Tell me more about yourself. What are your hobbies? What are you doing for fun? 

I love live music. That's probably my number one passion, I would say. Which again, Chicago is amazing for live music. Another reason I love it here. You know, Orlando and Florida in general, [bands will] skip it for logistic and maybe political reasons, [but] everyone comes to Chicago, which is amazing. So yeah, I go to a lot of live shows. I just saw Jack White at Salt Shed last week, which was awesome. Schubas is right by my place and one of my favorite places to catch a show on a random week night or weekend. 

Are you a food guy, a bar guy? 

Yeah, I mean, speaking of other things I love about Chicago, the food scene is amazing. My wife and I try to go out and check out a new place as much as we can. Yeah, I love trying new restaurants, new food types. And then, yeah, I'm big into whiskey, bourbon. So I love places like Gretel. Even Big Star for the whiskey, the tacos are fine, but I love their whiskey selection. 

Do you play music yourself? 

I don't. when I was in college, my buddy and I ran a now-long defunct music blog, so we tried to keep our finger on the pulse of the scene, and we’ve kind of kept that up. He actually now runs a vinyl collector's blog and I help him out where I can with some of that stuff, but we definitely keep in touch — more on the reporting and the enjoyment side — I've never played an instrument. Honestly, I don’t have the knack for it. 

Do you want to shout out the blog? 

It's called The Wax Museum. It’s on Substack. But it's vinyl on sale and there's some really good deals he posts through that. 

Cool. Is there a band, maybe something a little more obscure, something you discovered that you wanna shout out? 

One of the best shows I've seen so far this year was a band called This Is Lorelei. I saw them at Schubas earlier this year. Really cool guys, been in a couple of different projects. This is like his solo venture. But yeah, they're great, highly recommend it, and put out an awesome album last year. 

Beyond Chicago, a favorite place you've ever been and or a dream destination you've never been but always wanted to go? 

Yeah, I mean favorite place I've been: my wife and I went to Lisbon, Portugal on our honeymoon and it was just like mind blowing. We actually ended up going back to Europe two summers ago, and we designed it so that we had a long layover in Lisbon and spent an extra night there. It's one of my favorite places on earth, for sure. Dream vacation? I would love to go to Japan or South Korea. Either one of those places would be a dream spot. 

Nice. Yeah, I hear such good things about Lisbon but I've never been. 

It's amazing. 

You mentioned the Dennis Lee connection. A bunch of people have come in through Dennis Lee. How do you follow Dennis? 

Yeah, I found him, I think it was through a random Reddit post. But like I said, I love trying out new restaurants and stuff, and also just love to support independent journalism, so I really like what he's doing with the newsletter. He writes in kind of a comical and fun way that I think is just a nice way to start your day, honestly. But yeah, I've been a supporting member on his Substack [Food is Stupid, The Party Cut], and I found you through there, and it seemed like a great way to come and support the community. 

Awesome, you’ve mentioned a few restaurants already. Do you have a favorite restaurant?  

The burger at Gretel is probably my top burger. I love Coda di Volpe for an Italian spot. Gosh, put me on the spot here. There's so many good places. Also in our neighborhood: Dear Margaret [is] an amazing spot. I'm also super close to Red Hot Ranch and end up there far more often than I should. Also, shout out to Bitter Pops. I love that place. They have a really good burger and also just a cool bar with great beer and whiskey and whatnot.

Appreciate the tips. Anything you want to end on? A joke? 

I don't really have any good jokes. But this has been an awesome experience and thanks thanks for having me.

Thank you!