matt l.

Matt L. | Manager, Sommelier

Avenues Bistro

Years of Industry Service: 17

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Sometimes you learn from your past. Sometimes you don't. One of Matt's first jobs in the service industry was a concession supervisor at a movie theater. "I got to work with all my friends," he said. "It was like a party every day." But he got fired because he was dating a co-worker and like many youthful relationships, they broke up. They also went to school together. Awkward, right? He hasn't learned not to date co-workers, but he has learned that you can't let your relationships affect your work. Matt says he's somewhat shy; at work, relationships tend to form a lot easier, it's where he spends most of his time anyways. "It's more intimate, more intense. You're working together under high stress." He thinks relationships should be easy even though he knows they are not. "Ten years ago, I would say we wouldn't be friends (after a break up). In this industry, at this level of service, you just can't bring that stuff to work."

Matt has come a long way from movie theater popcorn and soda though. These days, he's working with what he loves, wine. The bottle that opened his eyes to the wine world was J. Lohr Chardonnay. Since he got hooked, Matt says it's taken a while to gain the knowledge to share his passion, including years of tasting, talking about the subject with his peers and training and educating others. "I love everything about wine, all styles, the history, how it's made, it's awesome," he says. His favorite wine is one that smells so incredible that you don't want to drink it.

Matt says he tends to be an workaholic. He even passed up a free trip to California to work. A recent trip took him to Columbia, Missouri where he met his friend and co-worker's Timothy's parents. Aside from not traveling, he likes to unwind at dive bars, drinking cocktails, playing pool and Megatouch and visiting industry friends, like Van at bluestem for brunch. 

The service industry has changed for Matt. He says that people are more appreciative of servers now than they used to be. "We are providing a service and not slaves to them. We make people see that by giving the best service day in and day out."

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timothy o.

Timothy O. | Wine Director

Avenues Bistro

Years of Industry Service: 20

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Tall and lanky in a long, black coat, perfectly worn-in black jeans, with a cup of coffee in his hand, Timothy looked like the Neo of wine standing in the back alley of Avenues, as he took advantage of the quiet time between lunch and dinner, confident and at ease. When he started in the restaurant business 20 years ago, he was more of a scared-y cat than the Matrix. His very first job was serving ice cream; that led him to restaurants which led to seven years of bussing tables. He said, the first five years, he was too scared to even talk to people. As his restaurant knowledge grew, so did his confidence, and wine was his gateway. "When I started knowing more about wine, and knowing more than the guest, that was the confidence I needed," he said.

As a wine director for Avenues, Timothy has to analyze cost benefits for a profitable list. But if had carte blanche on creating any wine list he wanted, he said he would probably price it so low, he'd be out of business. He doesn't personally believe in a big wine mark up. It would be expensive to maintain that kind of list, but he said he'd love to do that.

In addition to managing wine lists for both Avenues restaurants, he also writes for Sommelier Journal (he has a feature in the the Nov. 30th issue) and is pondering the idea of book. For now, he is developing a blog, writing about restaurants, management and other stories. He says that the restaurant business will be the "trunk of the tree" but he'll be focusing on other things too. Tentatively called The Dirty Sommelier, Timothy says, "Right now, I'm just working on writing. You hit a point when you've seen enough to warrant enough material to put in a book."

Timothy was born in Holland and grew up in St. Louis. He likes art and going to museums. He's a regular at the Nelson-Atkins, but his favorite is the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. He moved to Kansas City seven years ago after leaving a restaurant that was "pulling a Titanic" and he also left a relationship. He spent one year at JJ's as a server and walked into Avenues during construction to land his sweet, wine gig in Brookside.

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boomer

Boomer | Server

Avenues Bistro in Waldo

Years of Industry Service: 20

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Boomer lied to get his first serving job and it did not go well. At all. He worked at a now long-gone Italian restaurant in Topeka, Kansas and was waiting on a large group of speedway drivers, promoters and owners. With no experience, he said, "I had absolutely no business waiting on them." As he carried a tray of salads to the table, a cherry tomato committed suicide and jumped off onto the floor, unbenownst to poor Boomer, who stepped on and slipped on said tomato. The entire tray of salad came crashing down around him and thus started the worst experience of his entire life. "I literally crawled on my hands and knees from the table to the kitchen and cried for five minutes because I was so embarrassed," he said.

Twenty years later, Boomer is veteran of the industry. His best compliment came from a black couple who thanked him for not stereotyping them because of their race. Boomer doesn't care what his customers look like, jokingly saying, "if you got some money, give it to me." All joking aside, he said, "it made me feel nice because I was doing my job, doing it well and got recognized for it."

In addition to serving, Boomer also has a side business called Flowers by Pansies designing floral arrangements for weddings and other special events. Boomer said although they are just starting and business is a bit slow, it's still a great creative outlet.

Boomer has been in a 12-year relationship with his sweetheart Brian and they are still holding strong, "both fat and sassy." With three dogs and two cats, they have a full house in Waldo. Boomer does the cooking, but he sometimes has to make separate meals for their differing palates. He made a delicious swordfish with lime glaze and saffron risotto recently but his man is a steak and potatoes kind of guy. Now that he's older, Boomer keeps pretty low-key, doing housework, going to lunch with friends and playing trivia at Missy B's in his free time. "I don't do the club life," he says."I'm too old for that."

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