Skip to playerSkip to main content
We've already brought you Kim Gordon's killer dating advice and our own EIC Christene Barberich on finding her dream career. And, with the latest installment of its Portrait of a #GIRLBOSS video series, Nasty Gal brings you the story of Jennifer Vitagliano. She's the restaurateur ("I guess...") behind The Musket Room — you know, that joint you can barely get a reservation at ever since all those rave reviews and that Michelin star. Oh, and she's done all that in under a year.

Sound like an impossible feat? Click the video to see Vitagliano break it down, from the importance of not going with the flow, to being willing to get your hands dirty. Oh, and her daily self-confidence mantra is a bit of pure genius that we've already stolen. Foodies and aspiring girl bosses, right this way...
Transcript
00:10My name is Jennifer Mataglano.
00:12I own The Musket Room.
00:14I guess I'm a restaurateur.
00:16Early on in my career, I sort of went along with things
00:19that I felt in my heart and in my gut weren't right,
00:23weren't the right thing to do.
00:25So I guess it's easy when you're a young woman
00:27to just do what you're asked to do.
00:30But looking back now, I wish I had worked with people
00:34that I wanted to work with and that I trusted
00:36rather than whoever would give me a job.
00:39I think for me, I should be more honest with people
00:42about how hard it is to open a restaurant
00:45and how many obstacles you can face every day
00:48with different contractors, different bureaucracies,
00:51different investors.
00:52I like to focus on the romantic, glamorous side of my job,
00:57but the fact is, is that there's a lot of tedious stuff
01:00to be done every day.
01:01You really have to get your hands dirty,
01:03which I like to do as well.
01:04I literally talk to myself all day.
01:07I tell myself, you're made of magic.
01:09You can do this.
01:10I do yoga.
01:12I box.
01:12I do a lot of things to get my frustrations out
01:15so that I'm not sort of flipping out on people all day.
01:19I'm starting to feel a bit of success with this right now.
01:23This is really exciting for me,
01:25even though it's terrifying.
01:27I think that sometimes it's more important
01:30to be nice to people, speak slowly,
01:35make eye contact, and make it count.
01:40You're going to do this.
01:41You'll be all right.
01:44Was that it?
01:45Yeah.
01:45Okay, that was really easy.

Recommended