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Lien Ta learned all about Southern hospitality while growing up in Marietta, a suburb of Atlanta, Ga. She attended college in Boston & New York City, and before working in restaurants, she was a Los Angeles entertainment reporter & editor for eight years. She vowed to open her own restaurant one day, and finally made good on her word in 2016 when Here's Looking At You was born. In 2019, she opened her second Los Angeles restaurant, All Day Baby, just three months before COVID-19 was declared a global pandemic. Unexpectedly, Lien would allocate countless hours to advocacy & policy work in an effort to support independent restaurants, and she appeared at the 2020 Democratic National Convention describing her experience as a small business owner managing the pandemic.  Lien is the book subject of "Becoming a Restaurateur" by Patric Kuh. In 2017, she was a fellowship recipient of the James Beard Foundation’s inaugural class of the Women’s Entrepreneurial Leadership Program, and today, she is a member of JBF's Advisory Committee for its Women's Leadership Programs. In 2020, she co-founded Regarding Her (RE:Her), a non-profit organization devoted to the advancement and empowerment of women restaurateurs.