Adam is a Certified Culinary Professional and a Court of Master Sommeliers Advanced Sommelier as well as an alumnus of world-renowned restaurants TRU, The Seelbach Hotel’s Oakroom, Strasbourg’s Michelin Star Chez Julien and The French Laundry.
Dubbed ‘The Charlie Trotter of Cocktails’ by New City, ‘Spirits Guru’ by Food & Wine & Fast Company, ‘Chicago’s Godfather of Craft Cocktails’ by TimeOut, he created cocktails for The Oscars, Eric Ripert’s Cayman Cookout and Oprah Winfrey’s star-studded final season wrap party.
He created his own spirits brands and consulted on product development for Starbucks, Tropicana & Dannon. Consulting for IPIC Entertainment grew into a NY based corporate position managing over 100 bartenders and beverage managers with 15 locations in 10 states.
During this and in the height of cancel culture, a male competitor falsely accused him of a 2015 sexual assault at a Tales of the Cocktail pool party. Despite enormous political pressure to prosecute sexual assault cases in New Orleans, the District Attorney’s office found that no rape occurred & dismissed the 3rd degree rape charge that had been made against him.
Always moving forward with his life partner of 17 years, he joined LUSH Wine & Spirits as Operating Partner in 2019 to open their 3rd concept and re-brand them LUSH Food & Drink. With out-of-the-box perseverance he lead all 3 locations through the pandemic with no closures, no lay-offs.
After hiring and training his successor, he left LUSH to be National Portfolio Curator for ADYA Global and to finish his first book Drink Like you Eat.
