Perhaps the best way to look at my involvement with AMF is that it is a reasonable facsimile of my entire life. I have always looked at my life as a working vacation and that is exactly what I do with AMF. In addition, the AMF family draws comparison to my own which always continues to grow and yet even though there are very divergent personalities from all walks of life somehow we all seem to get along very well. I like tto think if it as a functionally dysfunction family.
I grew up in southeastern Wisconsin and was fortunate enough to go to a private school through eighth grade. This allowed me an education far superior to that I would have received in public school and also the opportunity to participate in all sports. Had I been in public school, I would probably never even have gone out for sports but instead was the quarterback in football, the point guard in basketball and centerfielder on baseball. To many this may seem trivial but I realize it was the foundation for my success in later years in meeting the right people and forming life long relationships.
I met my father for the first time when I was 22 and moved down to Oklahoma a year later to get to know the rest of my new family. This move was only the first in what has become almost an annual right of passage for me as I have moved to a new location almost every year. These moves have taken me throughout southern California , up to Washington and then Alaska which was so beautiful I found myself staying almost 11 years. During this time I bought and remodeled my first house, bartended at Chilkoot Charlies, the largest nightclub in all of Alaska which has been rated by Playboy magazine as one of the top 10 bars in the U.S. and went back to school to get my bachelors degree. My major was history with a double minor in business and psychology. School was much easier the second time around as I made the dean's list each semester and finished with a 3.96 GPA. Of course, it was much more expensive than I had anticipated because I passed on buying a house in Palm Desert, California to return to school only to see the housing market go insane and the house I could have bought for $100,000 now is worth about $550,000! Anyway, having my college degree in hand (alright, truth be told it was stashed in a box somewhere) I decided it was time to move to the only western state I had missed living in during my travels and packed up my things and headed to Portland, Oregon.Here in Portland, the goal was to open up a pub with my hiking partner and live happily ever after.
Such was not to be the case as finding the tight location turned out to be harder than expected and when suddenly the right one came along it came with an owner that was not to be trusted. So , this is where AMF came along. My brothers John and Sean were driving trucks for AMF and asked me if I could help out the remainder of the season as they were in need of a new cook. Although I hadn't cooked in a restaurant in ages, I had years of experience in many quality restaurants with the primary one being the once prosperous but now defunct Rusty Pelican restaurant chain. Of course, the thought of continuing my “life is a working vacation” coupled as the possibility of working with my brothers for a short period of time and the fact that he did stress bikinis in his pitch proved too strong of a draw and I found myself returning to cooking for at least the remainder of the racing season. Sadly Sean quit before I started and John chose not to return this year due to family health problems. However with my new found family gearing up for another season, the allure of a summer of getting paid to travel set the wheels in motion and before I knew it I had decided to re-up for another season Of course, having Puerto rico on the schedule did twist my arm a bit; alright, a lot!
I did manage to travel extensively throughout the world and meet a number of fabulous people that I am fortunate enough to call my friends. In addition, I have found the hospitality industry was more than just a way to earn a living but a way of life. While I am working for AMF, my search for my won pub continues and may have just hit on the perfect place.
Ironically it is back in Wisconsin and if all goes well could be a booming theater pub in the heart of downtown Kenosha where I was born. Talk about coming full circle! The lesson of all of it is that life is not about the destination but the journey to get there and I have been blessed with one heak of a journey so far and AMF has been and will continue to be a large part of that. And that is that. I grow weary of taking about me so this bio is now to be considered complete!
