America’s fastest rising lifestyle diva began her career as an aspiring fashion model. Born and raised in Evanston, Pennsylvania, Barbara Smith credits her parents with instilling her with the values and creative energies that have propelled her career to this day. After graduating high school, in an era when few opportunities existed for African-American models, Smith struggled to gain a foothold in the fashion industry. But Smith persevered, and in the early 1970’s moved to New York City where the famed Wilhelmina modeling agency signed her. Wilhelmina opened doors and Smith found herself modeling in magazine and television ads and traveling around the world. In 1976, she became the first African- American cover model for Mademoiselle magazine. “Being a professional, on top of the latest fashion trends and beauty styles, was extremely important, as well as being on time and prepared mentally and physically,” she recalls. “Refusing to accept rejection was also a challenge.”

By the mid-1980s, Smith began to look for a career outside of modeling. Given her lifelong love of cooking and entertaining, she considered opening a restaurant. Her first choice of location was Vienna, Austria, where she had been modeling for an extended stay, but she never became comfortable enough with German to make it feasible. Instead, she returned to New York and spent a year learning the restaurant business before launching her first establishment, called simply, B. Smith, on 47th Street and 8th Avenue, at the edge of Manhattan’s theater district, in 1986. At the time, the neighborhood was not New York’s finest, but the restaurant’s easy elegance and good American-styled food attracted a devoted following that made B. Smith popular. Among her customers was Dan Gasby, a TV sales executive, whom she later married. The restaurant continues to flourish, relocated to New York’s famed Restaurant Row in 1999.

In 1992, Smith published her first book on decorating and entertaining. “The success of my first restaurant made me realize there was a vacuum. No one of color had written a tabletop recipe and entertainment guide and there also wasn’t anyone on television hosting a lifestyle show,” she says. Her syndicated television show, B. Smith with Style, ran for eight seasons. Working on the TV show led Smith to team up with her husband to form B. Smith Enterprises, which manages her ever-growing restaurant business (with locations in New York City, Washington D.C., and Sag Harbor, N.Y.) as well as her involvements in book publishing, television, radio, and home décor lines. Smith launched her first collection of home furnishing products in 2001 in partnership with Bed Bath and Beyond. Other product lines followed, including her own line of home furniture, launched in partnership with manufacturer Clayton Marcus in 2007.

Today Smith continues to expand her growing media empire, making frequent appearances on Oprah, ABC’s The View, and Good Morning America. According to Black Enterprise magazine, B. Smith Enterprises generated $75 million in annual revenue in 2006. “B. Smith Enterprises is definitely in expansion mode,” she says.

Income from first restaurant in 1986: lost money
B. Smith Enterprises 2006 Revenue: $75 million