“Resy CMO Victoria Vaynberg on Menus, Marketing, and Motherhood” Transcript

Kerry Diamond: Hey everyone. Welcome to Radio Cherry Bombe, the number one female focused food podcast in the universe. I'm your host, Kerry Diamond. On today's episode, I'm sitting down with Victoria Vaynberg, the chief marketing officer at Resy. I'm sure lots of you out there love the Resy app. It's an amazing tool when it comes to getting a table at your favorite restaurant or learning about a new spot in town. Resy has just kicked off their third annual Women of Food dinner series. This program celebrates so many of our favorite bomb squad chefs and restaurateurs, including Deborah VanTrece in Atlanta, Renee Erickson in Seattle, and Marcie Turney and Valerie Safran in Philadelphia. Victoria and I talk about the series, what it means to be a CMO, Victoria's one-year-old twins and her love of podcasts.

Kerry Diamond: I'd like to welcome our newest sponsor to the bomb squad, Rioja. Rioja is the premier wine-making region in Spain that's home to more than 600 wineries. Rioja produces an incredible range of styles — reds, whites, rosés, and my favorite, sparkling wines. To learn more, visit riojawine.com/us. Now, here's my conversation with Victoria Vaynberg of Resy.

Kerry Diamond: Victoria, welcome to Radio Cherry Bombe.

Victoria Vaynberg: Thank you. So exciting.

Kerry Diamond: I'm so happy you're here. All your friends call you V?

Victoria Vaynberg: Everyone calls me V. Work and life, so ...

Kerry Diamond: How did that start?

Victoria Vaynberg: I am a former athlete since I work in an office now, but it's always been a sports thing. Nobody wants to yell, "Victoria, pass the ball," so it's just been for a really long time. I was a big gym rat, so ...

Kerry Diamond: What ball were they passing?

Victoria Vaynberg: I was a tennis player. A semi-professional college tennis player, yeah. Then, but yes, gym class in school. Any ball but ...

Kerry Diamond: Semi-professional in college, so you must be an intense human being, V.

Victoria Vaynberg: I don't think I'm intense-

Kerry Diamond: No?

Victoria Vaynberg: ... but I'm a born competitive human for sure. My mom was a professional tennis player, so ...

Kerry Diamond: Really?

Victoria Vaynberg: Yeah.

Kerry Diamond: Oh this is so interesting.

Victoria Vaynberg: Yeah. So I'm a definitely probably the most competitive person you'll meet, but I wouldn't say intense.

Kerry Diamond: Do you still play tennis today?

Victoria Vaynberg: Not really.

Kerry Diamond: No?

Victoria Vaynberg: I think I'll have a second coming. Maybe when I live in the suburbs one day and feel like I can get excited again, but not right now.

Kerry Diamond: I bet you could still kick my ass. That's my guess.

Victoria Vaynberg: Maybe not.

Kerry Diamond: Well, I'm so excited to get to talk to you because I'm a huge Resy fan, as you know. Also, International Women's Day is right around the corner and you have this wonderful series called the Women of Food dinner series. When does that kick off and how can our listeners take apart?

Victoria Vaynberg: We kick off our first dinner next Wednesday, March 11 in DC at Maydan and there are 11 dinners around the country and one in London. You can go to resy.com/womenoffood and see what's still left or sign up for a notify for the dinners that are sold out but we're really excited to keep this series rolling.

Kerry Diamond: Let's make me jealous for a minute. Which ones are you going to?

Victoria Vaynberg: I'm actually doing DC and Chicago. I'm not even taking a seat at King because that's our New York one, which I will hang on the outskirts. I'm always a fan of getting more tickets into, to guests and just kind of hang on the side so ...

Kerry Diamond: I know, right? I always say that too. When we have a Cherry Bomb event, I say to the team, "Don't eat until all the guests have eaten."

Victoria Vaynberg: Yeah. I mean this isn't even me making it up. I like kind of, I don't take that privilege too much yet. So, but I'll definitely do the first one I missed. I was pregnant last time around, so I missed all of our series last year.

Kerry Diamond: Oh, what'd you have?

Victoria Vaynberg: I have twin girls who are one.

Kerry Diamond: Twin girls.

Victoria Vaynberg: Yeah.

Kerry Diamond: Oh my gosh. Congratulations.

Victoria Vaynberg: Thank you.

Kerry Diamond: How's that going?

Victoria Vaynberg: It's its own full-time job, but they're great.

Kerry Diamond: That is bomb squad all the way. Twin girls.

Victoria Vaynberg: Yeah, I know. I thought, I'd jokingly always thought I'd be a boy mom. Then I got two girls and I love having girls and now I'm like, I don't know any other way. So it's kind of great to get to raise two little fierce humans, hopefully.

Kerry Diamond: Are you going to send them off to tennis camp when they're very young?

Victoria Vaynberg: I think I'm in the like, please play a sport, but I don't need them to, I don't need them to play tennis, but I'll be slightly upset if they don't like sports at all.

Kerry Diamond: You're not grooming them from birth?

Victoria Vaynberg: I won't, no, but I'm like, I do throw them balls and I'm like, "Come on. Catch, please."

Kerry Diamond: That's funny. All right, so back to the chefs. So you'll be at DC.

Victoria Vaynberg: Yes.

Kerry Diamond: And you will be in Chicago and who is the Chicago chef?

Victoria Vaynberg: Sarah Grueneberg at Monteverde, which is an amazing one. Yes, so that's going to be really great. I mean our lineup overall, excited for our LA, Mei Lin at Nightshade there. We're in San Francisco, Seattle with Renee Erickson, Atlanta, Chicago, Philly, Boston. We've got all the major markets covered so a lot to like.

Kerry Diamond: You've got a lot of our friends on that list. Atlanta is Deborah VanTrece.

Victoria Vaynberg: It is, yes.

Kerry Diamond: Who we love and Monteverde is just fantastic.

Victoria Vaynberg: Yeah, and we'll be in Miami at Gregory's, which is going to be amazing.

Kerry Diamond: I love Anastasia.

Victoria Vaynberg: Yeah, exactly. So, and it's cool because Anastasia is a restaurant tour and I think oftentime, we think this is just the chefs, but we really want to celebrate women who are running restaurants, whether they're cooking at the helm or not and so it's great to have her this year.

Kerry Diamond: So Gregory's is her latest place but a lot of people know and love Mandolin.

Victoria Vaynberg: They do.

Kerry Diamond: Which is I think celebrating its 10-year anniversary but it is hotter than ever.

Victoria Vaynberg: Can't get in.

Kerry Diamond: You can't get in.

Victoria Vaynberg: They don't want to shut down. I think they're really community staple. Gregory is actually a fit for this series because it's dedicated to her grandparents, which is actually our theme for this year is dedications and who these restaurant tours or head chefs are dedicating their dinners to. So it was really sweet to have the Gregory's theme. She came back to us and was like, "No, no, I opens Gregory's for my, dedicated to my grandparents," which is really awesome. So we're seeing a whole mix of dedications to those who inspire them, family members, even their own staff, so it's been really nice.

Kerry Diamond: I love that. How can people get tickets? Because there are still a few tickets available.

Victoria Vaynberg: There are, so yeah, rezy.com/womenoffood or you can look in the Resy app. We still have ... you can get on a notify list for the major cities. You never know what's going to happen. Then Atlanta, Miami, London and Boston, I believe still have some open spots.

Kerry Diamond: You have mentioned notify a few times, which is one of my favorite features on the app. Tell folks what that means in case they're like, "What is she talking about?"

Victoria Vaynberg: No problem. Notify is the game to play ... but no, it allows you to set a notification for a table that you want that's not available and if it becomes available, you'll get a push notification and you can try to snag it. It does work and you just have to be fast and flexible but that's how I get into I feel like everything I want to try.

Kerry Diamond: I can attest to the notify thing working. I just did it on Sunday night. You feel like you won the lottery.

Victoria Vaynberg: Every time.

Kerry Diamond: When you get notified.

Victoria Vaynberg: Right? I got La Maison last ... a week ago Saturday, which is amazing, and snagged it right off notify one day of. So it really does make you feel good.

Kerry Diamond: I'm guessing it appeals, must appeal very much to your competitive nature.

Victoria Vaynberg: Yes. An easy one. No skill required.

Kerry Diamond: So tell me how the series came about. Like you said, it's in its third year.

Victoria Vaynberg: It is. When we started this series, it was really pre Me Too movement becoming so big. But we started, because first of all, Resy's full of women who work there. I mean up until three months ago, my team was all women, which is a first in my life actually, it's been really fun. But we really do think about what's relevant in the industry at Resy. We wanted to make sure that we're highlighting women in the field and that's really where it stems from. Then of course, Me Too, in a lot of ways, took off and so it's only really given us more steam and more interest as we really seek to share and elevate women in the field.

Kerry Diamond: Has it allowed Resy to have more of a dialogue with the women on its platform?

Victoria Vaynberg: Definitely. I think ... I mean we have a really heavy female user base and so I think for us it's just important that we can play our role in this, right? We can't solve all the problems that exist with women in the restaurant industry but this is one big step for us, I think, in terms of how we can play a role in it. It's really great. I mean really it's marketing campaigns that we can be proud of. I think it's applicable amongst a lot of industries. Even on a personal level, like I love being able to stand behind the women in this industry because again, it spans and has similarities to every other industry out there.

Victoria Vaynberg: I think as we're now in our third year and on the caliber of chefs that we're ... not only have on the Resy platform but are working on these series, it's been really amazing because I think they're really proud to sort of participate and help give their voice as well so it's been an awesome.

Kerry Diamond: Well, you know it's our jam and anything that can bring attention to some of these amazing female fueled restaurants across the country. A lot of these folks, they don't, even though they are maybe some of the bigger, more successful restaurants in their communities, they don't necessarily have the money for PR and the money for marketing so it's just great to, to shine a light on them.

Victoria Vaynberg: We ran a New York Times ad two Sundays ago. The line for our campaign is, "Behind every great restaurant is a woman." I've gotten a lot of feedback that it often makes people stop because they have to think about what we're trying to say with that, which I think is intentional. I think we want you to think about that because a lot of restaurants could of course say, "Well, I have women hosts and I have waitstaff that's women or bartenders," and we of course want to support that too but this is really about like, you may love a restaurant in your neighborhood and not even know that the owner or the head chef is a woman. That is a huge feat and it is really important and so we've invested a lot from a marketing standpoint and I think hopefully that speaks to our partners about how much we believe in this as a platform.

Kerry Diamond: Well it is a great tagline because it does make you stop and think. You're like, "Wait, some restaurants are run and owned by men," but then you think about it, everybody had a mom or has mom.

Victoria Vaynberg: Totally. I actually used to ... that was literally the brainstorm for how we got there. Because you always think about the like, women in the kitchen, women in the kitchen. And if you ask a lot of people who's your favorite chef? People say, "My grandma or my mom." And yet it's like all a lot of men running restaurants, which is also awesome. We love our partners and I think we also want men who run or are head chefs at these restaurants to also elevate the women that do work with them because they don't think that all men are saying, "No, no, no, we're not supportive of this." It's, you know, they're also giving a platform. I think a lot of them have, their right hand person is a woman. So it's really about everyone being able to come together and say like, "We support women in these major roles."

Kerry Diamond: And hey, it's International Women's Month and International Women's Day, so it's our turn. We're getting some luck.

Victoria Vaynberg: Yeah.

Kerry Diamond: Let's talk about you for a few minutes.

Victoria Vaynberg: Oh, let's.

Kerry Diamond: I can tell it's not your favorite subject talking about yourself.

Victoria Vaynberg: It's not, but I will tell you I'm very pumped because I'm in a, not a book club, but a podcast club.

Kerry Diamond: You are?

Victoria Vaynberg: I am. It's with a group of my ... I used to work at Anheuser-Busch for a while, who was like two blocks away and we started, it's called Six Peas in a Pod, and only two are left working there but we still keep our podcast club alive and we have breakfast and we assign podcasts that we listen to. So it's very exciting for me because I'm a huge podcast enthusiast.

Kerry Diamond: That is the coolest thing. I had no idea there are podcast clubs out there.

Victoria Vaynberg: We might be the OG. I told them we got to start turning it into a real thing. But we do, we assign all sorts of podcasts to listen to and then we come for breakfast and we talk about them like a book.

Kerry Diamond: Wow.

Victoria Vaynberg: Yeah.

Kerry Diamond: I love that. Six Peas in a Pod.

Victoria Vaynberg: Yeah.

Kerry Diamond: Okay. Tell us some cool podcasts you're listening to right now.

Victoria Vaynberg: Oh. Right now. I'm back in my, The Daily obsession, which I go in and out of, of course, but ...

Kerry Diamond: The New York Times Daily.

Victoria Vaynberg: Yeah.

Kerry Diamond: I can't start my day without The Daily.

Victoria Vaynberg: Right now, it's a must. I've probably listened to every How I Built This, I love True Crime. A lot of, you know, Fresh Air and ... I'm everywhere. Always listening.

Kerry Diamond: I'm the same as you. The Daily is a must. I love Kara Swisher, big Kara Swisher fan. The Pivot, Recode, Recode Media.

Victoria Vaynberg: Recode's great, yeah.

Kerry Diamond: How I Built This, yes, I absolutely love that one. There was a ... I think Jeni's, Jeni Britton Bauer from Jeni Britton. Jeni Splendid Ice Creams is on a new one.

Victoria Vaynberg: Yes. Okay.

Kerry Diamond: I need to listen to that.

Victoria Vaynberg: Yeah, they're amazing.

Kerry Diamond: The Tate's Cookies.

Victoria Vaynberg: Just listen to that. It's an awesome one. It's awesome.

Kerry Diamond: It's a good one, right? Someone just told me that Ronan Farrow's Catch and Kill is excited.

Victoria Vaynberg: I feel like there's a lot of podcasts now that are books and I don't have the time to read anymore. So I did do Catch and Kill, which is excellent and I've heard the book's amazing as well. But there are ... I want to do the McMillions podcast about the McDonald's monopoly story, which is also an HBO documentary but you know, one in the same.

Kerry Diamond: It's so funny, everybody's launching a podcast these days.

Victoria Vaynberg: I know.

Kerry Diamond: I think I got three emails last week from people who are launching podcasts and I'm so grateful that we've had like a six-year jump on-

Victoria Vaynberg: Yeah, early on.

Kerry Diamond: Exactly. So we're going to talk about you. So how did you wind up at Resy?

Victoria Vaynberg: Yes, so my background is all in sports media, mostly ESPN. Then as I mentioned, I went over and worked at Anheuser-Busch, so sports beer. But I am a great eater and I've always loved restaurants and of course feel lucky because through my other jobs, got connected to Resy and yeah, it sort of just happened.

Kerry Diamond: So it was really the food part that interested you.

Victoria Vaynberg: Food part and I was really excited about working on something smaller. I think when you spend a lot of time at these bigger companies, you acquire so many skills that I'm very grateful for and you have lots of budgets so you really can test and learn and be dumb and fix mistakes and learn about things that I think you don't really get a chance to sometimes when you're at a smaller place. But I felt really excited about a challenge of taking on something smaller that was growing and as I said, really love food and restaurants and it kind of allowed for both things, which was scary at first. Two years in now to this role so it's crazy-

Kerry Diamond: Congratulations. It's been amazing to see how Resy has grown.

Victoria Vaynberg: Yeah, from the inside too. You know, I think you're, we're so in it at first and moving so fast and now it's nice to take a step back or come across people who are like, "I love Resy," which is pretty great to hear.

Kerry Diamond: We'll be right back with Victoria Vaynberg of Resy after this quick break.

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Kerry Diamond: Let's return to my conversation with Victoria Vaynberg of Resy.

Kerry Diamond: You are a chief marketing officer.

Victoria Vaynberg: I am.

Kerry Diamond: What does that mean exactly?

Victoria Vaynberg: My job's to make Resy, the brands grow. At Resy, that also means helping our restaurant partners grow. I think this has been my first introduction to sort of the like SAS tech world of a dual-sided business so that's kind of a big-

Kerry Diamond: Break that down for a second.

Victoria Vaynberg: Okay, so I'll break that down.

Kerry Diamond: What does SAS mean for those who are like, who don't listen to all the podcasts that we do?

Victoria Vaynberg: Fair enough. Software as a service, Resy provides the technology software for restaurants to operate their table management. So when you walk into a restaurant and you see someone tapping away at their iPad, the software they're using hopefully is Resy. Then from a consumer standpoint, you're making reservations or experiencing our discovery content, and so we have a dual sided business where we're nothing without our restaurant partners and we're nothing without our consumers and our restaurants need consumers.So it all sort of works in a nice wheel together.

Victoria Vaynberg: My job has been, again, to create a, in my view, to create a brand that people love and want to say, "I love Resy, I use Resy," and I think that then drives our business, hopefully.

Kerry Diamond: Now folks, a lot of folks just know Resy as an app.

Victoria Vaynberg: Yes.

Kerry Diamond: But Resy is becoming a lot more than just an app these days. Can you tell us about that?

Victoria Vaynberg: Sure. So Resy is, again, yes, our job is to drive butts and seats at our restaurants. But again, I think if you think about the way people talk about brands and things that they like that represent them, people love brands so part of building a brand is a lot of other pillars. We're building out our content and editorial. So for us it's really important that you can discover and book in one place.

Victoria Vaynberg: We now have this all-star editorial team of major players in the food space. So the first and then on my team actually, so Paolo Lucchesi, who was the former food editor of the San Francisco Chronicle and formerly of the Eater San Francisco is now heading up our editorial team. We have John Bonné who's a major wine writer and a lot of really experienced journalists who are now again building our content strategy. We want to be that source for you. I think we'd say like when you text that friends or someone texts you and is like, "Where should I go?" And you tell them and they're like, "I loved it." That's what Resy is, we think, on a day to day basis. We produce a lot of events, like Women of Food. Last year we produced 36 different events around the country. We're always creating new concepts, working with our restaurant chef partners, we got a whole events world, and like I said, we're really building a brand and trying to get that emotional connection.

Kerry Diamond: How many restaurants are on the platform now?

Victoria Vaynberg: Over ... I mean the way we say is like over 10,000 globally because we work also with restaurant partners in other countries.

Kerry Diamond: I know you have a lot of thoughts on marketing in general. For the small business owners in our community, what can they do to better market their businesses?

Victoria Vaynberg: Yeah. I think people don't love talking about themselves, but that's the number one thing that you have to do is sort of like put aside those personal feelings of center of attention and realize that people don't know about you unless you tell them. Right? So you have to create a brand for yourself the same way Resy's doing it or any other brand that I'd say a small business owner says, "I love X," right? Like, "I love Cherry Bomb." It's a brand, and you have to invest the time to build that because it's a representation of what you're creating. I think it's about finding your own narrative and story to tell people because people love stories and they want to know, how did you start your small business? What inspired you? What are you trying to do?

Victoria Vaynberg: It's really motivating, I think, for people to watch entrepreneurs build something because most people, myself included, are too scared to do it. It's a really hard feat. So I wouldn't underestimate the power of the story and what you're doing and just really get yourself out there and be conscious that marketing's a lot of touch points. So it's building your social presence, it's creating visual identity that looks appealing, that gets people interested. It's emailing your customer base and it's being creative about how you get out there. I think, like I said, just spending the time to say, "What can I do to market myself?What's an idea for an event to host at my restaurant tonight or in my small business? Who can I partner with?" Just starting to think outside the box.

Kerry Diamond: One thing I notice whenever I look at someone's Instagram profile, especially when it's a brick and mortar and they don't put where they're located.

Victoria Vaynberg: Yeah.

Kerry Diamond: That's such an easy fix and it makes me crazy.

Victoria Vaynberg: Totally. I mean it's like, all of the ... I think people feel like marketing's like this fun and buzzword, right? But it's a huge business driver. To your point, it's thinking about, "Is my Google search result correct? When somebody Google searches, is my address correct?" Is the phone number activated if you have one, so someone can hit call? What are all those sort of touch points because the last thing you want is for someone to be looking for you and then not being able to find you. A website's really important, so ...

Kerry Diamond: I know how hard it is. I mean I remember when I had my coffee shop and restaurants that it just was so much work maintaining Instagram and Facebook and MailChimp and all the customer info on square. We were a coffee shop so we didn't take reservations, obviously, but they're just ... oh and Google and updating Google Business and ... it really is a lot of work but you do have all these tools available to you today that you just didn't have as an entrepreneur years ago to pull people to your business.

Victoria Vaynberg: Yeah, I mean it's full-time jobs everywhere, right? Like their social content managers are full-time jobs so it's really difficult and I think it's just probably just sitting down and saying, let me at least focus on like the baseline, like Google business, and then let me figure out what are the one or two platforms where I need to dive in because you don't have to be everywhere. I think you don't need to be on TikTok if you're, you know ...

Kerry Diamond: Is Resy on TikTok?

Victoria Vaynberg: We are not.

Kerry Diamond: Cherry Bomb's not on too.

Victoria Vaynberg: But it's funny because if in my old lives, if I was still working at a big brand, everyone would have been like, "Oh my gods, we missed the boat on TikTok, you got to be on TikTok." But it's like, who's your audience? And are they there? If they're there, then you should think about being there but if your audience isn't young teenagers for your business, that doesn't have to be a place you invest right now.

Kerry Diamond: I always think about it as do one platform well.

Victoria Vaynberg: Yeah.

Kerry Diamond: Rather than multiple platforms badly.

Victoria Vaynberg: 100%.

Kerry Diamond: We're not on Twitter, we're pretty much focused on Instagram.

Victoria Vaynberg: Just Instagram. We're really more in the same boat, I think. We do do Twitter and on paid media we use like Facebook, but absolutely. As far as really putting in the effort and curating Instagram, especially in the food space, is really where you need to be.

Kerry Diamond: Exactly, exactly. Tell me what other special events Resy has coming up.

Victoria Vaynberg: Our other big proprietary series is called Off Menu Week, which we launched last year. It's really like our take on Restaurant Week, but it's around more of the insider access lens, so it's getting dishes that are not available or featured on the menu any other time of year. We're in nine cities this year. We just finished LA Off Menu Week. Atlanta is up next. It's super fun and every restaurant often takes a different twist on what dishes they make available, but it's stuff regulars know about that you don't. So it's kind of a once one week only way to experience it.

Kerry Diamond: That's so much fun. Can you give us some example?

Victoria Vaynberg: I think this year and last year, two of our partners in LA had their line cooks create the entire menu, which was super cool. One of the restaurant partners this year at night and market in LA, they had their sous chef who has worked at some of the best restaurants around the world. The menu was all hers, so it was a Mexican-Thai take them on the typical menu. The restaurants, really get into it and it's an opportunity again to highlight things that they might be eating at family meal or stuff that they're making at home that hasn't made it on the menu so it's really kind of special. So yeah, nine cities this year, which is awesome. Already have for New York, which is in September. There's over 60 restaurants participating.

Kerry Diamond: Very cool.

Victoria Vaynberg: Which is going to be very cool. We have a lot of events with Amex that are also coming up. I'm really excited. This summer in the Hamptons, we're actually doing a Resy summer cinema, so we're going to have an outdoor dinner and movie, different chef for each one, different movie. It's going to be the first four Saturdays in August, which is going to be super cool.

Kerry Diamond: Are they food focused movies?

Victoria Vaynberg: No. Haven't even decided the final movies, but I think we really wanted to create a special experience out there that's fun for a lot of people, that's outside and really embodies what you want to do when you're out there, but still bringing the restaurant element in. Really pumped for that.

Kerry Diamond: If you have any Adam Driver movies, I'll come, I'll buy a ticket.

Victoria Vaynberg: Okay, perfect. He's the best, right?

Kerry Diamond: That would be so much fun, to screen Marriage Story during that dinner, don't you think?

Victoria Vaynberg: Everyone will-

Kerry Diamond: I'd be the only one who bought a ticket to that.

Victoria Vaynberg: There'd be no driving home that night after that. That's coming and then we've got another awesome series in the works honoring legacies and institutions, which is going to be really cool. So a lot more to come.

Kerry Diamond: You have a fun job.

Victoria Vaynberg: I do, yeah. Got some KPIs to deliver on, but a lot of fun things-

Kerry Diamond: That's key performance indicators for those of you keeping score at home.

Victoria Vaynberg: Yeah. Have to sound businessy.

Kerry Diamond: I'm guessing that your dining out has been a little curtailed because of your twins.

Victoria Vaynberg: It has. I sneak it in when I can. Went to Llama San as my own celebration of my twins turning one so it was nice.

Kerry Diamond: Do you bring the twins out to dinner very often?

Victoria Vaynberg: We bring them out to brunch a lot.

Kerry Diamond: Is brunch a more forgiving mealtime for parents with kids?

Victoria Vaynberg: I think it's a ... they're not asleep yet and they think it's fun and I want to train them young to enjoy going out to eat so they really, they get into it. And someone else cleans up the mess under their chair, which is nice as well. But no, I still get out to stuff as much as I can, especially, you know, some of our events series or when I get the opportunity, but one day I will return to my frequent dining out.

Kerry Diamond: Do you find that most restaurants are nice when you bring kids?

Victoria Vaynberg: I think you have to know where to go. I haven't tried. I mean I think you sort of, if they don't have a high chair, they're probably not interested in one-year-olds eating at their restaurant. But I think people probably well appreciate it because I think a lot of people working at restaurants have kids and I would imagine might want to bring theirs in too so ... It's a total other topic but yeah.

Kerry Diamond: I'm guessing you've, now that you're a mom with two kids every year and you've given more thought to what it's like for women in the restaurant industry .. you know, we had Camilla Marcus on the show a few weeks ago and it blows my mind that it's taken so long for this to really become a conversation in the restaurant world, the child care conversation.

Victoria Vaynberg: I think it's really important and definitely makes me and my team think a lot about how do we help that within this broader narrative, right? Because we are supporting women in the industry and when we do start to talk to them about what are the crux of the problems, that definitely is the one that keeps coming up. It makes me feel queasy and lucky that I have a job where I can go home and put my kids to bed. I really can't imagine what a lot of these women go through. So we definitely have a lot to think about, about what we can do to make that better.

Victoria Vaynberg: I listened to her stuff and yeah, I mean it's probably not the only industry it's happening in. I was just reading a piece in the Atlantic the other week about family structures and the support that it takes for people to raise their kids and if their families aren't around, mine's not so, you know. There's all sorts of setups for how to do it, but it's tough.

Kerry Diamond: But at least we're having the conversation.

Victoria Vaynberg: We're having the conversation.

Kerry Diamond: That's the first step.

Victoria Vaynberg: Yeah.

Kerry Diamond: You know, pretending it's not ... well, I mean I don't even think it was pretending it wasn't a problem. People just weren't talking about it as openly.

Victoria Vaynberg: Yeah, and I also think that until it enters your world, you have no clue. So if you asked me two years ago, I would have been like, "Phoo, stay at work later, what do you mean you have to go home?" And now I'm like, "Sorry, call me at seven after my kids are in bed. I don't care what you need, I'm going to put them to sleep." So it's one of those, you become the cliche that you never thought you'd be when you have a kid and then it opens your eyes to all of these other issues. So I don't know that it's malicious. I think it's just hasn't been something, as you said, it hasn't been talked about and is probably just hitting a lot more people now.

Kerry Diamond: I've been thinking about it a lot in terms of the talent pipeline for restaurants and how can restaurants attract young women and even young men who want families one day to work in their restaurants.

Victoria Vaynberg: Yeah.

Kerry Diamond: Because when there are so many other options and if you want a family, why would you choose the chef path?

Victoria Vaynberg: Just in like a personal ... my sister-in-law is a builder, which is not a field you find many women in. She just had a baby and so she's not going to work for a while and she would literally have no other option right now either because she doesn't work for a big company that has insurance and child care. When you're not in these situations where everything's available to you, you do have to think about that and you have to think about the talent pool. I'm hopeful that Resy overall, like I said, we're so connected to our restaurant partners, we want to make sure we're supporting and raising issues that matter. I think now that it's in the conversation, it's like, what can we do to make more of those options available so someone can say, "I want to be a cook."

Kerry Diamond: Absolutely. Well, I look forward to continuing the conversation with you.

Victoria Vaynberg: Yeah.

Kerry Diamond: Tell me about some great meals you've had lately.

Victoria Vaynberg: My top mind is at La Maison. The menu is not large, but it's all delicious. I do remember all the things I ordered. The tuna and scallop ceviches were great. I had rice noodles, a cabbage that's like a Caesar salad, and they have an amazing pork with pesto noodle concoction. If you have not been yet, highly recommend. Then I'm actually going to Le Crocodile tonight.

Kerry Diamond: Oh, fun-

Victoria Vaynberg: I don't pronounce French things properly, so pardon me, but ...

Kerry Diamond: I'm guessing Le Crocodile, I have no idea.

Victoria Vaynberg: I don't know. You might be better than me.

Victoria Vaynberg: Le Crocodile sounds good.

Victoria Vaynberg: From the Chez Ma Tante duo.

Victoria Vaynberg: Yeah, at the Wythe Hotel.

Victoria Vaynberg: Yes, and Chez Ma Tante is one of my favorite restaurants in New York overall. I am going there tonight and someone just sent me that they just got three stars from the Times today, which is amazing.

Kerry Diamond: Wow, for a hotel restaurant, that's a big deal.

Victoria Vaynberg: Yeah, so I'm very, very excited.

Kerry Diamond: Good thing you snagged that reservation when you did. I'm wondering how you got your reservation.

Victoria Vaynberg: On this app called Resy.

Victoria Vaynberg: Well I hope you have a good time tonight. That'll be [inaudible 00:33:17]. Is that tonight?

Victoria Vaynberg: It is tonight. Yeah. A little team outing.

Kerry Diamond: You have to tell us how your dinner was. All right, V. We're going to go to the speed round.

Victoria Vaynberg: Okay, I'm ready.

Kerry Diamond: Favorite kitchen tool?

Victoria Vaynberg: A spoon.

Kerry Diamond: Spoons are major.

Victoria Vaynberg: Spoons are major, yeah.

Kerry Diamond: Oldest thing in your fridge.

Victoria Vaynberg: Definitely some leftover, like, condiments. Probably good three-year-olds mustard.

Kerry Diamond: I love a three-year-old mustard. I think I have a few of those too. A song that makes you smile.

Victoria Vaynberg: Lately. I'd say anything like Bruce Springsteen because my husband's obsessed, which is funny because I'm from New Jersey and he's from Massachusetts, but we listen to it a lot and he like dances with my daughters to it, so it's very sweet.

Victoria Vaynberg: That's very sweet. A food you would never eat.

Victoria Vaynberg: Black olives.

Kerry Diamond: Really?

Victoria Vaynberg: Hate.

Kerry Diamond: Okay.

Victoria Vaynberg: Love green.

Kerry Diamond: That's so funny.

Victoria Vaynberg: Yeah. It's, I don't know if this happens to other people, but there's something, like if there's an olive tapenade on a piece of bread, can't do it.

Kerry Diamond: Won't go near it. Okay. Dream vacation destination.

Victoria Vaynberg: Tokyo and assorted Japanese cities around.

Kerry Diamond: With or without the twins?

Victoria Vaynberg: If they're old enough they can come, but I'm at the point I'm ready for without kids vacation.

Kerry Diamond: All right. If you had to be trapped on a desert island with one food celebrity, who would it be and why?

Victoria Vaynberg: Oh man. Right now, I'm really into all the Alison Roman's recipes. I have tried to make some of those. I think her new cookbook's great and I feel like she'd be pretty cool. Haven't met her, but she seems like she'd be pretty down to earth.

Kerry Diamond: Alison would be cool to be trapped on a desert island with, yes. Yes, absolutely.

Victoria Vaynberg: You can attest to it, I'm sure.

Kerry Diamond: I can attest to that, 100%. Well, V, thank you so much. It's really been great getting to meet you. I love showcasing people with food careers but who takes sort of like different paths in food so it's exciting to-

Victoria Vaynberg: I appreciate that.

Kerry Diamond: ... to know about your career.

Victoria Vaynberg: My first podcast. So excited.

Kerry Diamond: Yay!

Victoria Vaynberg: Thank you so much for having me.

Kerry Diamond: Tell those six peas in a pod. Can't wait.

Victoria Vaynberg: All right. Thank you.

Kerry Diamond: All right, thank you. Bye. Bye. That's it for today's show. Thank you to Victoria for coming by. We loved getting to know you and learning all about what's next for Resy. To see the complete list of dinners in the Resy women of food series, visit resy.com/womenoffood.

Kerry Diamond: Thank you the wines of Rioja for supporting Radio Cherry Bombe. We're very excited to be working with you and I cannot wait the try all your wine. Radio Cherry Bombe is edited and produced by Jess Zeidman. Thank you to Paul at Argo Studios in New York city and our pal, Lindsay Collins of F&B radio in Charleston for engineering the show. Our theme song is All Fired Up by the band, Tralala. Thanks for listening, everybody. You are the bombe.

When Harry Met Sally Clip: I'll have what she's having.

Nat Paull: Hey, I'm Nat Paull and I'm the caker/owner of Beatrix Bakes in Melbourne, Australia. Do you want to know who I think is the bombe? Claudia Fleming of New York, dessert chef and author of The Last Course, which is hands down the greatest book about sweet stuff ever written. Its fruit-forward with flawless flavor combos and her recipes have the timeless elegance of Grace Kelly. And so does she, quite frankly. Thanks, Cherry Bombe.