BEN KIRK
Avo+Dram Chef
A native of Johnson City, Tennessee, Chef Ben Kirk graduated from culinary school in Asheville, NC, and worked there and several years in Key West and San Diego before returning to Tennessee where he was founding chef at rumba in Nashville. After five years there, Chef Kirk moved to Birmingham where he is founding chef of both Avo and Dram in Mountain Brook Village. Dram draws on his Appalachian roots, while Avo showcases his classical French culinary training and modern American approaches to fine food. He lives with his wife in Homewood.
TOM SHEFFER
Jackson's Bar & Bistro; Avo+Dram Restaurateur
Born and raised in Henderson, Kentucky, Tom Sheffer graduated from Harvard University and also has a master's in Latin American Studies from Vanderbilt and an international MBA from Thunderbird School of Global Management (in Phoenix and Geneva, Switzerland). Having studied and worked in New England, Spain, Japan, Brazil and Africa, Sheffer's globetrotting eventually circled back to his native South and the founding of Jackson's Bar & Bistro and rumba (whose Latin-Asian-South Africa menu draws on his many travels) in Nashville. An owner of Green Apple Restaurant Group, he then moved to his wife's home state and opened a second but different Jackson's in SoHo Square in Homewood and most recently Avo+Dram in Mountain Brook Village. He and his wife have two sons and live in the Crestline Village area of Mountain Brook.