Restaurants, Travel & a dog named Pig

Born and raised outside of Chicago, I grew up surrounded by the juxtaposition of natural beauty and the gritty allure of the city. After attempting college and earning only 12 credits, I quickly learned that classrooms weren’t where I thrived. Looking for direction, I dropped out and took a job at a well-known bar in Wicker Park in the summer of ’07 as a bar-back. Watching the controlled chaos of nightlife renew itself 7 nights a week was mesmerizing; I fell in love with hospitality.

The next decade was spent as a craft cocktail bartender. Opening dozens of restaurants, building cocktail programs, earning Michelin Bib-Gourmands, and awards like Zagat’s 30 Under 30 & Eater’s 30 Under 30.

That experience led me to launch Pineapples & Dreams, a consulting firm focused on education, design, and operations where I was able to travel the world and foster connection with the future leaders in hospitality. Later, I stepped into leadership roles managing multiple venues and developing my management philosophy: be indispensably dispensable, empower the next generation of hospitality professionals, and treat hospitality as an act of graciousness.

In 2016, I founded Aloha Poké Co., bringing Chicago its first fast-casual poke concept. We scaled quickly, growing from a 7’x10’ food stall to a 30+ unit national chain with 400 employees. The journey gave me hands-on experience in brand building, team development, and entrepreneurship. I learned something extremely important about myself in this era; that entrepreneurship is lonely as fuck.

I decided to move onward & was fortunate to make a successful partial exit, I traveled abroad for 2 years & eventually landed in Bend, OR to embrace a different pace of life. Today, I work for Toast, leading a team that guides SaaS products through a GTM commercialization process, launching products collectively producing over $400,000,000 in ARR

In my spare time, I pursue creative projects, new business ideas, and anything outdoors - camping with my dog Piglet, skiing, floating down the river, fly fishing or riding motorcycles with my dad and going to hot Vinyasa as much as I can. I’m currently focused on personal development and coaching and I’ve recently built a 2nd home in Black Rock City.

At my core, I’ve always been drawn to creating intimate connection through breaking bread or shared adventure/trauma.