JESSICA WAITE
Co-founder / Co-owner: The Plot, Wrench & Rodent Seabasstropub; Partner, Shootz Fish + Beer; President, Berry Good Food Foundation
Jessica is a restaurateur, non-profit leader and local food advocate with a MBA from Pepperdine University and a punk rock ethos. As an entrepreneur and eco-warrior, she has long been a local food advocate with an urgency instilled within her from a young age to make a lasting impact on the planet and her community. Jessica’s goal is to build businesses that are regenerative, in that they give more than they take. The Plot, her most recent venture, is a plant-based restaurant concept with a commitment to 100% utilization and zero waste operations.
Studying science and nutrition in college and analyzing the current state of healthcare, Jessica saw an opportunity to address currently accepted methods of treating threatening illness head on. Serving as a think tank and advocate for healthy food education and access provided her a path to be a part of the solution in a preventative, creative way. In 2012, Jessica paired up with husband Davin Waite, a well-known chef who has long been recognized in local circles and beyond for his innovative and boundary-pushing dishes. The two co-founded highly-lauded restaurants Wrench & Rodent Seabasstropub, The Whet Noodle, The Plot, and most recently, Shootz Fish + Beer. All restaurants focus on sourcing locally and minimizing waste through total utilization.
In 2017, while attending the California Resource Recovery Association in San Diego, Jessica wrote the first business plan for a restaurant with a zero-waste ethos and an entirely plant-based menu. Two and a half years later, the first location of The Plot opened in South Oceanside, focusing on the whole vegetable and the total utilization of fresh, boundary-pushing ingredients — some of which are grown directly behind the restaurant. Waite, a vegetarian by age seven and vegan for 20 of her 40 years, considers The Plot to be the most culture-shifting restaurant she has conceived to date. The Plot is a continued extension of Jessica’s sustainability projects which she has pursued with Davin for over ten years. Soon after doors opened and even in the midst of a global pandemic, The Plot was awarded Best New Restaurant in 2020 by San Diego Magazine and named one of the Best New Restaurants in the US by The Vegetarian Times in 2021. Jessica was also a nominee for San Diego Business Journal’s “Business Women of the Year” award that same year.
In addition to her restaurant ventures, Jessica is the President of Berry Good Food Foundation, a local non-profit that advances healthy, integrated food systems by educating, connecting, and supporting food producers and consumers in San Diego County and Baja California. Launched in San Diego in the spring of 2018, the Berry Good Food's School Garden Initiative awards grants to San Diego County and Baja California schools and community educational organizations that support garden projects and enhance the teaching of agriculture and healthy eating. To date, Berry Good Food has raised $53,000 through fundraisers and grants on behalf of school gardens.
Jessica’s goal is to build businesses based on the ideals of conscious capitalism, a strategy that will benefit all stakeholders, partners, customers and the environment. Empowering communities is one of her most essential feats, revealing that what one eats is one of the most important things you can do for the health of our communities and the planet, all the while making exceptional plant-based food.