If you’ve spent any time around Grand Rapids’ food and beverage scene, you’ve probably felt the gravitational pull of City Built Brewing—part neighborhood hangout, part lab for creativity, and fully committed to community. In this episode of My 1st Gig, hosts Ryan Gajewski and Allie Walker sit down at City Built with owner Ed Collazo to trace the winding path that led him here—and the choices (and hard lessons) that keep him grounded. 

Like many of our guests, Ed’s first gig wasn’t glamorous. At 13, he was up before sunrise, riding his bike six miles to a muck farm to pull weeds for $3.85 an hour. The work was humbling—and formative. “I don’t think anyone works harder than me,” he says now, crediting family role models and those early mornings for a deep, blue-collar ethic he still carries.