my day starts before I even step foot in the office with current business operations. The first thing I do when I wake up around 6am is check my phone for any overnight pressing emails. After I deal with any overnight items, I work from my home office for about 2-3 hours analyzing prior day sales & manager reports. I typically eat breakfast at my desk at home with my puppy and then get a quick workout in and off to the office.

Once I get to the office it’s a barrage of emails / meetings / dropping into director’s offices to see how their current projects are going. And before I know it its noon.

I typically like to take an hour for lunch and go to one of my restaurants by myself and see how the food comes out, things look and are running. But I also use that time to review anything that happened in the am that might need to be revisited and reworked later that day.

After lunch it’s time for the new project stuff! Following up on new projects, menu prep, and construction, financing & legal to see where everything’s at and if our timelines are being hit.

Once 5pm rolls around its nap time for a few hours and then time for the night shift. I like to touch each store at least once every two weeks personally for dinner or late night. This gives me a sense of sales trends and current market needs that you can’t see in a corporate office. I truly cherish my nighttime store visits because it shows me how many incredible people work for Riot Hospitality Group!

I was born…

in Phoenix AZ, third generation AZ native.

My favorite thing about Arizona…

I have traveled a lot and lived in a number of places in my life, and Arizona is just my home. It’s beautiful, clean, great people, great weather and just comfortable for me.

I’m listening to…

at the moment – Dierks Bentley (pretty girls drinking tall boys).

My family…

all live in AZ…it’s great having them so close for holidays and family Sunday dinners.

If I could have dinner with anyone, it would be…

well if I wanted to eat some crazy incredible food I would think the best dinner would be with Auguste Escoffier, because he is the father of French cuisine. But if I wanted some answers to everything it would be God, because If he exists, I’ll have enough questions to last long past dinner…maybe God and Auguste could cook a meal together and make some religiously amazing crepes.

One thing I cannot live without…

family.

When I was younger, I wanted to be…

a teacher… until I realized it was a really hard job :/

I’m inspired by…

the ability to create environments people love. It feels incredible when you can create a brand that turns into a culture, and that just leads to more creative inspiration

If I could change anything in the world, it would be…

I would change human nature to be more supportive of other people. In life most people you meet hope for others to fail and I only want everyone to succeed. I wish there was more likeminded people in that regard.

The perfect day would be…

my perfect day would be the ability to eat anything I wanted and have it be good for me! I love an incredible burger or perfectly melted chocolate cake, but I don’t get to eat those types of things very often.

My first job was…

at 16 my first job was a busser at a Mexican food restaurant. I learned the restaurant business really quick from the ground up.

My favorite escape…

driving fast cars. Sports cars are my secret passion, and I just love to get lost on a stretch of highway listening to country music and letting my mind just enjoy the ride.

My life…

feels incredibly fulfilling because I am able to contribute to the success of the lives of many people around me in such a positive aspect.

I’m currently working on…

a number of projects ranging to new locations of ‘Dierks Bentley’s Whiskey Row’ in Chicago / Dallas & Las Vegas to new locations of El Hefe’s in Colorado / a 2^nd location in Chicago and downtown Phoenix. And I am also releasing a new concept called ‘Farm & Craft’. Farm & Craft will debut in its first location on 6^th St and Scottsdale road in the old Stingray space in September of 2015 with two more locations in Arizona in 2016. Farm & Craft will feature great food and beer made from healthy beginnings, organic, local and chemical free.

Always…

learn, learn, learn. Never stop learning from your successes and your mistakes.

Never…

lose the ability to remain humble. Life deals some tough cards and the people that treat other people the right way will always get it back in spades

Favorite Quote…

“Too much of anything is bad, but too much good whiskey is barely enough.” ― Mark Twain

Biggest Dream…

honestly, this might sound cheesy, but I’m living it

My Pet Peeve(s)…

my biggest Pet Peeve is that I can’t stand the words Pet Peeve.

El Hefe and Dierks Bentley’s Whiskey Row are on the docket for some of the hottest big game festivities in the Valley. The local favorites and Best of Our Valley winners will feature celebrity appearances and performances by Taryn Manning, DJ Thomas James, DJ Cutswell, Dierks Bentley, and Country Music Television (CMT) Takeover. Visit Dierk Bentley Whiskey Row and El Hefe for more info and tickets