Heather Sperling spent ten years as a food editor swearing she’d never open a restaurant, because she knew too much. Then she woke up one morning and realized she was going to open one, precisely because she wanted to create something different. Today she owns Botanica and Bar Besito in Silver Lake, and in an industry where costs keep climbing, she still loves what she does. She shows up every day as the cheerleader, with an irrational faith that keeps her going for her team and her community.

She’s both the visionary behind the big thinking and the one who gets her hands dirty in the kitchen, some days pitting the 200 cherries herself. Heather and Roanne talk about the cash crunch and the reckoning that followed, and what it means to be a human shield for her team. She always shows up put together, and she still gets the emotional hangovers from the tough decisions. They also talk about why she sees this work as a small form of activism. Running through all of it is the phrase Fanny Singer, Alice Waters’ daughter, used to describe how Heather runs Botanica: the relentless prioritization of people over profit.

Founder and owner of Botanica and Bar Besito in Silver Lake, Los Angeles. She grew up outside Washington, D.C., cooking with her grandmother, and spent a decade as an editor at food publications before moving across the country to open Botanica in 2017. She is now in her first year as sole owner of both restaurants and in the process of writing a cookbook.

Links:
Botanica
Bar Besito
Botanica's Instagram
Bar Besito's Instagram