I was that weird kid that actually knew exactly what they wanted to be when they were sixteen. So much so that for my birthday parties as a teenager, we'd have all my friends over to make their own personal pizzas, and the tagline under my last name on the back of my letterman jacket was "Eat at Jakie's!" Food was everything... until I took a wine class while attending University of Houston for Hotel and Restaurant Management. That was it! Tasting the wines of the world immediately changed my trajectory. I took on my first wine program when I graduated at 22 and have been working in the beverage world ever since. 

Fortunately, I found myself moving around every few years - from Houston, to Minneapolis, to Toronto, and finally to New York. That travel created diversity in my experience and shaped how I viewed the way wine impacts people and the world. Through that experience and a bit of luck, I eventually found myself in the position of Beverage Director of Momofuku. There I was able to flex the beverage muscles I'd built over the years and oversee programs of all types - from the multi-michelin starred to the fast casual in a mall - and continue to build on the belief that wine and the beverage world is for all people, and to stay curious and open minded for new ideas. When I'm not working, I am enjoying time with my wife and two clingy cats and am usually in the kitchen making something over-involved and time consuming, biking around the city, or procrastinating on another scheme of some kind.