Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Natalia Levey. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Natalia, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Let’s start with the story of your mission. What should we know?
I’m on a mission to transform hospitality industry operations through wellness from the inside out. I’ve experienced the hardship of working in a professional kitchen environment early on – my body was struggling with the physical stress, and I was in constant pain. Taking a decade off allowed me to focus on healing not just my body, but learning more about overall wellness. After experiencing personal health challenges, I wanted to learn as much as I could about all the ingredients of wellbeing – nutritional, physical, emotional. My research led me to publishing a book “Cravings Boss,” speaking at TEDx about connection between gut and happiness, and also working with doctors and their patients on healthy cooking using culinary medicine as a base.
Five years ago I came back to the restaurant industry, and founded Hi Hospitality Group. During the pandemic I began writing a newsletter to our teams, calling it “mindful Monday Minute.” It’s become a newsletter that now feeds the souls of many people from the global hospitality industry.
In hospitality we are always expected to take the best possible care of our guests. But as we all know, it’s hard to pour from an empty jar. I’d love to see those personal jars of the hospitality industry workers get filled with joy through multiple wellness and mindfulness initiatives.
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?
Cooking is something that has always come naturally to me. In fact, it was when I was a teenager was when I visited my first restaurant. Food has always been a powerful vehicle to connection. So going to the culinary school in NYC felt like the natural next step. After graduating and working for s short period of time in the industry, I experienced health challenges that led me to leaving and focusing on healing and my family. After trying to rediscover myself through different startups, I went back to food through the lens of wellness and nutrition. Spent a decade studying and getting certified in many wellness modalities, published a book, spoke at TEDx, I was teaching culinary wellness all over the world.
The Universe had bigger plans for me, and 5 years ago I came back fully into the restaurant industry, and founded Hi Hospitality Group. We now are an award-winning company, with 3 restaurants, and several more under construction, set to open in 2023.
Speaks Clam Bar (Lakewood Rand and St Armands Circle), Kojo (Downtown Sarasota), Bar Hana by Kojo (coming early 2023 Downtown Sarasota), Palm Avenue Deli (coming early 2023 Downtown Sarasota), Central Park St. Pete Food Hall (coming late 2023 to St Pete, Fl)
Leaning on the wellness background, I was able to infuse our culture with mindfulness initiatives, and we are constantly improving. Being on the Advisory Board for School of Hospitality at USF has given me an opportunity to work with students, inspire passion for hospitality and restaurants in the next generation of industry professionals.
We are fortunate to have a strong, collaborative culinary, FOH and executive team of talented individuals that care deeply about creating memorable dining experiences for our guests.
Have any books or other resources had a big impact on you?
I am an avid reader and listener to books, audiobooks and podcasts. Here are some of my top favorites:
1. “How I built this” with Guy Raz is an incredibly insightful podcast, sharing stories of success, sprinkled with challenges that founders had to overcome.
2. “Setting the table” book by Danny Meyer – a legendary restaurateur who is still inspiring millions in the hospitality industry
3. “Walt Disney Way” by Andrew Lock and “Delivering Happiness” by Tony Hsieh are great books on extraordinary service and culture
4. “The big leap” by Gay Hendricks will inspire or re-inspire you to keep going
5. “The art of happiness” by His Holiness The Dalai Lama and Howard C. Cutler will keep you grounded and at peace.
Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?
Many diners make the decisions to eat at particular restaurants based on the visuals they see on social media. But besides just creating a powerful (and delicious) visual presence, we always felt it was important to help our guests, and potential guests to get a peak behind the scenes, get to know the teams, creative process, visualize themselves in our spaces.
Each brand has its own voice, and all those nuances are expressed through the social media strategy.
Speaks Clam bar (@speaksclambar) is a little more fun and cheeky (the theme is “we celebrate end of Prohibition every day” with craft cocktails, homemade pasta and delicious seafood and Italian specialties), so we showcase that through our posts.
Kojo (@eatkojo), on the other hand, is more intimate, elevated and mindfulness-focused. We share ancient wisdom quotes, as well as themed reels.
Staying true to the brand is important.
Contact Info:
- Website: natalialevey.com
- Instagram: @natalialevey
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/natalia-levey-54b15219/
- Other: hihospitalitygroup.com
Image Credits
Photos by Heidi Hapanowicz