The Eastsider "Love On The Eastside: How Four Couples Found Romance And A Business Partner"
By LUCY GUANUNA
{EXCERPT FROM "Love On The Eastside: How Four Couples Found Romance And A Business Partner"}
The Eastside is home to many creative individuals. So it is no surprise that some of them would fall in love and end up working together. To celebrate Valentine’s Day, we asked a few of these couples to share with us their love story and how they’ve learned to juggle their personal and work relationships while making it look, taste and sound so good.
This couple’s laid back ’70s vintage style carries over into their Echo Park-based leather goods line, Mean Jean, of sturdy earth-toned leather bags that are hand stamped and sewn. Lyndsi McGee and Nick Del Negro definitely draw on their love of music and road trips through the desert for inspiration.
How did you meet?
Nick: We met through a mutual friend in the summer of 2016. We were going to go on a date to some bar, but I ended up getting some tickets to a Ryan Adams concert from a friend. Unknowingly, Lyndsi was a huge fan of music, so she agreed to go and we went to the Greek Theatre for our first date.
When did you start working together?
Nick: On that date, Lyndsi was wearing a bag that I thought looked pretty interesting and when I asked her about it, she said she made it. She had already made a couple bags when we met, and I kind of pushed her to take it from the hobby mode, to an actual business. By December, we got our own work space in Frogtown to work out of and we rented there for about 6 months before opening up our storefront in Echo Park.
What is it like working together and how does that affect your relationship?
Nick: I would say first of all, our dynamic is really rare. I’ve never met anybody that I get along with as well as Lyndsi, and I’ve never met a man or woman that I have as much in common with as I do with her. That definitely makes it easy. We think alike especially in business terms and we’re always on the same page. But as far as switching gears and not being too burned out on the work side, we make sure to take time to grow our relationship as well as our business. We have certain things we like to do, like there’s always a pair of concert tickets on the fridge which is something that we do regularly.
Lyndsi: And now we have this new found love for pinball. To blow off some steam that’s definitely our go-to.
One piece of relationship advice for our readers?
Nick: Honestly, I feel that her and I got really lucky as far as our dynamic goes, but we’re always very open and upfront about everything.
Lyndsi: Communication is definitely the key. That goes for romantic relationships and business relationships.
