Quench! Wine Bistro. Cheese. Provisions.

Growing up in East Tennessee with five brothers and sisters, food was always a big part of our family life. My mom cooked almost every meal and was a very good cook. My father loved good food and later developed a passion for cooking and wine. I was often left behind by my siblings, so I spent a lot of time in the kitchen. My specialty was a breakfast egg and sausage casserole that I still make to this day.

At 16, my restaurant career began as a busboy and valet at the nicest restaurant in town. They had great fried pickles, so I had my mom show me how to make them. While attending the University of Tennessee (Go Vols!), I worked at various restaurants, including the Olive Garden and the local iconic restaurant The Soup Kitchen. Upon graduating with a Psychology degree, I became manager and corporate trainer for the Steakout franchise. 

Once my wife Yvonne graduated from UT and was heading to medical school in Miami, I decided to focus on cooking and attended culinary school at the Art Institute Of Ft. Lauderdale. South Florida was a booming culinary scene at the time, and I was fortunate enough to work for several members of celebrity chefs dubbed the “Mango Gang”, Mark Militello, Allan Susser, and Norman Van Aken. I also worked for Armadillo Café which grew my love of Southwestern Style food. It was here that I started a passion for wine. The manager would have us taste wine and educate us young cooks on it before we started on our post-shift beers. I then was offered my first executive chef job at the sister restaurant of the Astor Hotel and Chef Johnny Vinczencz at Johnny V’s Kitchen South Beach.

Once my wife graduated from Miami, we moved to Albuquerque, NM for her residency. Albuquerque was a growing city with a young culinary scene. I started as Executive Chef of Portobello an Italian Restaurant, but we were soon bought out by the new Sandia Casino and Resort, where we changed to upscale Southwestern Cuisine. It was exciting times to open and run such a large resort, but the high stress and long hours(I once worked 167 days straight), led to an altercation with security and I was soon searching for a new direction. 

While deciding my next move, I was fortunate enough to work with renowned cookbook photographer Lois Ellen Frank on her upcoming book Foods of the Southwest Indian Nation. As the culinary advisor, I helped develop and practice recipes and food styling. We won a James Beard award for best American regional cookbook. Lois also introduced me to Mark Miller of Coyote Café where I had a short-lived stint. I also worked as Chef of Kanome an Asian Diner while planning my own venture.

In 2002 I opened Ambrozia Cafe and Wine Bar in the Old Town of Albuquerque and developed my own style. We offered an award-winning wine list and a constantly changing menu focused on fresh, local ingredients. Ambrozia was named best new restaurant as well as numerous best of the City awards throughout the years and I was nominated for best chef. After 5 years, I decided to open another restaurant with partners named Nob Hill Bar and Grill. I had just had kids, Carina and Dalton, and decided to sell Ambrozia to focus on the much larger, more modern Nob Hill. After several years, family life and home were calling and I decided to sell Nob Hill back to my partners.

Knowing we wanted to be closer to family, we looked around the southeast and fell in love with Asheville with plans to open a restaurant. In 2013 Ambrozia Bar & Bisto opened in north Asheville. It was a neighborhood restaurant where I made a lot of friends with the regulars. This included John Kerr and Gina Trippi of Metro Wines. We developed a friendship over the love of wine and soft-shell crabs. We had fun doing collaboration dinners at Ambrozia including dinners based on the movie Big Night. In 2019 I decided to sell Ambrozia to have more family time and enjoy this great area with hiking, hanging out with my dog Fred, kickboxing, and eating out. I started doing pop-up dinners and private cheffing. Maintaining our relationship, I continued doing dinners with Metro Wine. One day over a glass of wine we chuckled about opening a place based on soups and wine. Over time, we decided this was actually a good idea and Quench! Wine Bistro was born.

A friend once described me as a wild thing that post-it notes swirl around and, occasionally, one of them sticks-loosely. This is my BIo, the notes that stuck - for a while.

Born in New Orleans, I did not know that the rest of the country did not celebrate Mardi Gras, eat soft-shelled crabs, or have "neutral grounds" until college. Anyway, a graduate of SMU in Dallas in Broadcast Communications, I headed off on a long and winding road. Weekend news and traffic reports in Dallas. Go back to New Orleans. Loyola of New Orleans, College of Law, JD. Married, move to Florida. Pass Bar. Intern small Tampa Firm. (Here, I am taking credit for stopping “cat calls” in Central Florida). Then Associate at an established boutique firm in St. Petersburg. Then Tampa Public Defender, Felony. Then St. Petersburg City Attorney.

Then I move to Portland, Oregon. Legal Adviser to and Hearings Officer for The Commissioner of Labor. Move back to Orlando Florida. Divorce. Decide I need to support myself! Go back to the Graduate Law program in Securities Regulation at Georgetown University, DC. Blind Date. Marry the guy you know, John. Take job in Securities and Corporate Practices, then Litigation at Office of the Comptroller of the Currency in DC. John transferred to Seattle. I am NOT taking another bar exam! Volunteer at Radio Reading Service for the Blind. 

John is transferred to Pittsburgh. I am NOT taking another bar exam! Still volunteering at Radio Reading Service for the Blind. We travel back and forth across the country with our Rescue Mixes: Gus and Kimmie.

John is transferred to Chicago. Work at Frank Lloyd Wright Home and Studio and George W. Maher Society. Meet Barack Obama in Oak Park. Work as Regional Director for 7 Cook County Townships and 3 Collar Counties (DuPage, Kane, and McHenry) until he is elected Senator. This is where I meet Brandon Johnson, now the Mayor of Chicago! (As I recall I was in charge back then!) Big Dog Gus crosses the rainbow Bridge and Kimmie, then 13, needs a buddy. The veterinarian suggests a Greyhound. A what? And this is where we started in Greyhound Rescue and Adoption. We have had 7 family members since then: FourWheels, Berry Hill, The Flying Catesby (Cate), Bandit, Domino, Kobe and Queenie, (foreign national from county Galway).

John is transferred to DC. Feature Writer for Current Newspapers. Step out to run a DC Mayoral Campaign and PAC to obtain votes for DC residents. Taxation Without Representation! Then we start looking to get out of dodge.

John and I agree on Asheville. DC is too expensive, New Orleans is too hot, and California is the end of the earth. We moved here in March 2013 and opened Metro Wines in April. Soon thereafter, we met Sam Etheridge at Ambrozia. We stayed friends.

Interspersed with this personal, professional, and geographic slinky, I have been to 7 European countries, Hong Kong and Argentina. There were awards, accomplishments, failures, and a slew of bad decisions along the way. But, as the song says: "I did it my way." And now, I am just tired. I want to spend time with my greyhounds, with a good glass of wine, a great bowl of soup, and a hunk of bread, hence, QUENCH!

I was born on Jefferson Street across from the ButterCream bakery in Napa at the first and now long-gone hospital in Napa. Back then, Napa was not yet known for wine. Yes, the grapes were there, but it was better known for its plums and olives. All that changed with the Judgement of Paris, but that’s another story…

I started working in my early teens. It began with the usual kid jobs – mowing lawns and paper boy. When I reached adult size, I went to work digging ditches in rocks and filling the holes with dirt for a gardener. Then moved on to ranch hand mending fences, bailing hay and branding cattle. 

And, of course, there were summer jobs as a waiter and bartender, and admissions gatekeeper at a resort on Lake Berryessa, which was less a summer job and more like “Cool Hand Luke.”

To help pay for college, I worked simultaneously as a night janitor (10 pm to 6 am), cardboard box maker (9 am to 4 pm), and 5-9 pm at Munchie’s, “Home of the 10-cent Burger.” The only way I got some sleep was to stagger my days off between the three jobs.

At Munchie’s, they couldn’t call them “hamburgers” because of what they were made of…don’t ask. My rise was truly meteoric. I started as the bun toaster. Once I had proven myself there, it was a quick ascension to the top. My first promotion was to secret sauce spreader. Then pickle put-er on-er. Then both pickle and lettuce put-er on-er. And finally, fry cook. The burgers were so thin that I didn’t have to flip them. The key to my success was well-paced timing. One new burger on the grill each second. Then after one minute, go back to the beginning and scrape them off one by one, placing them on top of all the hard work (that I used to do) but now done by my devoted staff. The reward? $1.60 an hour plus all I could eat. They tried to entice me to stay with a 5-cent per hour raise. I thanked them but I thought I could do better by finishing college.

Then 18 months as a card-carrying member of the International Brotherhood of Boilermaker’s union. That got me a job in quality control at a steel pipe factory. Yes, Napa has a steel pipe factory to this day. This job turned out to pay for the rest of my college years, almost to the penny.

For my longest stretch, I worked in finance and bank risk management for the Federal government. Along the way, I fell in love with Gina. My last job was EIC, examiner-in-charge overseeing Fannie Mae during the Great Recession. You’ll have to buy me a glass of wine to get the details on that story.

All these experiences prepared me for the life I live today as a wine shop owner. I learned what makes a business hum. And since I was immersed in wine while growing up in the Napa Valley, I couldn’t think of a better way to combine my talents and love of wine than to open a wine shop with my wife. And it’s paid off – we’ve been voted Asheville’s leading wine shop ten years and running!

We started this life eleven years ago and we haven’t looked back. I’ve never worked so hard in my life, and never had so much fun.

So, drop on by. We’d love to help you select a great Tuesday night wine that won’t break the bank. Or help you fill your cellar with wines you love but at a much lower cost than your favorites. Or something in between. I hope to see you soon.