We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Kaci Goff. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Kaci below.

Kaci, appreciate you joining us today. Let’s talk legacy – what sort of legacy do you hope to build?

If you dive deep into the underbelly of the restaurant industry and talk to workers, you’ll hear stories of substance abuse, mental illness, harassment, exploitation, low wages, abuse, and discriminations. I have spent a decade of my life in this industry being faced with these issues. I have spent the last two years speaking out against the hospitality industry hoping to strike a conversation that can lead to positive changes of our toxic culture.

Most employers will say its a strive for perfection and this is the sacrifice. These issues are ones that BIPOC and women face with opportunities withheld and continued trauma from experiences of racism and misogyny. Media chooses not to vet properly. If you speak to restaurant workers it’s clear that nothing has changed during the pandemic. Best restaurant lists and PR backing shadow and silence what worker’s continue to experience.

I face more repercussions for saying this out loud and face blacklisting, then the owners, managers, and chefs that continue to abuse their staff. Most restaurant worker’s want a better professional life, but the status quo has that much power to continue upholding harmful environments.

I hope that when I’m remembered it’s for helping others. For not being a coward. For standing firm in what I believe that this industry deserves and could be.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

My name is Kaci Goff. I graduated high school in 2009 and went into culinary school later that year. I majored in culinary arts and food and beverage management. I have spent the last decade working every position from the bottom to the top between front and back of the house. I have disabilities I have had to navigate that have moved me out of the kitchen over the years, but I remained in the industry to teach myself as much as I could about restaurant operations. I started my career in Temecula Wine Country, and eventually made my way to Los Angeles. In 2017, I moved to Seattle and started my pop up, Wolf and Woman. Wolf and Woman is four and a half years old, and was relaunched in San Diego in Spring of 2021. I have been serving Malaysian-Tamilian inspired heritage cuisine using the fine ingredients California has to offer. I have also started a product line of house made masalas, and a collaboration hot sauce line with Kismet Refining. I never thought I would have a seat at the table, so I built my own table. I feel fortunate to be able to share my craft and passion with others, and I am still evolving and growing as a business owner and cook.

How did you build your audience on social media?

The first three years on Instagram, I didn’t utilize the platform to my advantage to grow a following. Putting myself out there makes me uncomfortable, and I didn’t have any extra finances to invest in PR or a marketing manager. I had someone call me out and say my social media presence “sucks.”

That lit a little fire under my butt, and I ended up deciding that being proactive and posting frequently had to happen, and budgeting a photographer when I could afford to. I went from 300 followers to gaining a 1000 people within a year.
Updating and running the website on my own.

It’s still a slow work in progress to understand marketing, but I believe marketing your brand is about 80% of how you survive and 20% about a good product.
IE.) mediocre men being harmful people and not creating a good product ending up with recognition and accolades

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

This industry has done everything to push me out since I entered it. Knowledge being withheld. I have never had a mentor in ten years of my career. Being a woman of color isn’t valued in our society or an industry that upholds white supremacy and the patriarchy. I had to watch how things would be done, and most places I cross-trained myself on different stations and positions. My hands are disabled and instead of throwing in the towel, I learned front of the house operations. Almost all the establishments I have worked in, I have been harassed or assaulted by men and being a survivor it is on-going trauma I have to continually unpack.
When the pandemic started in 2020, I realized I may not be able to recover any of my career.
A year later, with no connections, resources, or finances I re-launched and branded myself in a new city’s industry.
While the last year has been pivot after pivot, financial hardships, struggles with mental illness and alcoholism, with many of my peers taking the time to try to blackball me out of the industry……. I am still here.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.wolfandwomanrestaurant.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/wolfandwomanpopup
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OkBjE9qKEuY

Image Credits
Photographers: Derrick Reed, Kimberly Motos, Arlene Ibarra, Alex Marie Alford, Reva Jean