Two East Dallas women started the city’s first all-female valet service
Everyone who parks cars for Pinky’s Valet wears similar shoes: pink-and-grey Nike trainers.
And some add extra touches to the uniform, like co-owner Chelsie Paine of the Lower Greenville neighborhood, who rocks an oversized hot pink watch.
One thing this all-female valet service doesn’t do is sex it up.
“There are female valet services that do that,” Paine says. “They run around in high heels and lingerie.”
Paine and her partner, Jill Reynolds, used to park cars for extra money. But they wound up referring so much business to the companies they worked for that they decided to start up their own operation.
Los Angeles and Atlanta have all-female valet companies, but there wasn’t one in Dallas.
Aside from the $1 million insurance policy, starting up was pretty simple. They bought A-frames, a podium and uniforms, and they were off to the spaces.
Many of the women who work for them are their friends, so going to work is fun, plus it’s a workout.
“Any time I’m working, I know I don’t have to go to the gym that day,” says Reynolds, who is a high school teacher and girls basketball coach.
And they make it fun in other ways too. For a Halloween party on Swiss Avenue, they all dressed up as valet vampires. At the Round Up Saloon’s Christmas party, they wore bandanas and shoe covers that looked like boots. And for a wedding, they will order shirts to match the wedding colors.
“When you pull up to an event, a valet is the first thing you see,” Paine says. “So we bring a different type of energy.”
—Rachel Stone
Contact Pinky’s Valet at pinkysvalet.com or 214.529.6923.
