goldenco is an urban hotel & club where participation is the amenity.
Food-forward by design.
The best way to connect with people, place, and culture.
3rd space to create, not just consume.
Where guests & neighbors grow, cook, and eat together.
Inspo.
When I travel, I want to experience local culture. For me, that connection always happens with food. I research cuisines unique to a region and make a list of restaurants to visit. Once there, I browse markets and ask questions to people even if I can’t speak their language.
The passion goes deeper than simply eating. I’m curious about the ingredients themselves– what they look like in the wild, the benefits of consuming them, and how to recreate memorable dishes when I go back home.
This curiosity has forced a compromise: although I prefer the social aspect of staying at a hotel, I’ve opted for airbnbs just to have a kitchen to play in.
I know I’m not the only one. Gastronomy tourism and farm hospitality have surged because people are looking to engage more deeply with the places they visit. Food, as we know, is sensory and pleasurable, has effects on us, and holds stories.
Yet, urban hotels breed cultural separation. Many restrict access from outsiders and concierges route guests to tourist traps. Foodie travelers end up spending most of their time off property seeking an authentic experience.
I’ve always believed a hotel should be a neighborhood anchor, not a gated status symbol.
Enter goldenco. Instead of typical amenities like a pool or a spa, goldenco is made for travelers and locals to connect through the oldest form of hospitality: sharing food.
Spaces.
Besides rooms, goldenco focuses on four revenue-driving amenities:
COURTYARD ALL-DAY CAFE
An urban oasis for morning coffee and laptop work to client meetings and evening bites. This indoor-outdoor space is select service (in hotel speak) where guests order at the counter, operating like a fluid and efficient Spanish tapas bar, not a U.S. fast-food joint.
EDIBLE GARDENS
Even at small urban scale, a productive garden grows real food. Member-managed beds are rentable for personal and culinary use and sponsored beds support ancillary revenue. It’ll be the most photographed space of the property and a true act of sustainability, reducing food miles, producing nutritious food, and supporting environmental stewardship. The urban garden is built for the foodie guest who is farm curious, the neighbor who has no yard, and the chef sourcing specific herbs.
LA’s Community Garden Shortage
On the Westside, locals have been waiting 15 years to rent a plot and currently there are over 1,000 applicants on the community garden waitlist. Demand far exceeds supply.
DEMO KITCHEN
Designed for those who love to cook and the new generation of food professionals. The aesthetic demo kitchen provides content-creator-chefs, food photographers, and private chefs with rentable islands and a social space to recipe test, film, or host their own pop-up. goldenco also programs ticketed events and invites brand partners to activate here.
TERRACE TEA LOUNGE
My take on a bar with a wellness angle. Botanical beverages are served hot or cold, with or without spirit, where guests learn what the plants actually look like and their effects. Members receive discounts during golden hour and are invited to apothecary-style workshops.
goldenco – what’s in the name?
Golden brings a sense of warmth, optimism, strength, while golden hour feels like magical times of the day (sunrise & sunset) which is also fantastic for activating a hotel, its patios, gardens… golden is a whole vibe.
The ‘co’ covers all the words that come to mind: company, collaboration, collective, community, etc etc. I like the play on words and luckily it wasn’t trademarked.
How I got here.
I've spent the last decade where sustainability meets hospitality. I cofounded a regenerative hotel collection — from brand and go-to market to producing a convening that brought hoteliers together around the model. That work taught me what was missing: these values existed primarily in remote retreats and on vacation. But I wanted them in the cities most of us live in every day. So I left to pursue filling that gap.
For the last four years I worked at a sustainable building consulting firm with experience on over 100M square feet of U.S. commercial projects. This grounded my vision in how real estate actually gets built, while learning how to design and operate a building that positively impacts human and planetary health.
Why now.
Remote work has left people craving real in-person connection. Travelers want to live like locals, not feel like tourists. Hotels are expected to offer more than sleep and nice design. Hospitality trends are exploding in farms and wellness. And the most interesting food talent is building audiences from home kitchens with nowhere to gather.
Culture is now reaching for the values of goldenco.
Everyone is building escapism–
remote wellness cabins and farm retreats, somewhere to leave your real life behind…
what about the cities we love?
Until there’s a building,
goldenco lives through gatherings, pop-ups, and collaborations as a working preview of the real thing.
If this resonates, I'd love to hear from you, whether you want to collaborate, partner, or help find its flagship home base.
Thanks for reading,
– Jen