Over 27 years, Ellen Yin has built numerous successful restaurants and amassed top awards, including Philadelphia Business Journal’s “Women of Distinction” award and “Outstanding Restaurateur” by the James Beard Foundation. Fork, High Street Hospitality Group’s flagship restaurant and Yin’s first entrepreneurial endeavor, was dubbed one of the most influential restaurants of the past decade by The Philadelphia Inquirer and appeared in Esquire’s “Top 100 Restaurants America Can’t Afford to Lose.”
Yin studied entrepreneurial management and began her career as a healthcare consultant. But from early part-time stints tending bar and waiting tables she felt the undeniable tug of restaurants. “As an Asian-American woman, I sometimes struggled to find my place but I always felt a sense of belonging in the hospitality industry,” she notes.
As a leader and entrepreneur, Yin says she quickly learned that success depends on ensuring that all team members feel a sense of belonging and connection. For her, success depends, too, on embracing diversity and offering support and opportunities for growth.
Focused throughout her career on helping to create such opportunities, she mentors as much as possible and embraces community-building opportunities. She’s especially passionate about helping other women entrepreneurs.
“Early on, I didn’t see many other women restaurant founders or leaders” she says. I love being able to share my insights on that side of the business with other women, many of whom don’t have a business-focused network to look to for advice.”
In 2020, Yin co-founded the Sisterly Love Collective. It’s an alliance of women committed to empowering women in the industry through networking, mentoring, education and advocacy. “Being a woman entrepreneur can be very isolating,” Yin notes. “Many women play multiple roles that can take significant time and energy away from being able to sustain and grow their businesses. When we started this alliance, we quickly realized there are so many skills that we can share with each other, from how to negotiate and get financing, to branding, to labor management.”
The organization recently introduced two new initiatives. One provides resources for women entrepreneurs who are also parents, while a group dubbed “women on the line” provides skill-building and resources to women aspiring to advance to management or ownership positions.
As for her own business, Yin says all employees are supported with benefits such as paid time off, dependent care assistance and flexible scheduling. She’s created an internal women’s circle and strives to create an “everyone is welcome” culture. She periodically brings inspiring entrepreneurs in to share their experiences with her staff. And women and men are represented almost equally on her leadership team. “It can be tough in this environment to hire in general,” Yin notes, “but we want to give everyone an equal chance to be discovered, work hard and grow their careers.”
