which are also great places for readers of all ages to expand their horizons. She opened East City Book Shop in 2016 and it has quickly become a community landmark. The store offers a thoughtfully curated collection of antiracism books for readers of all ages, and you can shop in person or online.

Boutique distillery Republic Restoratives was founded by two girl boss ex-politicos, a former aide to Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Gifford Pia Carusone, and sustainability consultant Rachel Gardner. Shop for small-batch bourbons, brandies, ryes, and vodkas in person or online. We love the Black Manhattan ready-to-drink cocktail and the 100-proof Purpose Rye, which finishes with a spiky note of black pepper.

Steadfast Supply, an incubator for more than 70 independent designers and brands, was founded by Virginia Blanca Arrisueño in 2016. The business started out as a pop-up shop, but Steadfast now has two permanent retail locations. You can find all of their wares online, or shop in person at Steadfast Supply’s shops at The Yards in Washington, DC, and Ballston Quarter in nearby Arlington, Virginia.

Of course, these are just a few of the woman-owned businesses in our worldwide markets. The beauty of renting through Blueground is that you can spend your first days in your new city out in the community, not assembling furniture or shopping for linens. So visit our site to find a furnished apartment that’s perfect for your lifestyle and unique needs.