The Iron Horse Hotel

• Opening Executive Director of Food and Beverage of a 4-star boutique hotel and restaurant with six different banquet spaces spanning over 8,500 square feet of a $4.5 million dollar food and beverage operation
•  Created and oversaw the implementation of SOP, hiring and training of a 73 associate staff and 11 managers
•  Launched the progressive restaurant concept Smyth in the Iron Horse Hotel
•  Lowered food cost by 15% and liquor by 5% within four months on property
•  Formed a new Banquet department and increased sales from $10,000 per month to $100,000+ per month
•  Built relationships with vendors in each city and negotiated pricing and accounts for two start-up restaurants
•  Built and opened an additional 145 seat seasonal outdoor bar within four weeks of the 4-diamond Smyth debut
•  Achieved #1 ranking out of 986 Milwaukee area restaurants on Trip Advisor after 3 months of grand opening
•  Opened a fine-dining restaurant & lounge focused on international  cuisine &; six banquet facilities with annual revenues of $4.2M
• Re-contracted post-covid to reposition the hotel, recreate the culture that the IHH is known for, re-launch new restaurant, ASH.

Each step of the hotel is designed to tell a story, such as the guestroom corridor carpets inspired by safari motifs that were famous at the turn of the century when Teddy Roosevelt began going on African safaris. With local art a hallmark of the property, rooms feature fine art photography of Milwaukee women by artist and Milwaukee native, Charles Dwyer, enlarged to mural size and hand-embellished by the artist. Dwyer also created the renowned “Americana Flag” — created out of hand-painted denim jeans — that hangs in the hotel lobby and was refurbished in 2020. Over the past 10 years, more and more artwork has been added to the property, including an entire collection of rare superhero works by the late artist Jerry Pfeil on display in Branded Bar.