My first volunteer job was with the Salvation Army going back twelve years. Essentially it was an opportunity to go down and hang out in the soup kitchen. I didn’t think too much of it at the time, I just wanted to give back within a community and it seemed like a fun thing to do. I also always felt like it was something that was important as well. And then on my first day doing it I was like this is absolutely incredible. And not only did it feel really good but it was practical stuff that I did professionally anyway - we were doing a kind of restaurant style service. Although I was only distributing juice and water, I was something of a beverage director on the day. It was great to practice the social skills I was trying to develop in the hospitality world. Saying "hey," chatting to people about sports, music, arts - trying to get conversations going and keep people entertained.

In many ways at the Salvation Army we were doing more than just food, it was more about a dignifying restaurant experience that people were being very attentive of. So I was immediately drawn all the way in and it became without a shadow of doubt one of the most enjoyable things I’ve done in New York.

The one person that would stick out in my mind as inspiration was my first boss in the bar world a guy called Dermot Doran back in Ireland. He was always very much about dignifying people and whenever we went for a walk or a coffee everyone on the street was completely visible and worth a hug and a handshake to him.

Another inspiring friend of mine and mentor is Ali Ahmed. A couple of years ago he started running effectively an outdoor food kitchen down in the Bowery. I was seeing that he was getting different restaurants to come in and donate food and contribute. Now, every Wednesday at the bar we use our oven to make ten cheese pies. We’ll load them up in the back of a car and bring them down to the Bowery. Ten pies with our pizza oven its pretty quick and its a good number to get everyone a bit of a slice.