team
Rich is the winemaker and one of the two proprietors of Locus Wines. Rich's story is quite usual: Boy goes to University of Washington (a husky), gets a Finance degree and then a corporate job, and then grows up. Somewhere along the way, he finds his passion (wine). He starts making wine even before getting his Oenology certificate from Washington State University (a cougar, too), all this while maintaing his corporate job. Like we said, quite usual.
Ton is the co-proprietor and the Executive Chef at Locus. After a long career in product management, he eventually leaned into his passion for food. During one of his midlife crises, instead of buying an expensive car like any self-respecting burned out corporate hack would, he trained to become a Culinarian. He left his position as the Dean of the Seattle Culinary Academy at Seattle Central College in March 2021 to focus solely on Locus. Since September 2023, he is the Executive Chef and General Manager at another Locus venture, a stir.
Ashley (on the right) is the tasting room manager at our Pioneer Square location.
A Montana native, Ashley joined us in November 2022 as the kitchen master, with 14 years in the culinary world, most recently from Damn the Weather where she had been the sous chef for 2 years. Before that, she was at the pandemic-victim, Heartwood Provisions, with Chef Kim (and Chef V before her).
She has impressed us with her people and organizational management skills, so she just had to take managerial control after Ton moved on to a stir.
.png)
Keenaan (it means 'collector of vowels' in Bainbridge Island language) has been our busboy for a whole year from Spring of 2022 until recently. We finally made him an associate because he is good people and he is really good with people. Plus he is cool. He took time off school to travel the world. Who does that? Smart ones.
He is finishing up his Political Science degree at UW these days but he (not so) secretly wants to be a pilot when he grows up. Don't let the poofy hair fool you. There are some brains in that head of his.