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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andy h.

Andy H. | Manager/Wine Director

Bottle 12

Years of Industry Service: 2 (this time around)

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Andy is a man of many endeavors. During the day, he is an independent wine rep for a little company called Massandra. He is known as the Happy Wine Guy on his 5-year-old, wine-focused blog. These days, he is so busy, blogging has taken more of a back seat. And he's working on creating an extra, extra spicy Bloody Mary mix with his Belly Up bestie, Craig, whom he credits for his new career path. "It's his fault I quit my perfectly good job at Sprint." For years and years, Andy was a well-paid rat running through the corporate maze, but he wanted a change. After winning salesman of the year at Sprint in 2008, he went on vacation, came back and quit.

Last but not least, Andy runs a wine bar in......Bonner Springs (not a typo). The bar is named Bottle 12 because they have 12 wines by the glass, served from one of those fancy wine dispensing systems that allow customers to have a lot of variety while keeping the wines fresh. Andy picks the first 11 bottles and the customers choose the 12th bottle. Andy has built a following at Bottle 12 through wine classes, tastings and a lot of special events. "No one believes there's a cool, little wine bar in Bonner Springs," he says. Stop by and see Andy if you happen to be rolling through Bonner on a Wednesday, Thursday, Friday or Saturday.

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Andy was working his day gig as a wine rep when we ran into him at Tannin Wine Bar.

  Make KC Better » Move it south for better weather 

 and disallow chewing of gum in wine bars.