How Did Alissa Leinonen Start Gourmondo While Planning to Be a Mom?

On What Fuels You, Alissa Leinonen says she loved restaurant work in Seattle but, after a business degree at the University of Washington, wanted a food career that would still leave nights and weekends for the family she planned to have. The answer, she says, came out of necessity. She refinanced her car and opened a small cafe with two other people so she could control her own schedule. The written plan was packaged meals delivered for dinner. That market was not there, so the dinner service never started. They had four tables and a decent lunch business, which she says could not produce a real income, and the first months were slow.