I have almost 15 years of experience in the service industry. This includes over 6 years behind a bar, most of which was in some variety of trainer or leadership capacity, and most recently 2 years as a salaried manager. I have experience across a wide variety of drastically different venues and service styles. I started at Starbucks well over a decade ago where I quickly moved into a supervisory role. After Starbucks I dipped my toe into the bar and restaurant side of things and fell in love with it. I started bartending at a country club and subsequently became a cocktail nerd and am proud of it. I am always finding new recipes to play with and try. I spent almost 3 years bartending at the club, moving into a trainer/supervisor role as I learned the ropes. After the country club I moved to a casino where I learned the ins and outs of a wide variety of venue types. The Casino had a fine dining restaurant, a sports bar, an executive players club, 3 ballrooms, an outdoor amphitheater, a massive event center, and all of that is before the 3 permanent bars on the casino floor. I was one of very few people permitted, willing, and capable of working them all.

 After leaving the casino I joined Mastic Trail Brewing. I came in as a lead bartender, quickly became the front of house manager, and currently operate in a General Manager Capacity. I added new and refreshed skills to my repertoire including scheduling, inventory management, event planning, social media marketing, brand management, marketing material creation, reservations management, policy and procedure development and adherence, vendor interaction and networking. I am definitely a man of many hats.

 When I’m not working, I enjoy spending time with my wife and animals. We have one very spoiled dog, and we love giving a good home to rescue bunnies. My main hobby and stress relief is making things. I’ve always been skilled with my hands, and oddly enough fell in love with leather-working. I’ve designed bags and wallets, even created my own logo and branding. My leather working hobby also pushed me into some rather unexpected skillsets. I created a social media crafting group and built it to at present about 7,000 members. I’m currently pursuing a Meta Certified Community Manager certification. I also had to learn Adobe Illustrator in order to create my patterns. Although I am adamant that it remains a hobby at the moment, it’s my therapy and escape from the world.