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Life at the intersection of food, farming and business
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this is Erin
Erin Wade is the founder, farmer, and fearless idea engine behind Vinaigrette and Modern General. Two beloved, genre-defying brands that marry sustainability, design, and delight. A Harvard grad with roots in soil and storytelling, she built a farm-to-table restaurant group from scratch and then expanded it into a wildly original retail concept that’s part general store, part foodie utopia, part editorial vision board.
Erin doesn’t just build brands; she cultivates communities, reinvents categories, and grows beauty from the ground up.
Why Restaurants Matter
Restaurants began in Paris in the middle of the 18th century. The earliest restaurants sold salubrious bouillons—which was what the word “restaurant” originally meant, a restorative broth—and other healthy offerings to people worried about digestion and suspicious of inns and table d’hôtes. An ad for the world’s first restaurant, cited in historian Rebecca L. Spang’s book The Invention of the Restaurant, proclaims via couplet: “Here are tasty sauces to titillate your bland palate, Here the effete find healthy chests.”
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