Why Restaurants Matter

Erin Wade is a farmer and restaurateur who has opened six restaurants and two farms. Her career in food began on a small farm in rural New Mexico, where she learned how to grow crops on ten parched acres and was inspired to open a restaurant that focused on hearty, creative salads. Before that, Wade graduated from Harvard College with a BA in English & American Literature and Language, interned at Harper's Bazaar, and studied fashion design in Milan.

Wade has written for numerous publications about technology’s disruption of food, been interviewed by Forbes, Eater, and Medium.com about her critique of delivery platforms and the future of restaurants; and testified to the FSC and DOJ about how monopolistic networks distort healthy restaurant markets.

Wade lives on a farm with her fiancé, three dogs, a gaggle of chickens, and a pig named Gordo.