Sommelier / instructor / bartender

Teach up to 20+ students per class instructing them on history of wine, tasting 22-36 different wines, food and wine pairing, wine styles, wine labels, grape variety & varietal characteristics, international wine laws, wine regions, and storage, preparing them to pass the WSET intermediate level 2, or the advanced level 3. Discover Wine & Spirits Academy in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Napa Valley, Santa Barbara, Las Vegas and Saratoga Springs, NY, is the Wine & Spirit Education Trust (WSET) Approved Program Provider for the Award in Wine & Spirits Level One (Foundation), Level Two (Intermediate) and Level Three (Advanced) Certification, as well as WSET Spirits and other Online Courses. Discover Wine & Spirits Academy has been conducting WSET courses for over seven years in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Help independent business owners with all aspects of managing a successful restaurant including marketing, financial systems, service training, menu development, beverage management, food management, human resources, Inventory, Vendor relations, budgets and instructional booklets. Clients include Underwood Oakland, The Duchess, Shorty Goldstein’s, Broken Record and Noir Lounge

Provide courteous, knowledgeable wine recommendations to customers via chat, email and phone. Adept at dealing with a wide variety of questions and requests. Consistently rank first in wine sales each month. Transformed the way in which automated recommendations are made, which includes categorizing wines into micro-genres and micro-styles by country, region, grape, blend, structure, fruit, alcohol, and acid. Responsible for the monthly wine clubs, descriptions of country, region, winemaker, winery, grape and terroir. Contributor to the Wine.com blog, discussing topics as varied as Sherry production, terroir, Oregon Pinot Noir, Napa Cabernet, and other educational issues.

I implemented a new wine list consisting of a categorized list including at least four, red, rosé, and white wines from each major European wine producing country and the USA.Built new beer list with emphasis on local, seasonal, and artisanal rotating drafts with an extra emphasis on Belgian beers and India pale ales. Introduced a cocktail menu from scratch using Noir Lounge’s classic movie décor as motivation. It’s comprised of all cocktails that are mentioned in movies from the golden age of Hollywood. Mostly prohibition era or within a few years; the cocktail menu will launch in the fall of 2014.Noir Lounge has been regularly voted one of the best lounges and bars in San Francisco.

Per Diem is a Zagat-rated Cal-Ital organic restaurant with an emphasis on seasonality and local fresh ingredients. The wine list represents a split between well-known and rare varietals in California and Italy, matching all styles and budgets.Prior to the opening of the restaurant, I worked closely with the owners and investors to develop the service standards and employee handbook, in addition to hiring and training all front of the house staff. I was also responsible for managing the public relations efforts around the launch and reaching out to local hotel concierges and other influencers to create buzz. Daily duties include: managing all aspects of the restaurant, event planning, human resources, payroll, financial systems, inventory, P&L statements, budgeting, daily accounting, vendor relationships and payments, beverage/bar/wine programs and education, service standards, floor management, Open Table, POS programming and maintenance, menu development, and daily line ups.

Daily duties include: maintaining fine dining service standards, Internet marketing, Aloha POS, daily menu development, banquet management, employee training, drafting employee manuals, daily line up, management of staffing, payroll, wine education and ordering. Vicoletto has won the OpenTable Diner's Choice Award for two years in a row (2009 & 2010) and maintained a 4-star rating on both Yelp and OpenTable

Responsible for setting and maintaining fine dining service standards, bartending, serving, wine presentation and hosting duties. Maintained employee records, payroll, daily cash drawers, invoices, inventory, ordering, deliveries and programmed Aldelo POS system. Managed the transition from Fly Trap to Zare at Fly Trap. Main responsibilities included: staff hiring and training, purchasing and inventory management, hiring of PR agency, drafted employee manuals.Zare at Fly Trap was voted "Best Restaurant in San Francisco" by 7x7 Magazine (2009)

Managed all aspects of event coordination, including hiring of caterers, bartenders, servers, maintenance crews and production staff to ensure public safety and tenant satisfaction. Events included trade shows, wedding receptions, opera, symphony, ballet and various speaking engagements.