I am one of the proud owners of Pies Plus Cafe. My wife Candace is my partner in life and in business. Its been almost five years of us working together and things are going great. I grew up with the business as it was my dad, Jeff, who started it back in 1987 in Bragg Creek. He then opened a second location in Calgary in 1989 (currently the only one). From the time I was crawling I was surrounded by this business and part of that made me not want to take it over when Mom and Dad started talking of selling. It was just something that I was not interested in.

One day that changed and I took a run at being a business owner when I was 19 years old. I figured you have to jump in sometime, why not now? Fortunately for me, my wife and I have been together for almost 16 years and she has stuck out my extreme learning curve of being a new business owner at such a young age. I have owned and operated Pies Plus for nearly 15 years now. Once I started getting the hang of being my own boss, I learned that I have more bosses than anyone! All of you, our customers are my boss, because if I don’t meet your expectations you will not return and that is the last thing we want. I strive to keep my expectations of myself and of my staff at the very high level that has been associated with Pies Plus for almost a quarter century. That being said, there’s always room to have lots of fun at work and I very much enjoy doing what I do and doing it with the amazing people I work with, many of which end up becoming personal friends even after they cease to be employees.

On a more personal note, I hold a private pilots license and from time to time terrorize the skies south of Calgary when the weather is nice. I also enjoy SCUBA diving when I can and working on renovating my house currently. I enjoy exercising and riding my mountain bike in the mountains and going for hikes in the back country in summer. In winter, I try and downhill ski whenever I get the chance and like playing pick-up hockey in Priddis with the boys. I am also a volunteer firefighter with Foothills Fire Department. I enjoy the people and training that is provided and the fact that I am able to help people when they really need it. I am a firm believer that you get out of something what you put in, so I try to give anything I do my all because you never know if you’ll have a second chance.

So don’t be afraid to stop and say Hi next time you see me wandering the floor of the restaurant, I love meeting each and every person who comes in and hearing their unique perspective of life. Something about coffee shops and bars…

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