elizabeth lessner gets it

sure. you’ve had the meatloaf sandwich with the jalapeño mayo at betty’s before. and maybe on occasion you wash a blt & a down with multiple abitas at surly girl because it reminds you of home. and you’re right — you’ve got your own reasons for going back. who needs another?

but did you know that the hosts, line cooks, dishwashers, and bartenders that populate these two joints — local artists and musicians, mostly — have access to an employer-sponsored, group-health plan?

and are compensated well in excess of minimum wage?

perhaps it’s never occurred to you to wonder. but in our experience here at offbeat, this level of commitment to employees is anomalous and the exception to the rule. particularly in the restaurant industry, and often times in small business — quite simply, it cuts into the bottom line and increasingly thin profit margins. some might invoke the health-care crisis, saying it’s about survival. which, undoubtedly, in many cases it is. to simply say rates are UP would be an understatement. but how many employers would willingly dock their own pay before taking employees’ benefits away?

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when we first heard that elizabeth lessner was going to be adding a new member to the betty’s family of restaurants — tip top kitchen & cocktails, in downtown columbus at 73 e. gay — we thought to ourselves: this is one cool #@%*ing chick!

eat. drink. rock. raise hell.

right?

but that’s just part of the story. and while lessner was recently profiled by columbus monthly as one of our city’s “rising stars,” and has enjoyed a certain amount of celebrity in the local press, it’s almost always been in relation to her gig as a restaurateur. which, deservedly so: she owns or co-owns two — soon to be three — of the top spots for offbeat eats in columbus.

we spent some time chatting with her recently via email to get the story behind the story.

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how best to define elizabeth lessner? not by her day job unless you want a well-deserved quibble. i don’t think it’d be overstating the case to think of her in terms of being a social entrepreneur. she’s a traditional business entrepreneur in certain respects — yes; but, more important, she’s also working and investing — in term of both time and money — to generate social value and effect social change. an activist. a co-agitator! and i suspect the former’s fueling the latter.

some exposition:

“my background is in social work, nursing, and psychology. i studied all three and planned to get a law degree and save the world — particularly women living in poverty in the US and abroad. i always believed that national and worldwide poverty could be greatly reduced simply by raising the economic status of women everywhere, by providing them with access to birth control, education, and better opportunities.

“as i went through college, i realized that what women REALLY needed was money. i didn’t believe that i had anything novel to offer academia or the non-profit sector. my passion, knowledge, and ideas were nothing new; women needed money to fund better opportunities, birth control, and education. they needed my resources, not my “great” ideas.”

on wages and benefits:

“my loyalties are with the worker. i was raised in the industry and worked myself up to where i am today … so these are the types of issues — health benefits, minimum wage — i take to heart … and give up my valuable time to travel and defend. i’ll always identify with the worker first.

“i have always paid well above the minimum wage… again, how can one sleep at night paying someone well below any sort of “livable wage?” unfortunately, even in 2007, women in entry-level positions — especially in the hospitality industry — still earn .70 cents to a man’s dollar. women enter this industry often because their schedules need to be flexible to accommodate childcare. i employ a large number of single moms … i feel i owe it to them to pay a fair living wage. especially when a 30% disparity still exists. i want that to go away forever.”

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offbeat columbus: you traveled to washington, d.c. late last year, along with carmen owens, to participate in the national restaurant association’s 22nd public affairs conference. not your first trip to capitol hill, i don’t think. what were some of the legislative priorities of the ohio delegation you helped represent?

lessner: specifically, my visit last fall was to ask our elected officials to stop bowing down to insurance-industry pressure and to allow small businesses to gain access to larger group-insurance policies through the umbrella of the ohio restaurant association. i cannot compete wage and benefits-wise with the applebees of the world, because they are so much and bigger — and in this country, bigger is better and qualifies them for much better rates on insurance. all i want is a fair playing field so that, as a small business-owner, i can give the same benefits as the manager over at friday’s. all of this is in the interest of the worker. i don’t want my staff to sell their souls to corporate life simply because i can’t provide them with similar benefits. i do provide similar benefits, but it gets harder every year.

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on politics and wearing multiple hats:

“my seat on cora was simply because there were no other women restaurateurs on the board and it annoyed me. so when they asked me, i said yes. i love my peers there; they’re passionate, and an extremely diverse and quirky bunch. they love the industry and they love columbus and so we share these loves in common, though we do differ on most things political. when i wear my cora hat to capitol hill, i mainly speak out about issues related to health care and insurance for my employees or state and local issues. i tend to disagree with the national restaurant association so i keep quiet on most major issues on a national level when i visit d.c. with the restaurant association. right now, cora needs me — they face a democratic city council and a new congress filled with lots of new democratic faces — not to mention a new democratic governor. so that might be partly why i was asked to be on that board, but i don’t really know for sure.”

“i talk about things that affect me personally. i do not go to d.c. with my business-owner hat on. i would like to believe that the people i voted into office care about the fact that i can barely meet payroll with the rising costs of health care each month. i want them to know that i struggle every single day and that i employ and insure their constituents. i want my elected officials to know that i vote, that i care; that i register my staff and customers to vote each year; and that i still believe in the system, because it can — and does — work.”

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whether it’s making personal sacrifices in order to provide above-average pay and benefits for her employees (an aberration in the hospitality industry, certainly); regular lobbying trips to washington on behalf of womens’ causes like unfpa; or serving on the board of local organizations like cowic, elizabeth lessner gets it. support her businesses, save the world.