Emily Howard: Oral History Interview

This interview is with Emily Howard of Hayward. In this interview, Emily talks about growing up in McMinnville, discovering wine, and helping to open restaurants in her hometown.Emily talks about her first job in hospitality at Pizza Hut in McMinnville. She immediately fell in love with the fast-paced energy of the job and the variety of people she met and worked with.Emily discusses becoming the wine buyer for El Gaucho in Portland. From this experience she began to focus on food and wine rather than restaurants in general. She spent some time working in London and Seattle before moving back to McMinnville and opening Thistle.Later in the interview, Emily talks about meeting Kari Shaughnessy of Mac Market, and working together to open Hayward. Originally, Emily worked to design service protocols for the employees, and later she took on wine buying responsibilities as well.This interview was conducted by Rich Schmidt at Linfield University’s Nicholson Library on October 14, 2025.