Hi, I’m Dan.

The wife says I need a bio for the website; however I believe my food is of such high quality that there’s no need to sell people on the ‘story of my life’. Yet here we are…

MARCH 21, 1981. A tiny little 2.9kg Daniel was born on the first day of Spring during a hellacious snowstorm in Bedford, Ohio. Don’t worry folks, the tiny or little part did not last for long. As soon as I graduated off a liquid diet, I began my love affair with food that has lasted decades :) As a relatively clever chubby kid, I quickly realized one of the best ways to get good food in you is to make it happen yourself (sorry ma)… Of which I did plenty.

I got my first real job at 14 washing dishes at a local Italian restaurant, and was actively involved preparing food within the year. It was clear that I thrived in the beautiful chaos of a highly functional kitchen and realized what a pleasure it is to make people happy with the food I had made or created. “You mean I get to make people happy, eat a lot of real good food, and get paid while playing with knives and fire?!?”

A handful of years later, I had worked my way to the head of kitchen, where I was blessed with the incredible pleasure of doing a job I loved with some of my favorite people and closest friends, all while honing my culinary skills. I was happy and well fed, so I was content to challenge myself in that position for a couple decades. However, I always wondered if I could or would be better owning my own restaurant, but was never totally confident that I had the complete skill set to justify taking that leap - especially considering how much I loved my job. That remained the case until about 7 years ago when I met the love of my life <3

My wife Tiffany is an incredibly capable woman with a history in Education and Human Resources. Her organizational and administrative abilities are paramount to the success of our operation. Her strengths are my weaknesses, as mine are hers. To start, I will have more full time duties here at Danspot and Tiff will be our part-time office manager, accountant, human resources, baker, and bartender… all while keeping her full-time HR gig.

Having Tiffany by my side has given me the confidence that I needed as well as bringing a diverse skill set to the team. It would be a crime for such a dynamic duo to not open their own place.... so we searched high and low for a suitable location, eventually landing at a dump in Walton Hills, right in between our hometowns (Northfield & Independence). Together we’ve spent the entirety of the last year transforming this place into what we believe is a respectable establishment that we can truly be proud of. 

My food philosophy: Passionately utilizing creativity and technique can elevate even the simplest ingredients and dishes to extraordinary levels.

I believe combining that philosophy with the abilities of my wife and our 35 years of combined restaurant experience puts us in a unique position to succeed here at Danspot (with all of your help of course).

Cheers!

-db