million dollar man, 500+ custom cabinet drawings per year
build to suit restaurants, up to 10,000 square feet, 3 kitchens, and an elevator
TurboCAD, MegaCAD, SilverScreen Solid Modeler, CabinetVision Solid
Excel, Word, PowerPoint, Outlook, Access, FrontPage, Custom Style Sheets (css)
A brief history...
I worked in my parents' restaurant and construction through my college years to pay tuition. I built my first
restaurant in 1986 for the family in the old-town district of Fort Collins, CO. Following that, I moved to the
Chicago area where I had friends and worked as a glazer in Lombard for a year. Then I moved into the city, and my
first job was in the Rush Street district as a waiter in a fine-dining restaurant named Turbo. Bob
Djahanguiri, the owner, got to trust and know me, and it wasn't more than 6 months later that he made the decision
to remodel the restaurant and change its concept. He asked me if I was interested in running the job for him. It
wasn't a big, a few subcontractors and myself, but it was my start. After that that I hung up my waiter's apron
for a tool belt and joined the carpenters' union working mostly on restaurants, fixtures, scenery flats, and props.
Going solo!
One day I walked into a gutted building in Bucktown and parlayed a chance meeting with a restaurateur, Bobby
Palidino, into a working relationship. I told him I wanted to build his restaurant. That opened the door. From 1991
to early 1995 I built restaurants as a project manager thanks in part to his promoting of my work. On one job I met
Michael Trejtnar. Like me, he worked independently, and we collaborated. Mike is a Czech who having escaped communism
decided it was time to return home to a democratic, capitalistic, republic. He asked me to come along for the
adventure. If you knew me then you'd understand why I couldn't say no. That's how I ended up in the Czech Republic.
We looked into building homes and then settled on wood processing. We milled in Ukraine and had panel production in
the Czech Republic. I did this for four years and returned to the US in 1999. Since then I've had a more sedate life
doing CAD work for a molding company and then kitchen design-sales that you can learn more about in the cabinet section.
