About a year ago, I wrote about my trip to Italy, to going back to where I came from to do it all over again. Well, it has been a crazy year and BIG things have happened... A year ago, I was engaged, I was a line cook with nothing but my desire to fuel me, which if I am to be honest, over the last year was kind of beaten out of me... I felt betrayed by the industry and the people I had given my all to. When I wrote about "Breaking Bond" I never thought that eventually it would start to break me. But it did. I was at the end of my rope, I had put up with a lot of shit that I thought was making me a better Chef, and in many ways it did. It taught me a lot. Mostly it taught me what I deserved, and that I was worth more. I had been so broken by my dear friend and mentor's death and in my time of need the people who I thought really loved me didn't really try. I started to doubt everything I knew, I started to doubt whether I was even in the right industry or not. Ridiculous. A ridiculous thought. Wagner would smack me for even thinking that for one second. It turns out, I wasn't in the wrong industry, I was in the wrong restaurant. I won't talk shit about Bond Street Social because I genuinely love some of the people there. Neill Howell always had my back and is probably the only person to notice how much Mikey's death affected me, and he tried to fix me. Neill is still one of my best friends, an amazing chef, and definitely the reason I stayed at Bond for so long... It was a pleasure to work by his side for all those days. But he could never have fixed me. Nothing in that place could have, because the 4 months after Michael J Wagner, CEC died, I heard his voice in my head every day telling me I was meant for bigger and better things. I knew I had to go, I asked Mikey everyday to show me what was next. I had such a hard time taking that big leap, that I was literally just standing still like a stagnant pond! The day that I decided I couldn't do it anymore, Mikey put the pieces together for me.
I got a random facebook message from my good friend Marsha O'Connor, Wagner's ex-wife and mother of his amazing two daughters (my sisters!). The message was to me and this guy I had never heard of named Michael Brissey. Marsha simply said, I wanted you two to "meet" each other. And that's where it all began. Over the course of the next few days Michael Brissey and I traded stories and memories and laughs about Mikey. We shared a common heart, a common belief, a knowledge that Mikey had made us both who we are today, who we will be tomorrow, and who we will touch in the future. Brissey told me about his concept for a restaurant in Baltimore to celebrate the man himself, Wagner's. Two days later, the same week I decided to leave the restaurant I had given myself to since it opened, four months exactly to the day that MJW died, Michael Brissey handed me my dreams!! He asked me to be the Executive Chef of Wagner's, a brew pub he would be opening in Downtown Baltimore. "I'm all in, 100%" And just like that I had a brand new life, a brand new love.
And now it's all happening. I went from being miserable, hating my job and my life (because my job was my life) to being the HAPPIEST person I have ever been. Life moves so fast once it gets going... Like every great getter on the go! Sooo SURREAL. Everything I ever dreamed of being, everything that Mikey ever told me I would be. He made it all happen from up above. Wagner's will be a big restaurant in downtown Baltimore, serving homebrewed beer, lots of craft beers, and a farm to table Italian menu, as were the passions Mikey upheld. We are going to do everything to continue the life of Michael J Wagner, because for us, it's personal. Because, story after story, Chef after Chef, everyone who he touched, we all say the same thing, "He made me who I am today." This is going to be an epic explosion of culinary prowess, and exemplary amplification of the big heart that Wagner had for people, teaching, family, friends, and FOOD. We can't stop, won't stop!! So start spreading the word now, all you GETTERS ON THE GO, that we are about to GO BIIIIIG!!! Look out for sneak peaks on the menu and pictures of the restaurant as its being built, and watch for new blogs, I'm BACK BABY!
For Chef Michael J Wagner, CEC... the man that gave us all the big dreams and the big skills to back them up, tutto per voi!!! We are gonna BLOW BALTIMORE AWAY!!!
Spingerti...
This is the life.
Amo cucinare,
Ryn
I got a random facebook message from my good friend Marsha O'Connor, Wagner's ex-wife and mother of his amazing two daughters (my sisters!). The message was to me and this guy I had never heard of named Michael Brissey. Marsha simply said, I wanted you two to "meet" each other. And that's where it all began. Over the course of the next few days Michael Brissey and I traded stories and memories and laughs about Mikey. We shared a common heart, a common belief, a knowledge that Mikey had made us both who we are today, who we will be tomorrow, and who we will touch in the future. Brissey told me about his concept for a restaurant in Baltimore to celebrate the man himself, Wagner's. Two days later, the same week I decided to leave the restaurant I had given myself to since it opened, four months exactly to the day that MJW died, Michael Brissey handed me my dreams!! He asked me to be the Executive Chef of Wagner's, a brew pub he would be opening in Downtown Baltimore. "I'm all in, 100%" And just like that I had a brand new life, a brand new love.
And now it's all happening. I went from being miserable, hating my job and my life (because my job was my life) to being the HAPPIEST person I have ever been. Life moves so fast once it gets going... Like every great getter on the go! Sooo SURREAL. Everything I ever dreamed of being, everything that Mikey ever told me I would be. He made it all happen from up above. Wagner's will be a big restaurant in downtown Baltimore, serving homebrewed beer, lots of craft beers, and a farm to table Italian menu, as were the passions Mikey upheld. We are going to do everything to continue the life of Michael J Wagner, because for us, it's personal. Because, story after story, Chef after Chef, everyone who he touched, we all say the same thing, "He made me who I am today." This is going to be an epic explosion of culinary prowess, and exemplary amplification of the big heart that Wagner had for people, teaching, family, friends, and FOOD. We can't stop, won't stop!! So start spreading the word now, all you GETTERS ON THE GO, that we are about to GO BIIIIIG!!! Look out for sneak peaks on the menu and pictures of the restaurant as its being built, and watch for new blogs, I'm BACK BABY!
For Chef Michael J Wagner, CEC... the man that gave us all the big dreams and the big skills to back them up, tutto per voi!!! We are gonna BLOW BALTIMORE AWAY!!!
This is the life.
Amo cucinare,
Ryn
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