STYLE
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COURTNEY LYNCHCRAWFORD Courtney Lynch-Crawford is the ultimate multitasker; she is a wife, mother of two, restaurant owner, interior designer, and a manufacturers representative for Contract Furniture. Although she juggles many jobs and passions, Courtney is very successful in her careers while still maintaining a stylish persona. “For as long as I can remember I always wanted to be a designer. I liked working with my hands and being creative,” Courtney says. She also became involved in the restaurant industry at a young age, first working as a hostess, then becoming a waitress and later a manger. Her natural progression in the world of cuisine and her passion for design guided her in the direction to combine the two and open up her own restaurant. Courtney opened up her first restaurant, Nine on Nine five and a half years ago. The contemporary, American-style dishes and the intimate, European-scale setting makes it the perfect restaurant to wine and dine while in Pittsburgh’s Cultural District. “Nine on Nine was my first experience of actually owning a restaurant and it was something I always wanted to do,” Courtney says. “I could showcase my design skills while owning and operating a restaurant”. And showing off her designs skills she 94
did. Not only does this entrepreneur own and operate Nine on Nine, but she also designed the interior with some help from her “peanut gallery”. As if owning one restaurant wasn’t enough to keep busy, Courtney opened a second, but this time the idea came from her husband who thought “Pittsburgh was lacking a restaurant who served breakfast, lunch, and dinner”. A Taste of Danhtan, which made its debut just 6 weeks ago, is a more casual eatery, with a focus on comfort food and even has a U-shaped bar. Most women who are busy raising small children AND operating their own businesses would choose to fill their closets with the infinite ‘mom-jeans’, but Courtney opts out of that wardrobe choice. Instead, she prefers to rock designer attire from names such as Alice and Olivia, Milly, Chanel, Escada and Etro. The fashionista enjoys mixing old and new styles and is very open when it comes to her personal look. She also says that great shoes and handbags are the key pieces that make up her closet. When Courtney has some time, she loves to shop at stores like Saks, Larrimor’s and Nordstrom. Because of Courtney’s busy schedule, she often relies on other ways to gather her classic wardrobe. “I don’t have much spare time to shop so Nieman Marcus catalog is always good,” Courtney says. Courtney certainly lives the life of a MANIAC, balancing her home life with work, all while remaining fabulously fashionable. Although she is open-minded regarding style she does have one piece of fashion advice to give to our readers and we trust her opinion! “Never wear panty hose with open toed shoes”. The line will be available in Pittsburgh by fall 2011 and will be carried at one of our local favorites, Reflect Apparel in Robinson as well as ByLangley and the spa at Nemicolin Resort.
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