Erin Wade was already an innovator when eight years ago, she opened her dedicated mac and cheese restaurant, Homeroom in Oakland, California. The idea hit her after she returned home one night from her job as an attorney with a craving for the dish. She realized there was no place she could get any, that mac and cheese was never thought of as a restaurant delicacy or main dish. So she set out to change that.
To help push the industry forward, Homeroom has a distinct set of what Wade sees as feminist values. These include leadership being highly communicative and collaborative with the rest of the staff. “If people come in to communicate a problem, they will also be there to help us solve it,” Wade says. Here’s how the system works: If an employee feels at all unsafe, they simply say a color to their manager. Yellow means they are getting a bad feeling or creepy vibe. Orange means some comments have been made that could be construed as threatening. Red means there have been overtly sexual comments and/or touching.