Get After It PDX

Renowned and beloved chef and restauranteur Tommy Habetz talks about growing up in Connecticut and how eating sandwiches and lots of Connecticut-style pizza influenced his life and food career, the unique experience of being the youngest of 6 boys in Fairfield, CT,  wedged between the very rich and the very poor, his father's work ethic (and mother's too) and self-made life and the affect it had on his own personal drive, his early passions for art, music, and literature and his desire to explore and experience life outside of small town America, an early trip to Portland for a Habitat for Humanity program that included him at an open mic in Produce Row (in '94!), his years in NYC getting thrown into the high-intensity chef life, his eventual return to the West Coast and the "Golden Age" of the PDX restaurant scene, Gotham City Grill and the much-discussed (and written about) drama that ensued, how Bunk Sandwiches and Pizza Jerk was a result of wanting to distance himself from high end cuisine to create more accessible, inclusive spaces for people to eat and drink, and much more!

Follow him:

@tommyhabetz

@bunksandwiches

@pizzajerkpdx

http://www.catering.bunksandwiches.com

http://www.pizzajerkpdx.com

Brought to you by StretchLab, a hands-on, assisted stretching studio with 3 new locations around PDX: in the Pearl, South Waterfront, and Lake Oswego.  Mention your host Willie McBride & Wy'east Wolfpack to receive a special discount!

Accomplished adventurer and born-and-raised Oregonian JT Lehman talks about growing up in the small town of Corbett beside the Columbia River Gorge, his childhood trips into nearby Portland and early perceptions of the "big city", his relationship to physical activity and the outdoors in those early years, the decision to stay local and attend college in PDX and why he chose the major he did, how his post-college move to Colorado deepened his love for mountains and turned him on to skiing and other new pursuits, his brother's life-altering accident at the end of a cross-country bike tour and how that event changed everything and strengthened his desire to share his outdoor experiences with others, how that led to the creation of Alpenflo and the business he hopes it evolves into, and much more!

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@alpenflo

alpenflo.com

Brought to you by the Aimsir Distilling Company, a new distillery focused on great flavors and a warm environment.  They love the way spirits taste, but more importantly, they love that they bring people together to make memories, build bridges, and crystalize the moment.

Opening in Spring 2020 in NE Portland.  Follow @aimsirdistilling

Food hub expert and outdoor adventurer Emma Sharer talks about growing up in the SF Bay Area, being send to a Spanish immersion school at a young age as a result of her parent's desire to expose her to diverse environments from the get go, her first job at age 13 building "broccoli towers" at the local farmer's market and how that further sparked her interest in food and food systems, privilege and the unique education she received at Colorado College, the food project in Mexico she helped create during those collegiate years and how her Spanish speaking continues to be a valuable asset in her work to this day, outdoor activities like skiing and trail running and why those are essential to her well-being, the vision she later developed of her dream job and how people at Portland's EcoTrust somehow had the very same vision, what the word "redd" actually means and why it's located on Salmon St., and much more!

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@emshare

@ecotrust

@ecotrustevents

reddonsalmon.com

Brought to you by the Aimsir Distilling Company, a new distillery focused on great flavors and a warm environment.  They love the way spirits taste, but more importantly, they love that they bring people together to make memories, build bridges, and crystalize the moment.

Opening in Spring 2020 in NE Portland.  Follow @aimsirdistilling

Powerhouse Portland food & beverage/hospitality industry veteran Jen Quist talks about her years of moving around the country during childhood for her father's work (7 homes by the time she was 5!) including a few years in Sydney, Australia before settling in the SF Bay Area, her early desire to attend University of Washington in Seattle (her father's alma mater) and why the Pacific Northwest has always felt like home, how strong her father's example as a businessman and entrepreneur was on her over the years, especially working with him directly back in the Bay Area after college, how years in commercial, and later residential, real estate taught and helped her develop a huge array of skills that she uses today, her move to NYC for culinary school and how the unexpected dream job of catering on site events and parties (3,000 in a year!) for a major department store really got things rolling, her journey to Portland, Ripple NW and why risk-taking, failing, and self-reflection is necessary, the major work she's doing now with Doug Adams at the Woodlark, and much more!

Follow along:

@jenquisty

@bullardpdx

@abigailhallpdx

hollerhospitality.com

Brought to you by the Aimsir Distilling Company, a new distillery focused on great flavors and a warm environment.  They love the way spirits taste, but more importantly, they love that they bring people together to make memories, build bridges, and crystalize the moment.

Opening in Spring 2020 in NE Portland.  Follow @aimsirdistilling

Creator of a lifestyle media company/clothing brand with an aim to transform and inspire, Alan Aldous talks about what got him started on his personal awakening to what really fed his soul, why he thinks being present and mindful and following his internal compass has made him a better father and person that ever before and how he's altered his parenting style as a result, the reason he feels so many people seem to settle for jobs that they dislike or lives that don't truly serve them and what can be done about it, the role fear plays in all of this, the necessity to curate what we listen/pay attention to (negative vs. positive news and media), what the future of Awaken Your Passion holds, and much more.

Follow along:

@awakenyourpassion

awakenyourpassion.com

Brought to you by the Aimsir Distilling Company, a new distillery focused on great flavors and a warm environment.  They love the way spirits taste, but more importantly, they love that they bring people together to make memories, build bridges, and crystalize the moment.

Opening in Spring 2020 in NE Portland.  Follow @aimsirdistilling

Wine/food connoisseur and epicurean business owner Chevonne Ball talks about growing up in Vancouver, Washington and her German mother and Creole father and how those cultural influences largely came too intermingle around food, cooking, and the table, how she moved from Vancouver to downtown Portland at a young age and the drastic change of scenery (and culture) that entailed, how one restaurant job led to another and the connectedness of the Portland food and beverage world, what prompted her to begin traveling (and subsequently catch the bug for it) and make a big decision to move to France (and later move back to PDX), how the seedling of a business idea came to be planted along the way, why the name Dirty Radish stuck and what it means, and much more!

Follow along:

@missvonnepdx

@dirty_radish

dirtyradish.com

Brought to you by the Aimsir Distilling Company, a new distillery focused on great flavors and a warm environment.  They love the way spirits taste, but more importantly, they love that they bring people together to make memories, build bridges, and crystalize the moment.

Opening in Spring 2020 in NE Portland.  Follow @aimsirdistilling

Mountain traveler and content producer Alexandra Lev talks about her childhood spending her summers with her hardcore climber father in the Tetons and the rest of the year with her hardcore skier mother in Salt Lake City, Utah, how she slowly came to rebel against the outdoor recreation lifestyle during her teenage years as the desire to fit in and be "normal" grew stronger, her experience with depression and anxiety--made worse by a number of accidents and injuries over the years--and how she manages them, her relationship to risk and what eventually brought her back, full circle to mountain sports again, why she feels it's important to share those experiences with others, what brought her to Portland, why she and her husband bought a house and decided to stay, and much more.

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@luckyalexandra

luckyalexandra.com

Brought to you by the Aimsir Distilling Company, a new distillery focused on great flavors and a warm environment.  They love the way spirits taste, but more importantly, they love that they bring people together to make memories, build bridges, and crystalize the moment.

Opening in Spring 2020 in NE Portland.  Follow @aimsirdistilling

Beer aficionado and Operations Manager of Modern Times Beer in Portland, Oregon, Michael Christy talks about his childhood relocation to Southern California from Cincinnati, Ohio and art-focused high school where he developed an early love of film, his move back to San Diego for a job as a Naval Contractor (while beginning to experiment with home brewing beer) after college at UC Santa Cruz, how he came to the realization that we wanted to follow his passion for beer and community and turned down a major job opportunity in the process, his first beer-related job at Pizza Port and later his transition from working at long time craft giant Stone Brewing to take a chance on a small upstart named Modern Times, his move north from San Diego as that job developed and Modern Times grew and why it was so easy to fall in love with Portland, the beer scene here and the importance collaboration, and much more.

Follow along: 

@obihopkenobi

@moderntimespdx

moderntimesbeer.com

Brought to you by the Aimsir Distilling Company, a new distillery focused on great flavors and a warm environment.  They love the way spirits taste, but more importantly, they love that they bring people together to make memories, build bridges, and crystalize the moment.

Opening in Spring 2020 in NE Portland.  Follow @aimsirdistilling

Renowned outdoor recreation industry DEI activist (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion) and our first Get After It PDX and beyond guest (!), Teresa Baker talks about growing up in the Bay Area and her early connection to the outdoors, the differences between NorCal and SoCal (and why she's a NorCal person through and through), how an early trip to Yosemite National Park made her further fall in love with outdoor spaces and our country's National Parks but also, later, identify a serious lack of diversity in the visitor base there, what prompted her to take action to try to address that imbalance and led to the passion project that became the African American Nature & Parks Experience,  how her commitment to DEI work (on top of her 9-5 job in real estate!) later caused her to develop the Outdoor CEO Diversity Pledge and all that has transpired since its creation, and much more!

Follow along:

@teresabaker11

@outdoorceopledge

African American Nature & Parks Experience

facebook.com/pages/African-American-National-Parks-Event/355974594517522

Brought to you by the Aimsir Distilling Company, a new distillery focused on great flavors and a warm environment.  They love the way spirits taste, but more importantly, they love that they bring people together to make memories, build bridges, and crystalize the moment.

Opening in Spring 2020 in NE Portland.  Follow @aimsirdistilling

Fitness/wellness figure and co-founder and owner of the hugely successful Barre3, Sadie Lincoln talks about being raised off-the-grid by her mother and her mom's free-spirited friends (along side her numerous siblings), how that life taught her lessons and set examples that still guide her today, their journey to Oregon (and later PDX!), how her desire to get to know her biological father and subsequent move to Los Angeles led to her lowest, loneliest days and how those tough times, in turn, started her down the path of group fitness and figuring out what people are really searching for, what she sees as being wrong with the current state of the fitness industry, and much more.

Follow along:

@sadielincoln

@barre3

@barre3portland

barre3.com

Brought to you by the Aimsir Distilling Company, a new distillery focused on great flavors and a warm environment.  They love the way spirits taste, but more importantly, they love that they bring people together to make memories, build bridges, and crystalize the moment.

Opening in Spring 2020 in NE Portland.  Follow @aimsirdistilling