Born in NYC, I arrived in Dublin, Ireland in 1997 at 23 without the slightest bit of service experience, lied my way into a busy bar and rose up the ranks from floor staff, to cellar man, to bartender, to manager. I worked in various Dublin locations in addition to a few NYC spots over those years and learned so much from all those experiences of working with the public. It occurred to me that I very much enjoyed interacting with my customers, I enjoyed making drinks for people, it gave me great pleasure to make people happy and I had discovered more than I ever thought I would. I am reminded of Lewis Carol's line,
"One of the deep secrets of life is that all that is worth doing is what we do for others."
No matter which joint I worked in, working for the public was only one aspect of it all, being part of a team was also crucial. For those early years in the bar game, I worked with some fascinating, inspirational, insane & hard-working boys and girls, people I learned so much from, and for some I am still fortunate to call them friends and colleagues.
I moved back to America in 2004 with my wife and bought a bar and restaurant while working as owner, operator and head chef (as well as accountant, janitor, delivery man...you get the picture). After many successful years even through the bubble burst of '08, I had decided to return to Ireland with my family to give Dublin another lash. I was re-energized with the experience of being on the other side of the world again, as well as having the experience of being on the other side of the chain of command. I rejoined the team in Lillie's Bordello to look after the top floor, VIP Library Bar in addition to working with Porterhouse Brewing Co and the Dingle Distillery, working as a Brand Ambassador for Richmond Marketing, years of consulting for William Grant and Son Distillers Ltd and started a bar consultancy company called Last Call Bar Solutions.
Deciding to leave the late nights of mixing drinks for the masses in 2014, I joined up with an amazing team of people with heaps of experience bringing companies and organizations up to a higher level of service quality through the use of internationally recognized training and measurement skills. Customer Service Excellence Ireland was where I built up my training and presentation skills to provide that bit more for my clients.
My focus is now on bringing all those years of experience in the drinks industry together with my ability to educate and train to help businesses all across the country on the journey towards something new.
Last Call Bar Solutions is the sum of all my experiences in the drinks trade bringing together my work with (and love of) cocktails, craft beer & staff training.
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