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entrepreneur Angel Gregorio He had the idea of bringing together both good food and great people in a business model that could also inspire black entrepreneurs. Curator and creator of The Spice Suite, a retail store in New York, selling exotic spices and kitchenware under the motto “food is fashion”.
The 37-year-old mother, home cook and activist admits that the idea of running the brand didn’t start with a long-term vision of selling homemade spices.
“It was the most unexpected thing ever. I was literally walking past the For Lease sign and decided to call to see what the rent would be,” Gregorio said. company. “I asked the landlord, but he wouldn’t give me a price until I told him what to do with the space.”
At the time, Gregorio didn’t know what he wanted to do with the Tacoma-district space, but he knew he wanted to give back to the community.
“I was on a whim and said spice! Can you tell me the price?”
In 2015, spice became the theme of Gregorio’s business, but today she’s developed an incubator program to incubate other black female entrepreneurs, whom she calls “Spice Girls,” as part of her Spice Suite. Developed a broader vision of the business by developing a haven for
“The Spice Girls are a collective of black women with handcrafted and independently sourced merchandise. They hold regular pop-up slots in my store where they sell their merchandise. , they run my shop on my behalf, ”says Gregorio. said. To date, she has featured over 2,500 of her pop-ups led by her 450 Black-owned business owners in the retail space.
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In 2018, The Spice Suite was named DC’s Small Business of the Year by members of Congress. Eleanor Holmes NortonTwo years later, in 2020, The Spice Suite made $1.5 million in revenue. According to Forbes, he made $1 million more than he did the year before.
In addition to Gregorio’s culinary talents (which made it into the top 40 in Season 8 of MasterChef’s), she’s found a way to expand her unique business relationship with the Spice Girls.
“The Spice Girls are part of my motto to go Black and Four or back and forth,” said Gregorio., “The idea of going back and forth between Black and Black-owned businesses. To me, it means recreating this Black Wall Street idea on a smaller scale,” she added.
January 13, DC Mayor Muriel Bowser Other state officials were also in attendance to celebrate the ribbon-cutting of Black and Force’s new home in Langdon, DC. hair salon), PRMP Beauty (brow bar), and The Braid Bar 202 (braid bar.)
The acquisition is part of a larger initiative to preserve DC’s long-standing residents and businesses that have been economically disadvantaged or subject to cultural bias, and will be available for Mayor Bowser’s commercial use in 2022. It was made possible by launching a real estate acquisition fund.
Financial freedom has always been a goal, Gregorio said, but he has no plans yet to sell or expand the business model outside of the DC area in the near future. Instead, she wants to stay focused on blessing others in her own community. She says it has helped her succeed in her own business and her ventures.
“It’s literally like this old African saying: ‘Lift while you climb.’ “We spend a lot of time talking about affordable housing, but not enough time talking about affordable commercial space. We talk about healthy foods and produce and spend a lot of time growing our own. Not all of us are going to do that. We have the space and ability to grow our own food, but I am just creating space and opportunities for us to be in the same space.
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