Simon is a newly minted Minneapolis transplant, avid craft-beer enthusiast, and household culinarian. Growing up in western Mass., Simon spent his formative years apple-picking, collecting rocks, playing Ultimate Frisbee, and training for his future authority at bar cribbage tournaments. He graduated from the University of Vermont with a degree in sociology and geography.
After dabbling in retail, disaster-relief management, and long-term community recovery, and exploring the Green Mountains in Vermont, he followed the Oregon Trail to Corvallis, Ore., where he served in AmeriCorps doing affordable-housing development. After some time working nonprofit, he felt stagnant and missed working directly with the community.
Under his nose the whole time, he found clarity in a local specialty-coffee shop and, as it happens, if you drink enough coffee as a customer, you become a full-time employee. Working in coffee opened him up to not only a better understanding of coffee in its final form, but also to the intricacies of the supply chain of coffee, leaving him thirsty to learn more. It was through this coffee family he finally fell in love with his community before leaving for Minnesota.
These days, he still enjoys apple-picking and cribbage, but had to leave his rock collection behind. You'll most likely find him seeking out elevation in the Midwest, trying to identify plants, and looking for new projects to get his hands on.