Expand your network of leaders, entrepreneurs and artisans!

The Greater Ravenswood Chamber invites you to our first Women Leaders in Business event of the year! Join us Thursday, March 27 at Color Me Mine to connect with local women leaders, entrepreneurs and artisans.

Did you know that more than 55% of GRCC member businesses are women-owned? This event offers a great opportunity to strengthen your ties to this dynamic, diverse, and powerful segment of the Ravenswood community. Attendees will enjoy coffee from Ridman’s, sweets from Lucila’s Alfajores, and the materials to paint your own coffee mug!

Tickets include admission, coffee, alfajores, and all of the materials to paint and bring home your own coffee mug. Registration closes at noon on Wednesday, March 26th. A limited number of tickets are available.

About Lucila’s Alfajores

Lucila grew up in the Argentine countryside, in a small town a few hours outside of Buenos Aires. Like nearly every Argentine child, Lucila loved eating alfajores, and couldn’t get enough of these delicious treats.

Once she moved to Chicago, Lucila’s fond memories of the mouth-watering aroma of alfajores swirling through her childhood home, inspired her to start baking for her children. And their friends. And neighbors. And neighbors’ friends. And neighbors’ friends’ friends.
The word spread; the love grew; and a pastry business blossomed.

After several years of hard work and dedication, Lucila is delighted to share her artisanal, hand-crafted alfajores with you, so that you can create your own sweet memories.
Taste the love that goes into every bite. It’s a hug in cookie form straight from Lucila to you!

A Midwestern girl and famously a lover of vegetables, Chef Steph loves cooking vegetable-forward comfort food while borrowing flavors from other cuisines she discovers during her travels and reading cookbooks.

An owner of 100+ cookbooks, Chef Steph has a lot to share! Once a month, Good Company hosts a Cook Book Club meetup for discussing a cookbook while tasting of recipes from the text.

Chef Steph looks forward to hosting more dinner parties, sharing her love for food and storytelling, and feeding anyone and everyone who will let her.

To learn more, visit lucilas.com.

About Ridman’s Coffee

Ridman’s Coffee is a small, black & woman-owned specialty coffee shop at the intersection of Uptown, Andersonville and Ravenswood on Chicago’s north side. our goal is to provide quality coffee, tea, and pastries while making our customers and Neighbors feel at home in our shop.

They are proud to carry Dark Matter Coffee, Rishi Tea, & baked goods from phlour bakery and Defloured: A Gluten Free Bakery.

Ryan Haynes (he/him) (co-owner) was born in St. Louis. He moved to Chicago in 2014 and has been working as a barista since 2017. He writes and performs stand up in his spare time.

Danielle Holtz (she/they) (co-owner) was born in Minnesota. She moved to Chicago in 2006. She also works for Chicago Public Schools.

Danielle and Ryan were married in 2022. They took over ownership of Ridman’s in January 2023 from Sarah Riddle and Katy Weseman, two of their favorite people.

To learn more, visit ridmanscofffee.com.

About Color Me Mine

Color Me Mine North Center opened on April 4, 2024 and is the first city location for the California-based company, which has six other locations in the Chicago suburbs.

The shop, located at 3849 N Lincoln Ave., offers customers at least one hundred pottery pieces to paint. These ceramics include practical items like vases and dining ware as well as fun and whimsical figurines. After choosing a piece, or several, customers are invited to customize their pottery with paints of all colors. When they are done, the Color Me Mine team will glaze and fire the items in an electric kiln, and customers can return to the shop a week later to pick up their finished pieces.

Owner Niinnu Gupttaa got the idea of owning a craft business after she attended a paint-and-sip class at Bottles and Bottega and realized how peaceful it was to do an activity without any interruptions for two hours. “I saw that [art therapy] magic happen to me,” she said. “It’s good to see everybody leaving happy and the art therapy it gives you.”

She opened her own franchise of Bottle and Bottega in Park Ridge in 2017. When Painting with a Twist acquired Color Me Mine in 2020, Gupttaa decided to make Color Me Mine her next project. Since there were no Chicago locations, she decided to open one in the city.

To Learn more, visit northcenter.colormemine.com.

About the Greater Ravenswood Chamber of Commerce

GRCC is a 501c6 non-profit organization that provides resources for entrepreneurs in Ravenswood and its surrounding communities. Our partnerships with the City of Chicago include; operating a Neighborhood Business Development Center with support from the Department of Business Affairs & Consumer Protections; participating in the Department of Planning & Development’s Local Industrial Retention Initiative; and managing SSA#31, which provides additional services to business and property owners along Ravenswood’s commercial corridors.

We are guided by the belief that creativity, sustainable living, and diverse industry position Ravenswood as a destination neighborhood. We create programs and provide services that connect the dots between businesses, residents, non-profit organizations, local government and area schools. Click here to learn more about who we are.