Speaker Series: BEYOND THE MENU
Description
Building Community Through Food and Drink
Join the Odd Fellows for an engaging evening with four of Half Moon Bay's most influential women entrepreneurs: Betsy Del Fierro of It's Italia, Joy Portelli of Event Savvy Catering, Lucy Gillies of Jettywave Distillery, and Meredith Kasyan of OceanCider. Through stories of perseverance, creativity, and community, they'll discuss the challenges and rewards of building locally owned businesses that have become gathering places for Coastside residents and visitors alike. Discover how food, drink, and hospitality help shape the character of Half Moon Bay, and enjoy an opportunity to ask questions during this lively panel discussion moderated by Carrie Tillie of Bay Area Culinary Historians and Les Dames d’Escoffier.
Meredith Kasyan is an entrepreneur and former theater producer whose career has been defined by creativity, resilience, and community building. After moving to the Bay Area in 1999, she spent nearly two decades producing performances at Dragon Productions Theatre Company in Palo Alto and Redwood City. As retirement approached, Kasyan sought a new challenge and relocated to the Coastside, where she envisioned creating a welcoming gathering place centered around her love of hard cider and the coastal lifestyle. Drawing on her theater background, Kasyan turned her vision into OceanCiders, a dog-friendly outdoor cider bar overlooking Pillar Point Harbor. After more than 2½ years of navigating trademark disputes, permitting hurdles, location changes, and the trailer getting stuck in Mexico, she opened the business in 2023 with support from the San Mateo County Harbor District. Today, OceanCiders reflects her passion for creating a welcoming gathering place where community, local cider, and the California coast come together.
Lucy Gillies grew up in Zimbabwe and graduated from the University of Cape Town, South Africa, where she began her career in the retail fashion industry. Her path took her to London, where her work expanded into merchandise planning, new store openings, systems integration, and training; experience that now anchors Jettywave. At Jettywave, Lucy manages the finances, keeping in tune with all her many spreadsheets while staying deeply hands-on, often helping on the bottling line, and solving problems as they arise. She loves to drive the forklift and, is without question, Hector, our distillery cat’s favorite human. Jettywave’s nautical spirit is a direct reflection of Lucy’s lifelong love of the ocean and its preservation, rooted in her years growing up on the water. Outside the distillery, she independently practices real estate with Ocean Element and is highly involved with our Yacht Club community.
Betsy del Fierro is a prominent Hawaiian-born restaurateur, business owner, and community leader based in Half Moon Bay, California. She is widely known for establishing and reviving iconic dining destinations along the San Mateo County Coastside. Alongside her husband George del Fierro, Betsy operates a successful family-run restaurant group that features several major properties including It’s Italia (Half Moon Bay), Johnny’s (Half Moon Bay), and The Brickline (San Mateo). Deeply rooted in the local community, Betsy brings a welcoming Hawaiian spirit and sense of ohana (family) to her work.
Joy Portelli relocated from New York to California and built her catering company not from formal training, but from deeply rooted traditions of her Italian family and a heartfelt commitment to gathering people around the table in meaningful and memorable ways. What began as a modest venture quickly grew through passion, creativity, and an instinctive understanding of hospitality which she credits to her mother, Gloria. Over the years, supported by a team rich in talent and heart, Event Savvy Catering naturally evolved from catering into full scale event design and production for clients throughout California and beyond.
YOUR MODERATOR FOR THE EVENING
Carolyn Tillie is a culinary historian, author, and co-founder of Bay Area Culinary Historians, where she curates lectures and events exploring the history and culture of food. She serves as Communications Chair for the San Francisco chapter of Les Dames d'Escoffier International and is the author of Oysters: A Global History and Feast Your Eyes: Food Art from Apple to Zucchini. A sought-after speaker, Carolyn's engaging presentations examine the intersections of food, art, history, and material culture.