Pete Mrabe
Owner: Don Pistos / Pistos / Chubby Noodle
Advisor: Restaurants / Management
Don Pisto's is a fresh take on traditional Mexican street food; with inspiration from the border towns of Baja, California to as far south as the Yucatan peninsula. They pride themselves on using fresh and quality ingredients in every dish. The menu will change along with the seasons.
Don Pisto's is proud to be serving their take on Mexican street food. Offering both a to-go taco shop and a casual dining room. Brick walls and heavy wooden furniture keep the rustic look alive.
www.donpistos.com | www.sfchronicle.com | www.tablehopper.com
Tim Felkner
Founder - Vigilante Hospitality
Advisor: Restaurants / Management
Tim has been in the industry over a decade, and in that time, has opened 4 restaurants, 2 of those were top 100 restaurants in the San Francisco Bay Area and both of those were Top 10 new restaurants their first year (Zero Zero and Trattoria Corso). He has has experience managing all aspects of a restaurant from the kitchen and front of the house. His expertise is in hiring the right team, training and motivating them, and giving them all the tools they need to succeed. This has proven effective in the last 6 restaurants Tim has managed.
Tim also has a bachelor's degree in Entrepreneurship from the Carlson School of Business at the University of Minnesota.
Most recently, Tim was an owner/operator of Zero Zero for the last 3 years, but wanted to branch out. Therefore, he started Vigilante Hospitality with the intention of utilizing his skills to helps others pursue their dreams.
Richard Woodruff
Advisor - Bar Management
Richard Woodruff found his calling as a classic barman with an inspired palate for creativity in cocktails, new and old, after years of working in the financial worlds of banking and IT during the tough years of the dot.com boom/bust and subsequent nationwide depression in fiscal services. Having cooked his way through high-school and college, after graduation (cum laude) he left the restaurant industry to "use his degree," on the advice of all his counselors, friends, and family.
What started as a hobby in DJ-ing to supplement his income during those years turned out to be the foreshadowing of an altogether different kind of business -- the food service industry, with particular emphasis on all areas of bar-tending. It fit him so well that he happily made it his own, finding a niche in which he felt completely at home. He believes that good beverages, good food, and an atmosphere of conviviality are the best vehicles by which to bring people together. He has a natural, innate sense of what pairs well with what, from people to foods to wines and cocktails. The one constant that has never changed in all the fields in which Richard has worked, including the financial world, is customer service delivery. Inheriting the gift from both his grandfathers, he has never met a stranger, just a friend he doesn't know yet.
Danny Fay
CEO - Envolve Winery (Sonoma, CA)
Advisor - Wine
British by blood, Californian by accent and French by education, Danny Fay is a true citizen of the globe. Born in Oxford, England, his family later migrated to Sonoma, California when he was just 10 years old. At 12, Mike's dad accidently drilled Danny in the chin with a fastball during batting practice; they've been best friends ever since. He holds a Wine Marketing B.S. from Cal Poly (SLO) and a Wine MBA from Bordeaux Ecolé de Management in France. From 2009 to 2011 he backpacked and couch-surfed the world, making wine in California and Australia, while studying biodynamic winemaking in New Zealand and France.
In 2011, Fay assumed his role at Envolve Winery as Managing Director of Brand Development, a position well-suited to his personality, as Danny finds the greatest rewards can be found in sharing wine with consumers who may have previously found it too mysterious to understand. In 2012, Danny was promoted to CEO as the company grew and sisters, high school friends and other driven people were added to the team. Indeed, Danny's mission is to demystify wine for the average consumer and to be introduce them to its many joys and delights. "For me, the greatest thing about wine is that it seems to bring people together, in these moments in time, when everyone is relaxed, happy to be around one another, and grateful for that specific moment of leisure."