Bartender who codes.
Developer who pours.

I came to Austin in '97, back when it was still a small town. I don't call myself a local — that title belongs to people who were here before me — but this city is where I learned who I was going to be.

That answer started at a neighborhood bar. I was pouring drinks for regulars when it clicked: filling someone else's cup has a way of filling your own. The room warms up. The night gets better for everybody in it, you included. I've been chasing that feeling ever since.

It took me to San Antonio for a stretch, where I managed The Granary Cue & Brew in the Pearl — a 2013 Texas Monthly Best New Restaurant, and a room that taught me what a tight service standard actually feels like. Austin pulled me back. I ran Swift's Attic as general manager, then directed operations across Chameleon Companies' four concepts: Swift's, Wu Chow, Guild, and Rosedale K&B. Wu Chow took Austin Monthly's Best New Restaurant in 2016.

Somewhere in all that, I kept hitting the same wall: software that was supposed to help the team was fighting the team. Reports that took six hours. Systems that didn't talk to each other. Tools built by people who'd never worked a Friday night. So I enrolled at ACC, earned a B.A.S. in Software Development, and started building the things I'd spent years wishing existed.

Now I do both. Most nights I'm behind the stick at Fonda San Miguel — because the work is the work, and the bar is still where I do my best thinking. The rest of the time I'm consulting for operators who want sharper systems, a better cocktail program, or someone who speaks both languages.

Technology is a means, not the point. The point is a better shift, a better guest, a better business. Same as it ever was.