I have worked in restaurants since 2008. I started as a host where my proficiency with math and organization helped me succeed, moved to busser where I got to learn the proper level of hustle, attention to detail, and vision, graduated to server, where I was able to hone my communication skills and timing, and by 2010 I had settled into the bar, where I applied all of the skills I learned at once. With forays into management, beverage directing, and a few months of weekly shifts at garde manger, I feel as though my understanding of the restaurant space is fairly holistic, which impacts how I operate on the bar.While I adore guiding guests through experiences, especially in regards to pairing, my specialty is in creating new flavors. In my years of bartending, I've developed countless cocktails for menus and events. In my current role at L'Avenue at Saks, a two-floor restaurant and bar inside the Saks Fifth Avenue flagship store in Midtown, Manhattan, I have made seasonal cocktail menus, cocktails for major fashion industry parties, highly specialized menus for major film premiere parties, and menus for special events hosted by Hollywood royalty, all to great and definable success.I also served as the opening cocktail consultant at Genesis House, a Korean restaurant curated by the Michelin-star earning Onjium, where I developed cocktail and mocktail menus meant to be served with traditional Korean Royal Imperial Cuisine. I am educated as an artist, having earned my MFA in Creative Writing in 2011, and while my ability to tie concepts, structures, themes, and story together is integral to my style of developing drinks, the fact that I was studying to be an English/writing professor benefits me in my attempts to communicate to others how to best achieve their specific goals with new creations. In this I am not just a creative force, but a collaborative one. I am also a novelist.