I'm Levy Dalton, and this is all drink to that, where we get behind the scenes of the wine business.

Alicia Towns-Frankin is on the show today. She is a co-founder of Towns Wine Company, and the executive director of Wine Unify, a wine mentorship program focused on diversity. Hello, how are you?

I'm fantastic. How are you?

It's nice to see you. We met originally quite a few years ago when you were Somie in Boston, and I was a young waiter or Somie at that time, back in the 90s, but you were not born in Boston, you were born in Chicago.

Absolutely.

And your family, were they into food, were they into wine, or what was it like when you grew up?

Not the typical definition of being into food, definitely not into wine. My family was not big drinkers, and wine was absolutely not a part of our lives.

Food, yeah, my family loved food. They loved to cook. My grandmother loved entertaining, and so Friday night was a good time.

You know, people would come over and play cards, and the kids would get to watch, and then we had to go to bed, but yeah, it was great to see just the community together eating together, laughing, so much joy.

And people talk about black joy, and there truly is a amount of joy that comes at the end of the week.

You know, I grew up in a large family, although I'm an only child. A aunt of mine died when I was a year, so we took in her four daughters as well, and the family just grew, so there are lots of people, but you know, we bonded together to make ends meet.

They're 15 in my household, you know, my mother and her siblings, and their children, and my great-grandmother, who was born in the 1800s, who I loved, and who I got to hang out with, and be in the kitchen while she was making biscuits, or whatever she was doing.

And I love the stories that they had to tell, but I love the hospitality that they showed to the neighborhood as well. I mean, they wanted to be a part of it, and definitely I felt like our house was a pulse of the neighborhood, which was great.

And, you know, my grandmother and great-grandmother, and I think we all have said this, would remind us that, you know, people won't remember what you said, but they'll remember how you made them feel.

And I think that's really important, and that's something I tell my kids to this day.

It sounds like a lot of strong women in the family.

Definitely a matriarchy. And just, I loved my childhood. I love these women that I look up to till this day, and that I'm some of them I miss, who are no longer with us, but yeah, we were just a force.

And this is Chicago in the 70s.

This is Chicago in the 70s, and until I left for school in the 80s.

Actually, I was the first person to graduate from high school in my family, and then to go into college, and it opened up doors for more members of my family going after me, which was great.

Why do you think you were the first to graduate from high school?

I liked to read. I was a quiet kid. Teachers liked me. I did incredibly well, and they were pushing me along, and guiding me. I had amazing support, not only from my family, who saw that I wanted something different, and from the teachers and administrations that really helped me get on to something different.

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