Snag tickets now for this June’s FAB Workshop

The FAB Workshop, a business workshop that welcomes women at every stage of their food and beverage career, will return to the Holy City June 8 through June 10. There are still a few tickets left for the popular event; find them at thisisfab.com.

Founded by Randi Weinstein, FAB is now in its ninth year and shows no signs of slowing down. Weinstein has a lot of experience in Charleston’s food and bev scene: She served as director of events and logistics for the Charleston Wine + Food Festival for seven years, ran operations for a local restaurant group and helped launch a series called Bad Bitches, which raised money for scholarships to help women in the food and bev industry.

With more than 60 speakers covering topics ranging from human resources to P&Ls (profit and loss, FYI), the workshop helps women evaluate their business acumen and take home vital skills.

“FAB is really about having every single cog in the wheel that makes up this industry,” Weinstein said. “We find people in each of these sectors that really know what they’re doing.”

This year’s speakers include heavy hitters in the food and beverage industry, from Charleston’s own Bethany Heinze (co-owner and Operations/Beverage Director at Vern’s) and Corrie Wang (co-owner of Jackrabbit Filly and King BBQ) to Elizabeth Vakil, CPO at Resy, and Aretah Ettarh, the chef de cuisine at New York City’s Gramercy Tavern.

“When I built FAB, I built it to service people at any stage in this industry,” Weinstein said in an exclusive with the Charleston City Paper. “They could be at the beginning stages and either looking to eventually have ownership or kind of grow up the ranks of a company.”

She said plenty of attendees also work in upper levels of management, or are business owners looking to sharpen their skills. FAB works to demystify all aspects of the food and beverage industry from media training to acquiring funding.

Weinstein said one of the most refreshing aspects of the workshop is how eager participants are to share their knowledge with one another. “People are genuinely excited to meet other people and to find out what their needs are and how they can connect and help them,” she said.

By women, for women

Weinstein said she still sees a disparity between the way men and women are treated in the F&B industry. But she said she’s always impressed by male business owners who send their female employees to the workshop.

She mentioned Kelly Whitaker, a Denver chef and restaurateur who has sent his team to FAB. “He wasn’t thinking about the ROI on his end,” she said. “He was thinking about giving them the tools to be successful.”

And while there are more women in kitchens and owning restaurants than ever before, there is less investment in women from venture capitalists, according to the World Economic forum.
At FAB, women are investing in themselves — in an open and honest way, no less.

“FAB is total transparency and zero bullshit,” Weinstein said. As honest as the speakers are, Weinstein expects the same kind of open dialogue with the attendees, too. Every year, FAB sends a post-event survey to attendees.

“Last year, when I was reading the commentary, the concurrent theme was really about how FAB has built such an incredible community and how they [the attendees] have never been able to have these open conversations with others like that [but now] they’ve been given the space,” she said. “And how those conversations have led to collaborations.”

Some of those conversations center around a different kind of disparity — not gender gaps, but generational differences. Weinstein said that older generations can learn from younger ones about work/life balance.

“I think that this industry just burned out so many people — that it does have to tear up the manual, and it does have to actually, really restart and rethink and reframe what and how to treat people,” she said. Past FAB workshops have featured a wide range of talks on something many female industry workers need help with: relaxation.

FAB offers scholarships every year, giving even more women the opportunity to learn and grow at the workshop. Ultimately, Weinstein said that the connections at the workshop are what you make them.

“It’s a ripple effect,” she said. “You get as much out of it, like anything, as what you put into it.”