The Leap

When it comes to food business startups—some entrepreneurs

prefer to start on wheels before expanding to a brick-and-mortar

locations. Tune in to hear how Mike Lenard scaled DC's beloved fast

casual Takorean from a single food truck to five locations in two cities.

Kristof Grina has big plans to enhance DC's urban agriculture landscape. Across DC, Up Top Acres operates 7 rooftop farms, producing locally grown vegetables and herbs for city dwellers. Everything they grow travels no more than 1/4 of a mile—redefining the local food movement.

Vermouth has regained its swagger and Kat Hamidi is helping to lead the way. Thanks to the cocktail boom—the once dormant US vermouth category is experiencing remarkable growth and theirs great potential for craft makers. Listen to the ins and outs of starting a vermouth co as Kat chats about her growing DC startup.

pineapple began in 2015 with a simple, yet powerful idea: bring women together around good food. Today, Ariel Pasternak and Ariel Bernstein run a collaborative of over 60,000 women who convene online and offline, with food as the centerpiece. They believe food is a great activator for women to connect and share with each other and strengthen our collective voice.

Danielle Vogel, owner of Glen's Garden Market, guest hosts this week's episode with two of the three finalists of AccelerateHERdc. Hear from Chelsea Barker, Director of Operations at Little Wild Things Farm (winner!!) & Danielle Russo, Founder of More Than Water.

As the Colombian-American founder of El Camino Travel, Katalina never meant to start a travel company. A quick conversation (about drug cartels) with a taxi driver in Guatemala dramatically changed the course of her life and veered her from international development to hospitality and tourism.

El Camino Travel is a culmination of Katalina’s experiences working extensively throughout Latin America for over a decade, and her creative side that is obsessively on the hunt for those locals that make a destination tick.

Katalina, and her team of experts at El Camino Travel are on the ground in the destinations, working extremely hard to make sure you have the experiences of a lifetime. This is exactly how they would want to experience these countries if they were traveling there for the first time.

This week's guest is Ben Eisendrath, owner and designer-in-chief of Grillworks. Grillworks makes the purist's premier wood-fired grills. For over 30 years, since the ground-breaking Grillery, home grillers and chefs have turned to the grills that are truly Argentine Inspired, American Made.

Sponsored by: Glen's Garden Market. Good food from close by. Learn more at www.glensgardenmarket.com

Ann Yang is the co-founder of MISFIT Juicery. Yang started MISFIT as a college student at Georgetown University with her best friend, Phil Wong. Two years later, MISFIT is now found in 65 wholesale accounts throughout the D.C. area and in New York City including Blue Hill at Stone Barns, an eatery recently named the best restaurant in the United States. MISFIT has been featured in Vogue Magazine, Fast Company and Inc. Magazine, and is one of six companies nationwide in the inaugural class of the Chobani Food Incubator. MISFIT has also created partnerships with Baldor Specialty Foods, National Geographic, DC Central Kitchen and Jubilee Jobs.

Sponsored by: Glen's Garden Market. Good food from close by. Learn more at www.glensgardenmarket.com

Jenna, the founder of Whisked!, is originally from Eugene, Oregon. Jenna has always been a passionate baker, spending hours making cakes for her college committee meetings at the University of Washington and baking through almost every recipe in Rose Levy Beranbaum’s The Bread Bible. In 2005, Jenna moved to Washington DC and never looked back. After a few years spent getting to know the city and falling in love with the up-and-coming DC food scene, Jenna started ModernDomestic in 2008; a blog about baking and pastry, which quickly became a local hit. On the blog, Jenna discussed the science of baking, shared favorite recipes, and interviewed DC-area pastry chefs. In 2010 she decided to follow her passion and quit her full-time job to become a baker at Treet, an online bakery. She worked at several other area food businesses, including Soupergirl, The Big Cheese Truck, and Spilled Milk Catering, to learn the ropes before launching Whisked! in 2011. The influence of Jenna’s enterprising spirit and love of homemade baked goods on Whisked! products is unmistakable. We don’t take shortcuts, ensuring every pie, cookie, and quiche is made with the same attention as if you were baking in your own home.

Sponsored by: Glen's Garden Market. Good food from close by. Learn more at www.glensgardenmarket.com

This week's guest on The Leap is Michele Tsucalas of Michele's Granola. Michele's Granola started with Michele's love of fresh, healthy food and passion for supporting local food markets. Love is the first ingredient in every batch our team bakes in Baltimore, MD. Michele makes her granola the old-fashioned, all-natural way--blended by hand, with organic whole grain oats and loads of crunchy seeds and nuts. Just like in her home kitchen, there are never any additives, preservatives or artificial ingredients. Michele's Granola is dairy, egg and honey free--which means it is free of cholesterol and transfats, and 100% vegetarian friendly.

Sponsored by: Glen's Garden Market. Good food from close by. Learn more at www.glensgardenmarket.com