Thousands of restaurant owners, big-box franchisees and hospitality industry staffers head to Chicago each May to participate in the National Restaurant Association Show at McCormick Place. They flock to consume content such as celebrity chef demos on hot topics l such as plant-based cuisine and culinary cannabis, seminars on overcoming labor challenges and increasing profits, and exhibits on everything from the latest functional beverage machines and compostable packaging to robotic servers and cutting-edge food delivery systems. This year, there was a new kid in town, , a “2-day celebration of everything hospitality” produced by Tilit, a hip restaurant uniform and gear company out of New York City.
After less than satisfactory experiences as NRA Show exhibitors, owners Jenny Goodman and Alex McCrery decided to throw an industry party during the NRA Show weekend last May, and invited some vendors, chefs and tattoo artists to join in. They wanted to “see what the appetite was for the industry to have something a little bit more progressive, a little bit more fun, a little bit more creative, and educational knowing that there’s so many amazing hospitality people in town already for this weekend,” said Goodman, who co-founded Tilit with her husband McCrery in 2012. The pair sees their work in the industry as “an extension of the hospitality ecosystem,” Goodman said.
They took the opportunity to collect like-minded vendors, big-name chefs and bartenders, and restau.
