Wine and spirits strategy from someone who's worked every side of the glass.
I help brands, importers, and restaurants sell more of the right bottles. I've spent 10+ years in the Bay Area on Michelin-starred dining room floors, in distributor sales, and in supplier field marketing, so I know how a bottle gets from a portfolio to a guest's table, and exactly where it tends to get stuck.
San Francisco, CA
Get your brand into the right accounts in Northern California and keep it moving once it's there.
A knowledgeable, polished face for your brand at trade events, dinners, trainings, and activations.
Wine lists, service standards, and staff training for restaurants and bars that want their beverage program to look great and pay off.
I started on the floor. As a captain and sommelier at Lazy Bear, Commis, and Mister Jiu's, I learned how guests actually decide what to drink and how to sell a pairing without it ever feeling like a sale.
Then I moved to the other side of the table. At Regal Wine Company I managed 200+ restaurant, bar, and hotel accounts. After that I spent a year as the in-market lead for a super-premium American whiskey, working alongside Southern Glazer's field teams. Today I'm the Aspect Account Development Specialist at Breakthru Beverage Group, focused on about 100 of San Francisco's top wine accounts: Michelin-starred restaurants, the best wine shops, and the city's top wine bars. I connect visiting suppliers with the buyers who matter, run staff trainings and tastings, place new wines, and solve whatever comes up along the way.
That range is the point. I understand what a wine director needs, what a distributor rep is up against, and what a supplier is trying to prove. My job is getting all three pulling in the same direction.
For suppliers and importers launching in Northern California or trying to grow faster than the category.
Which accounts to chase first, how to stay a priority inside a big distributor book, and how to work the three-tier system instead of fighting it. I've sat on both sides of that conversation.
A focused list of the accounts that actually move the needle, and the relationships to get you on the wine list, the cocktail menu, or the back bar.
Placements, features, displays, staff trainings, and consumer activations, tracked against clear monthly targets.
Regular reads on what buyers want, what competitors are doing, and where the openings are.
I represent your brand the way you'd represent it yourself.
Brand presentations and staff trainings that inform without losing the room.
The full arc, from setup and pouring to pitching and the follow-up that turns a tasting into a placement.
Pairings, service flow, and sourcing dialed in, from intimate dinners to large-format tastings.
Programming that gives people a reason to show up, and tasting-menu attention to detail so the host can enjoy the room instead of working it.
For restaurants and bars that want a program that's ambitious and still works on the P&L.
Built with fine dining experience and a distributor's eye for sourcing and margin.
Clear, usable SOPs that are refined enough for a high-end room and flexible enough for a real Friday night.
Wine and spirits education tailored to your menu and your team, from onboarding new hires to sharpening seasoned servers. Whisky sessions are a particular strength.
Breakthru Beverage Group
An overlay role covering about 100 of San Francisco's top wine accounts buying from the Aspect portfolio: Michelin-starred restaurants, leading wine shops, and top wine bars. I bring visiting suppliers into these accounts, lead staff trainings and tastings, place new wines with established buyers, and solve problems on both sides.
Team Enterprises (Angel's Envy / Bacardi)
In-market lead for a super-premium American whiskey across 40+ Northern California accounts. Partnered with Southern Glazer's field teams on placements, displays, and sell-through, managed the territory's activation budget, and reported market and competitive reads to regional leadership.
Floraison Selections
Built a boutique French importer's San Francisco on-premise business from scratch, landing top-tier restaurant accounts and placing prestige and allocated bottles with fine dining wine directors.
Regal Wine Company
Managed 200+ on-premise accounts at a major California distributor. Posted the top percentage growth in a key focus category two months running and grew key-account revenue 15%. Worked directly with supplier brands on market planning and account-level activation.
Led service and guided wine pairings at Chinatown's Michelin-starred Cantonese restaurant, including the signature Peking duck banquet.
Held a 50% wine pairing conversion rate and helped drive a 20% increase in cocktail sales at this two-Michelin-star dinner-party-style restaurant in the Mission.
Worked service at the East Bay's two-Michelin-star tasting menu restaurant, pitched in on R&D for the cocktail program, and used that knowledge on the floor to sell and educate.
Also: The Left Door (Cow Hollow cocktail lounge), Roka Akor (Japanese robata steakhouse with a deep whisky list), and Moshi Moshi (Dogpatch Legacy Business known for its Japanese whisky collection).
Outside the glass, I read a lot about risk, markets, and how new categories get built. A few favorites:
My favorite of the year. Coates explains how winning streaks flood us with adrenaline and dopamine and push us toward more risk, while losses do the opposite, and how that loop helps drive boom and bust cycles. Worth it even if you never think about trading.
Silver compares professional gamblers, traders, and venture capitalists. I picked up positive expected value thinking from poker years ago and try to apply it everywhere, so this one hit home.
A playbook for category design: spotting a problem in a market, defining a new category around the solution, and then owning it. Directly useful for any brand trying to stand out on a crowded shelf.
How AI and platform models let small, nimble companies take market share from bloated incumbents by serving the customers they overlook.
Everything digital still runs on physical supply chains, and Conway shows how intricate and fragile they are. The silicon section is fascinating.
The history and geopolitics of semiconductors. Great on the national strategy side, though Material World goes deeper on supply chains.
A provocative case that bubbles are coordination tools that pull capital and talent toward big ambitions, like the railroads or Apollo. Whether or not you buy it, it's a great thought experiment, and it explains a lot about why the Bay keeps innovating.
A gripping argument that globalization is unraveling. I'm more optimistic and see it as more of a globalization winter, but the demographic and food security points are worth taking seriously.
Launching a brand, building a list, or getting a team up to speed? Let's talk.