Mark Hadfield

Founder

 

In 1983 I participated in a Bastille Day waiter’s race in downtown Chicago. At the time I had tasted wine a few times, but couldn’t open a bottle of wine to save my life. The race consisted of teams of two; the first server had to open a bottle of wine, pour it into a glass, pick up the tray with the glass of wine and go through an obstacle course. When completed, she would pass it off to her teammate and he would cover the same course. I remember going through the course so fast, wine spilling all the way. We set the record for fastest team of the day. No one was even close to our time, we thought we had the race in the bag. Then we found out that it wasn’t completely about how fast we were, but also encompassed spilling the least amount of wine. Well, that was our weakness, we had spilled a lot more wine that anyone else! Final result – last place!

 

Fast forward 25 years and now I am a 20-year veteran of the wine trade. I have traveled four continents to see wineries and dine on the local fare. How did I get here? Well, in 1986 I moved to New York City to run a new flagship restaurant named One Main at Fulton Landing, a California cuisine restaurant just two blocks from the famed River Café. It was there that I caught the wine bug. New York was a great market to be in for wine. I got a chance to meet so many wine people and taste most everything offered. After two years I left New York and returned to Chicago to open up another restaurant. Things went well, but I really felt that wine was where I needed to focus. So in 1991 I decided to leave the restaurant business to concentrate on wine. As they say timing is everything, as it was here that I received a call from a friend from my restaurant days; he had moved over to the wine distribution side and called to ask if I would be interested in selling wine. He also told me that I would never get rich in the wine business, but I could eat and drink like a king. Seemed like a good trade off.

In these wine years, I’ve had the chance to meet, dine with and visit many of the Who’s Who of the wine world, the “rock stars” if you will. Today, there are so many fond memories from all the great glasses of wine, places I’ve visited, friends I’ve made and the ensuing humor that seems to find me.

 

Ron Rippley

 

A 30-year veteran of the restaurant industry, Ron has managed an impressive variety of operations including: The Eiffel Tower Restaurant (General Mgr.-Las Vegas); Morton's of Chicago(General Manager-Chicago); Gibson's (Chicago); Rusty Scupper Restaurants (Corporate Chef Midwest / Eastern  Region) and Lake Las Vegas Resort (Food & Beverage Director.-Las Vegas).

Truly gifted in both the culinary and wine fields, Ron will help Wine With Me introduce a line of charcutiere, fine cheese, pate' and similar offerings designed to pair with wine.

A native of Chicago's northwest side, Ron attended culinary school at an early age to satisfy his passion for cooking. Shortly thereafter, Ron joined Stouffer's Restaurants at the Rusty Scupper, eventually becoming General Manager and Regional Chef.  It was there that he met Mark Hadfield, thus beginning what has proven to be a thirty year friendship.  Reunited again, the collaberation promises to benefit all those who visit Wine With Me.

 

Tom Wozniak

 

 

Responsible for the marketing and advertising at Wine With Me, Tom brings 30 years of promotional experience.  From to his early days in the newspaper business, he progressed to become National Sales and Marketing Manager for America's largest independent automotive electronics firm.  He followed with a twelve year career as a marketing consultant to many Chicago businesses in Wozniak Marketing, a firm dedicated to working with small & mid-sized firms that wished to expand their market share and grow their business.

Introduced to wine at an early age, the passion continued when Wozniak opened his own wine shop and gift basket company in Itasca.  These same quality gift baskets (featuring the finest in gourmet and specialty chocolates) are now available at Wine With Me. 
Tom is currently in his fourth year working for one of Chicago's finest wine distributors and works at our wine store part-time on weekends.

A twenty year resident of Itasca, Tom and his wife, Cindy were the first customers at Wine With Me on election day 2008.