My name is Vince, and in my past life, I was a restaurateur and chef. I started cooking at a very young age, probably in my teens, though I don't recall exactly when. My first teachers were my grandparents.
Although I went to college for art, I was already working in the restaurant business by the time I was seventeen. After about four years, I grew tired of the commercial art world and dove headfirst into restaurants, a world I never truly left. By the time I was twenty-four, I was the proud owner of my own restaurant. Talk about seizing the day while you have the energy.
My Italian background likely influenced my first venture, which was primarily an Italian restaurant. We offered catering of all kinds, and I was never shy about stepping outside my comfort zone. That place, which bore my surname, was my home and my passion project for about eight years.
Though I'm grateful for the experience, a combination of the recession at the time and the relentless grind led me to sell the restaurant I loved so dearly.
I stayed in the food industry, working in management positions for others until I felt ready to take the leap again and open another restaurant. My second venture lasted about four years before I needed a change. You could say my relationship with the restaurant business has always been complicated, like a Facebook relationship status.
Call me a masochist, but even after my second restaurant became a memory, I didn't fully leave the industry. I started a restaurant consulting business, thinking I could teach others how to run a restaurant without the headache of owning one. I did that for about four years before deciding I'd had enough of the food industry altogether. Believe it or not, I ended up working for a wood veneer company—a field I knew little about but quickly mastered.
Funnily enough, that career shift led me to visit Ecuador. You could call it momentary insanity, but I prefer to think of it as a bold attempt to break routine. After a long Zoom call with an auditor from Ecuador, she casually suggested I visit her homeland. Eight months later, I was on a plane.
I spent three months traveling Ecuador's coast, ending up in Quito. I fell in love with the country. I returned to the US for the holidays but came back the following January, unable to stay away. This was during COVID, but honestly, I didn't care much about that.
Manglaralto, a small coastal town, was where I returned in January, and I stayed. I can't pinpoint exactly why, but it felt right then and still does years later. I started with Airbnbs but now have a great house just one block from the beach.
In my defense, I did explore other places before settling here, but something about Manglaralto kept drawing me back, and that anchor still holds.
I'm happy to report my love for cooking hasn't faded, but I'm not foolish enough to open another restaurant at this point in my life (though I have a new idea brewing). Instead, I run a small business here in town. Believe it or not, I might be the only distillery for hundreds of miles, though I can't confirm that easily.
My newest venture is Viva La Vida Spirits, where I play alchemist with delicious drinks—a natural fit, I'd say. As a chef, pairing meals with the perfect drink was always part of the job, so now I focus on crafting the drinks that add the finishing touch to a meal.
I met 
He tells me I could sell my spirits using Hive or even accept Bitcoin as payment, which sounds intriguing. He also mentioned I could offer discounts without actually losing money, which sounds crazy but welcome if true.
Believe it or not, I ran a blog for about fifteen years, so writing isn't entirely new to me. That blog covered life in general with a healthy dose of recipes.
Before anyone gets upset, I still love cooking and do so for friends and family. But it's different when it's your livelihood and you have to do it every day.
That's it for now—too much typing for my first real post.
Greetings to all,
Vince
