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Chicago Tribune
9 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Chicago Tribune
These Chicago LGBTQ-owned businesses offer rainbow cakes, colorful coffees and a ‘third space' for all
To properly celebrate Pride Month, you need quite a lot of energy and definitely a lot of cake. Thanks to October Cafe, Jennivee's Bakery and Chicago Sugar Daddy, there are plenty of ways to keep the caffeine tank full and the sweet tooth satisfied while also supporting LGBTQ-owned small businesses in Chicago. Jennivee's Bakery If Tiffany's sold cakes instead of diamonds and had a penchant for rainbows, it might be Jennivee's Bakery on Halsted Street. Rainbow pillows perch on a long pink booth and two faux crystal chandeliers dangle over a black and white checkered floor, the base of a spacious dining area that compelled chef and owner Jenni Vee to upgrade to this location from her beloved original storefront nearly a year ago. 'This is the gayest bakery in Chicago,' she said. Vee immigrated to the United States from Cebu, Philippines, to pursue a career as a physical therapist. In 2017, she pivoted, employing 'pure ambition and a little bit of delusion' to open a bakery in Lakeview and realize a passion for baking she had been nurturing since age 6. Vee ran her original storefront on the other side of the neighborhood for seven years before opening this location last June. The new space screams French chic turned a little cheeky: The woman in the Renaissance-style painting (ornate frame and all) casts a sly expression across the room, while the smudged mirror on the back wall reflects rainbow flower leis hung from classy light fixtures. A woman's silhouette holds up a cupcake in Vee's lace-trimmed pink logo. 'I wanted it to be fun, feminine, yet cozy and inviting,' Vee said. Her cakes fit right in. Vee supercharges classic vanilla buttercream with bright colors and edible glitter. The vivid purple of her signature ube cake has new neighbors every month as Vee brainstorms fresh ideas, mostly based on Filipino flavors but with European baking techniques (think a mango buttercream cake). This month, pride-themed cakes and cupcakes star in the display case. Rainbow sprinkles coat the outside of a large vanilla cake, with eddies of rainbow icing, coated in edible glitter, lining the top. The cupcake version is much the same: vanilla cake with a hefty swirl of multicolored buttercream icing. Vee has also created an edible monument to transgender pride in a lemon cake with strawberry filling. Stripes of baby blue, pink and white icing paint the transgender flag on the outside; cutting into the cake reveals the same pattern within. The rainbow cupcakes are bestsellers at Jennivee's, but the pink and blue cake is most significant for Vee, a transgender woman herself. As both business owner and head baker — her black chef's coat is usually powdered with flour, her hands stained with icing — Vee won't have time this June to participate in the Chicago Pride Parade. The parade, however, marches right past her bakery, so she's expecting a barrage of orders. 'The party comes here,' Vee said. Since upgrading her space, Vee has become accustomed to mayhem: The bakery gets busiest during its later hours, when customers crowd in for cake, gelato and the comfort of a 'third space' like Jennivee's. Audrey Borden and Michelle Gonzalez wanted to wave a pride flag in an area they thought could use a little more color. The couple opened October Cafe in Norwood Park, where Gonzalez grew up, two years ago in August. The fall-themed coffee shop offers a proudly queer space for those in search of community. 'I feel like that's what was intended for us — to make roots in a place where I grew up, and kind of push against the norms around here,' Gonzalez said. 'It hasn't been easy, but we're making it happen. I'm here — they're gonna hear me, they're gonna see me.' Borden and Gonzalez do nothing with subtlety: Their pop music bumps through the space, their flavors are varied and loud, and their jack-o'-lantern decorations watch guests from every wall. For June, giant pride flags hang off one wall while a banner of smaller flags decorates another. Borden and Gonzalez's love for each other, much like their love for October, is easy to spot. They met in 2019 at a 'Queers and Allies' meeting at North Park University, where Borden was a freshman and Gonzalez a junior. They were married in 2023, and Borden is now eight weeks pregnant with 'baby pumpkin.' On the first of every month, Gonzalez and Borden roll out a new flight of specialty drinks. After the fall flight, which is available year-round, June's rainbow flight is the most popular. It features an orange-yellow mango and peach jasmine tea, a lavender latte, a red strawberry lemonade and a darker purple ube vanilla latte. Insiders know that this flight, like all the rest, is available year-round on October Cafe's secret menu. In lieu of having a business float at the Chicago Pride Parade — Gonzalez and Borden said it's a hefty fee — October Cafe will host pride bingo June 20, a drag queen story hour June 21, and small business events June 21-22 to highlight other queer-owned businesses. Everyone who works at this Lakeview bakery is gay. 'It's not a criteria, I swear,' laughed owner and baker James Cox. But for Pride Month, it is fitting. In September 2021, Cox opened Chicago Sugar Daddy with his partner — in both business and life — Rayan Ibasco. The bakery's name is a callback to their early days as a couple, when Cox would shower Ibasco in sweet baked goods that earned him the moniker 'sugar daddy.' At the shop, Cox handles everything baking-related while Ibasco files taxes and organizes payroll on top of working another full-time job as an international student recruiter. Ibasco, who grew up in Manila, Philippines, moved to the United States in 2017 and graduated from DePaul University. Cox moved to Chicago to get his degree from the French Pastry School; he earned it in 2007. He was an executive pastry chef at several restaurants and hotels in the Chicago area, and was the general manager at Jennivee's right before opening Sugar Daddy. Sugar Daddy focuses more on catering and custom orders. Cox bakes a lot of wedding cakes — he's looking at around 200 this year, 60% of which he estimates are for queer weddings. June is the bakery's busiest month, as all sorts of companies, as well as regular customers, order pride-themed goods. In the bricks-and-mortar, Cox fills the display case with chocolate and marble cupcakes iced with a rainbow swirl of thick Swiss buttercream. He also spruces up a basic sugar cookie with a rainbow watercolor effect and a heart shape. 'Any way to incorporate rainbows,' Cox said. The trademark at Chicago Sugar Daddy is connection. Ibasco and Cox are both bad at names, but they remember faces and, more importantly, everyone's favorite order. Cox knows what to recommend for the woman who stops in before her hair appointment (chocolate) and the little boy whose grandmother brings him 'to go see James' (the marble cupcake). Ibasco is adamant that Chicago Sugar Daddy never become too corporate. 'We want to continue to be a home away from home forever,' Ibasco said. 'The bakery has been a gateway for us to be closer to the community.' Cox and Ibasco will continue to spread sweetness to their community on the day of the Chicago Pride Parade — June 29 — when they plan to hand out free slices of rainbow cake.
New Paper
28-05-2025
- New Paper
2 charged over getting foreign workers to hold placards in protest at worksite
Two Singaporeans were charged on May 27 after they allegedly got foreign workers to hold placards at a construction site and demand outstanding payment owed to a company. Rebecca Rubini Ravinthiran, 33, who was a director at the aggrieved company Apex Engineering, was handed a total of 17 charges, while Vee Derrick Mahendran, 36, was handed 11 charges. Rebecca was handed two charges over organising a public assembly without a permit, while Vee was given two charges for abetting her alleged offences. Rebecca's 15 other charges and Vee's nine other charges were for instigating various foreign employees to break a condition in their work passes. According to charge sheets, Rebecca allegedly organised two public assemblies at about 11am and 11.30am on Oct 24, 2024, to demand that Apex Engineering be paid the outstanding payment. She allegedly did so by instructing six workers from Apex Engineering to gather at a construction site in Jalan Satu and hold placards, and nine workers to do the same at a construction site in Tengah Garden Walk. Vee had allegedly aided in the preparation of placards publicising the cause the day before and coordinating with her on the gathering of workers to hold placards on the day itself. He had also allegedly supervised the group of workers in Tengah Garden Walk on Oct 24, 2024, by updating Rebecca on his observations, and conveying her instructions to the group. The pair will return to court on June 24 for a further mention of their case. In a joint statement on May 26, the police and the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) said no further action will be taken against the workers as the police have ascertained that they were acting under the instructions of their employer, and had no intention of breaking the law. Those found guilty of organising a public assembly or procession without a permit can be fined up to $5,000. Anyone convicted of abetting a foreign employee to break the terms of his work pass may face a jail term of up to 12 months, a fine of up to $10,000, or both. In a Facebook post in October 2024, MOM said it was aware of a social media post regarding several migrant workers holding placards at a worksite. The ministry said it engaged the workers, who shared that they were not owed salary payments, and did not have any concerns about their well-being.
Yahoo
05-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Visier Launches Visier AI Lab in Singapore, Expands APAC Operations
Lab opening underscores Singapore's ascendance as innovation hub for artificial intelligence and reflects Visier's strong regional growth SINGAPORE, March 5, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Visier, the globally recognised leader in workforce AI solutions, today announced the launch of its Singapore-based Visier AI Lab, a strategic initiative designed to advance the company's leadership in Workforce AI. The new lab, supported by the Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB), will focus on the continued development of Visier's generative and agentic AI solutions, including Vee, Vee Boards, and the company's recently introduced AI Agent Platform. To support this growth, Visier plans to double its workforce in its AI Lab and its APAC regional office over the next two years. Located in Asia Square, the lab is positioned at the center of Singapore's dynamic business district, reinforcing Visier's belief in the region's growth potential. "As challenging labour market dynamics and macro trends compound globally, the mandate for Workforce AI continues to expand well beyond HR, reaching every corner of the C-suite and across business functions," said Ryan Wong, co-founder and CEO of Visier. "Our deep investments in AI are driven by recognition that every company on the planet needs to fundamentally transform their workforce productivity to survive and thrive over coming decades. The Visier AI Lab in Singapore is instrumental to accelerating Visier's already substantial AI investments." The news from Visier follows Singapore's Parliamentary 2025 Budget announcement, which supports AI and skills transformation to upskill employees and boost workforce competitiveness. For example, the Enterprise Compute Initiative avails consulting services and computing resources to empower businesses with analytics and AI, driving efficiency and productivity. "Workforce AI is the next frontier in business transformation," said Boon Huat Lee, Chief Growth Officer for Asia Pacific at Visier. "As leaders are expected to achieve high growth rates, they are also faced with declining employee engagement, talent shortages and plateauing productivity growth. Visier provides organisations with the ability to unify people and work data to better understand their employees, the work they're doing, enabling every organisation to improve productivity and business impact." All of Visier's AI products and innovation are built upon the company's award-winning People Data Platform, which power organisations to connect people, work and outcomes at the speed of AI. Vee Generative AI Digital Assistant: First introduced in 2023, Visier's Vee provides the most performant, secure, and intuitive way to ask and answer any people-related question in natural language. It unlocks the power of people insights and Workforce AI for everyone from HRBPs to frontline managers and executives. Vee Boards: Vee Boards combine the best of generative AI and executive dashboards, delivering people data visualisations and AI-driven narratives tailored to reveal the highest priority issues to the C-suite. Vee Boards are available out-of-the-box for CFO and CHRO personas, and customers and partners can create their own for any other executive role. Visier's AI Agentic Platform: Visier's Agentic AI Platform promises to bring a powerful new agent-based workforce AI platform to enterprise CIOs, ISVs, and SIs to create powerful and secure agentic AI solutions. By combining people data with work data in new ways, this first-of-its-kind agent-based AI platform will give technical teams the foundation to launch their own team of AI-based analytic agents. The launch of Visier AI Lab was celebrated at an exclusive event featuring distinguished guests from Singapore's Economic Development Board (EDB), Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA), AI Singapore, and customers including Micron Technology. This gathering celebrated Visier's commitment to fostering collaboration between industry leaders, government, and academia to drive innovation in Workforce AI. Philbert Gomez, Executive Director and Head of Digital Industry Singapore (DISG) said, "EDB welcomes Visier AI Lab, which strengthens our position as an AI innovation hub for fast growing companies to create global solutions from Singapore. It reflects the capability of our ecosystem to partner with companies that conduct AI innovation. The Visier AI Lab is aligned with the National AI Strategy 2.0 to accelerate the use of AI to uncover business value, with its AI Agent Platform demonstrating how innovations help customers better utilise their people related data to create custom workforce solutions and automate tasks." "With the launch of Visier AI Lab, we are excited by Visier's commitment to foster the growth of the AI ecosystem in Singapore and beyond," said Edwin Low, Director for Enterprise, Ecosystem Development of the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) of Singapore. "We believe this initiative will drive innovation in workforce analytics, and position Visier at the vanguard of AI-powered solutions, empowering organisations with insights to make smarter, data-driven decisions for their people." For more information about Visier, visit About Visier Visier gives organisations a Workforce AI Edge: A set of AI-powered capabilities that help leaders understand the relationship between people and work, elevate employee productivity, and win by adapting to change faster. The company is the global leader in AI-powered people analytics, workforce planning, and compensation allocation. All Visier technology is underpinned by its Real-time People Data Platform, which uses AI to unlock the business-transforming potential of people data, work data, and the fusion of both. Founded in 2010 by the pioneers of business intelligence, Visier has over 65,000 customers in 75 countries—including enterprises like BASF, Panasonic, Experian, Amgen, eBay, Ford Motor Company, and more. Visier is an IMDA-Accredited company. To learn more about Visier, visit Media Contact: Adrian TanHead of Marketing (APAC) +65 9852 3746 Walker SandsVisierPR@ View original content: SOURCE Visier Sign in to access your portfolio
