Judy Wicks, founder of Philadelphia’s famous White Dog Café and pioneer of the local food movement, speaks at Paley’s “Beyond the Page” public program series Gather Round the Table: Conversations on the History, Impact and Implications of Food in Our Society. In her presentation “Good Morning, Beautiful Business” (named for the title of her recent memoir), Wicks shared her story of compassionate economics based in empathy and respect for world around her.

Wicks’ story begins in University City circa 1970, when her and her then-husband Dick Haynes founded The Free People Store, a retail establishment specializing in locally sourced merchandise and decorated using recycled goods to create a DIY/earth-friendly aesthetic. Though Wicks and Haynes would split only a year later (Haynes would go on to expand the Free People brand to create the Urban Outfitters retail empire), it took only a short time for her to become involved in the local restaurant scene, eventually opening The White Dog Café on the ground floor of her home in 1983.