About
June 7th, 2006
 I was born and raised in the New Orleans area (ok, so I was born in Metairie and grew up in Kenner) and except for a few years, have spent my life in this great city. Those few short years were spent in Lafayette, attending and graduating from the University of Southwestern Louisiana (USL), now known as The University of Louisiana - Lafayette (ULL).
After returning from Lafayette, I moved Uptown (hence the name - more on that later) in a house (the legendary 1300 Milan St.) with a lifelong friend of mine. Why UptownKevin? Well, one of my best friends shares the name Kevin, and it is hard to talk to two people at once; so our friends named us. He was originally from the westbank, so he got stuck with Westbank Kevin (thank gawd I got “Uptown”).
After graduating with a degree in Finance, I spent over five years in two different areas of the financial field; one was working in financial planning and the other was in retail banking.  A couple of years ago I decided that one thing I wanted was to be a bartender. So while I worked at the bank during the day, I bartended a couple of shifts each week, starting at Sugar Magnolia, then at Allegro for the New Orleans Saints games and finally at Vaqueros on Metairie Rd, all now defunct as a result of Katrina.
The banking career wasn’t fulfilling, and after a lot of soul searching and advice gathering, I made a career change and accepted the job as the bar manager at The Columns Hotel on St. Charles Avenue. In one of the best times of my life, I was thrilled and proud to be the manager of one of the most well known bars in New Orleans.Â
Which brings me to the next chapter of my life. A nasty little storm named Katrina struck New Orleans on August 29th of 2005. I had worked at The Columns on that Saturday night and closed up shop early, as many had evacuated. I evacuated on Sunday and didn’t return to New Orleans for almost six weeks. During my travel, I went to Chicago, Hammond, LA and finally Tampa, FL, where I landed a job in sales with a massive computer distributor.
I’ve settled in Tampa with a fresh start and a new perspective. The food isn’t the best, but the people are great, the weather is fantastic, and the ability to play volleyball on the beach every weekend is priceless (sorry for the cliche). I think I’ll be here for a while…
July 16th, 2006 at 3:20 am
Enjoying reading your thoughts about restaurants. I’m a restaurant nut myself, rarely eating meals at home. I generally avoid chain restaurants, and I especially love little hole-in-the-wall places.
Was curious about the taco place you mentioned in South Tampa along with Chipotle. I’ll be sure to try that soon.
Have you been to Armani’s? Had a terrific experience there a couple weeks ago. Great view, nice place, pleasant waitress, fantastic food. Very expensive, however, especially the drink prices ($11 for a dirty martini and $13 for a Macallan 12-year).
Keep up the good work!
Greg