Meet Cydney & TaMara Johns0n | Co-Founders & Chefs

We had the good fortune of connecting with Cydney & TaMara Johns0n and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Cydney & TaMara, we’d love for you to start things off by telling us something about your industry that we and others not in the industry might be unaware of?
As Black women in their 20 somethings and within the hospitality industry, it is an especially rare occurrence that we receive venture capital funding toward entrepreneurship, with the current rate of Black female entrepreneurs funded at less than 0.35% of the VC fund.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
We are elevating soul food and shifting the cultural concept of luxury experiences as a people. We have both been in the hospitality and restaurant industry for 11 years plus now within many different roles. It’s a given that we are weaving together the variety of experiences we’ve had with food, beverage, hosting and coordinating via the concept of hospitality over the years. To take it to the next level, we are proud to be honoring what has always been ours by elevating the perspective of it and that is Soul Food. We want the world to know that true luxury lives within the heart of the community.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
They arrive in town in time for dinner at Bestia for an evening of the freshest scallop crudo, sage and mortadella pizza, perfectly suggested and paired wines from the sommelier, a heart satisyfing rice pudding with candied persimmon and pistachio all set with the best music vibes from a Bestia staff-curated playlist.

We’re not the biggest night owls or party heads, but we love a good art gallery or two (or three lol) in the mornings followed up with a drive up the PCH to Malibu for a sun bath and cleansing ocean spray on our skin. Lunch at Aduke, a Nigerian gem in Inglewood with a palate transforming flavors promised.

We’d be sure to make our way to Daengki Spa, an all-women’s traditional Korean spa for a deeeeeep relaxation and rejuvenating experience with amenities like a steam room where you breath in fresh purifying herbs, a mud treatment room that moistens your skin, cold baths/plunges for the nerves and breath, full body scrubs and massages and yoni steams.

Finally we’d complete our last hoorah on the many trails at Griffith Park for the perfect full body workouts, the best canyon heat and sunshine plus epic photos.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
Each other. We have been miraculously blessed to be as close as we are as sisters and now business partners. Every vision and shared craft is essentially for one another.

Website: www.nevermeasuresoul.com

Instagram: www.instagram.com/nevermeasuretc

Image Credits
Nandi George & Caroline Adegun