Part 2 of 3: We’re introducing the entire team over at Queen City Forward. After meeting Charles meet Christie Kahil and Tori Karlek. The full team is here.

Hi! Meet Charles. Not only has he been somewhat of a mentor and inspiration in my professional life, he has really effected me on a personal level. When my wife was pregnant and after the baby was born he was always genuinely interested in how we were doing. Not only how my wife was doing but how I was doing. I distinctly remember many of the conversation during some of the roughh times. Having someone that listened, understood and shared real experiences… not advice was something I appreciated more than anything. He’s awesome. You should meet him. I asked him five questions.

What are you most passionate about?

Let’s see. I’m passionate about solving problems, particularly social problems. When you first asked that the first thing that comes to mind is peace which is a general thing. Very broad but I do have a vision for all of it. I have a Star Trek vision of the world. This is the real me. I believe in Star Trek and what that means is that all these humans relating and getting along and getting along better. The role that I play in it right now from an economic perspective is how can we all participate in this economy in a way that we all have opportunity and benefit to grow ourselves and our family. I think we all pursue the same thing. The better we are at knowing each other and knowing that the better processes we have in place like the economy to allow for connection and community it leads to this peace. It’s not a very clear answer but it’s something that my wife and I think about quite a bit. We’re trying to create an ideal world. That’s my passion.

What absolutely frustrates you?

I want to say ego. I think a lot of problems in the world are because of people getting in their own way. I feel like we can house the homeless. We can feed the hungry. When you look at how aid and such flows through the world there’s always these human dynamics that block the flow. What frustrates me most is when we are locked in our paradigms and they are so rigid that they don’t recognize our own contribution to the problem therefore our own contribution to the solution. That’s again maybe abstract. So let’s say what really frustrates me for instance is when you get into political debates when it’s about the problem and solving it as a community but people are so intrenched in their ideas and aren’t willing to listen to others. That’s what frustrates me most. It creates inefficiency.

What is your greatest indulgence?

Star Trek. I’m a big sci-fi TV watching guy but I also like to read fantasy books. I don’t like sci-fi books though. I like magic books. Like wizard worlds and such. I’d say it’s just reading and watching sci-fi movies I’m really happy. Babylon 5. Time travel shows. Dr. Who. The old Dr. Who though. That counts as an indulgence.

What’s your least favorite trait about yourself?

It might be my favorite trait as well. My strength is my weakness. It has to do with the level of taking things seriously. What came to my mind is that I work too much. Maybe too hard. It’s kind of a compensation for me feeling like I haven’t done enough. That I should do more. Not that I’m not enough. It’s more that I need to make more money. It comes from growing up and not having a lot of money so I have to work harder than anyone else. I have to run faster. At the same time, particularly lately if you asked me i’d say i’m just trying to balance that. How do I balance that with my family and my wife. Probably my least favorite trait is when i’m not present. When i’m not present with people in front of me. Especially when i’m not present with my family.

If you had visitors in town and had two hours to take them anywhere in Charlotte where would that be?

I’d probably take them to my house. Meet my family. Where would I take them in Charlotte? My favorite restaurant is Crepe Cellar. I would take the to an On Q PLay. I’m not sure where i’d take them. I’m happy to tell people about Charlotte when they are here because I am from Charlotte and there’s so many things to talk about. To me it’s more of a what are they interested in and i’ll put them somewhere that they will appreciate.

Joanne asked if you could combine two animals what would they be and why?

I know! I saw it at the McColl Center. This is going to be the statue in front of QCF. I’m not exactly sure what it’s called. It was a combination of three animals. I believe each of the animals were endangered species. It had the wings of a condor. Some sort of jackrabbit like animals and another with antlers.

You can find Charles on Twitter @sankofaphotog.

Part 1 of 3: We’re introducing the entire team over at Queen City Forward. After meeting Tori meet Charles Thomas and Christie Kahil. The full team is here.

Hi! Meet Tori. She’s the newest addition to the QCF team. I have the pleasure of seeing her quite regularly working out of @809. She describes herself as awkward below. I call it unique, charming and being real. She also has an unrivaled ability to light up a room with her positive attitude and smile. We need more people like Tori here in Charlotte. She’s awesome. You should meet her.

What are you most passionate about?

This is one is kind of tough to answer and I say that because i’m passionate about a lot of things. People that know me know I get really excited about stuff. I would have to say the things that I care most about and think about most on a day to day basis would be just being kind and a good person. No matter what your belief system is at the end of the day we can all agree that we were created to be good. We are here for each other. We are here help each other out and improve each others lives. A measure of a successful day for me is whether I was the most kind and good version of Tori. That’s my biggest motivator.

I’m passionate about funny things. I like funny TV shows. I love when my friends send me random funny pictures from the internet. I saw a video of cat today with midget legs and watched it probably six times in a row. I’m also really passionate about awesome coffee.

What absolutely frustrates you?

Not being the best at what I’m doing and that’s kind of a personal thing. I wasn’t necessarily raised with a lot of aspiration. I didn’t have to make certain grades or reach certain achievements. It was all stuff that I had to put on my own shoulders. For me… I can use this job as an example. This job with QCF. I’m still new to the social entrepreneurial space and so not knowing everything there is to know about it which is a lot just bugs me. I want to have all the answers to every question. Whether it’s about QCF or our cohort. The students ask me questions and not being able to give them the best answer definitely frustrates me. Also traffic… it’s the biggest waste of time.

What is your greatest indulgence?

The obvious thing would be food and really donuts. I’m a pretty healthy eater but there’s nothing I wouldn’t do for a donut. Chips and guac too. More seriously…I hate to use the word lazy cause I’m very much a go getter but it’s also really easy to turn on Netflix and sit and do nothing for an hour and a half before i’ve realized how much time has gone by. I wish I was better about that.

If you had visitors in town and had two hours to take them anywhere in Charlotte where would that be?

Oh my gosh. Great question. When I go to new cities my favorite thing is to take in the skyline, the noise and the lights. I went to New York this past weekend and I’m pretty sure I spent a good chunk of my time just standing in Times Square spinning in circles and looking at everything. I would have to say for two hours I would bring them uptown, go out to eat and then just walk around. Maybe finish of at Not Just Coffee at 7th Street Market. Sounds like a good day to me.

What is your least favorite trait about yourself?

I think that I don’t have the confidence I should have. James Stewart of Detailed Block recently did a profile on me. I shared it with friends on social media and made the comment about myself being an awkward person. I joke about it but there are times that I’m comfortable with this kind of thing and others when I just really don’t take a compliment very well. I’m that person that turns around when someone compliments and me and says oh its nothing or make it seem like a less deal then it is. That’s something that I’ve tried to work on since becoming a career woman so to speak. I’m still young and I have time to grow but it still frustrates me.

Joanne asked if you could combine two animals what animals would they be and why?

Sea otter for sure would have to be a part of anything. They are literally the cutest things in the world. I feel like a cat would be good with a sea otter. I don’t love cats but I see that being a really interesting and adorable animal as long as the face is the sea otters face. It could have flippers, the body and tail of a cat. I want one now.

You can find Tori on twitter @Torikae_13.

Hi! I had the pleasure of attending a private tasting of the restaurant Evoke’s new menu a couple weeks ago. I had never participated in anything of the sort. My thought was i’m going to eat a lot of awesome food. I never thought for a second it would be anything but the highest of quality. I was right. It was awesome.

This isn’t a food blog so I needed to talk with a real human. Meet Chef Robert! I was able to grab him towards the end and chat a bit. What’s my takeaway and what made me want to keep talking with him? He’s a family dude through and through. He understands that being a chef in a new restaurant and growing something takes time. He also understands that family is everything. As a new father myself and one that loves to get involved in all the things I can say I have done a shitty job myself of finding that balance. This conversation while short was super eye opening.

Thanks for being awesome Chef Robert. Also… your food is bad ass.

Full Disclosure. I forgot what emoji he loves using. It didn’t get captured in the audio and I didn’t have my laptop with me like usual. I chose ice cream for him because he talks about ice cream and it made me want ice cream… all of the ice cream.

What are you passionate about?

Definitely Family and food. So much of my life revolves around food though. Any time I’m not with my family i’m generally spending my time here at Evoke. Food definitely sounds stereotypical for a Chef to say but it really is. I love to cook. A lot of people are surprised to find out that even the few times I do have at home with family I cook every night I’m there. People are always like don’t you get tired of it. Don’t you want to go home after being here all week and not touch a pan. No. It’s even more fun cooking for family. Cooking for loved ones is even better.

What frustrates you?

It can be any of a number of situations but wanting to get something done and something stopping that from happening really frustrates me. There’s always rules and parameters that you have to abide by. You can’t always do exactly what you want. I did just move here from spending five years in Southern California and some of the things we had there completely spoiled me. Especially the produce. I could essentially order anything I wanted and have it on the door the next morning if I wanted. It’s a little different here. A lot of the stuff we get is from California. We have to call it in… takes a couple days. I’m learning though. I’m learning the area and of places to find things around here.

What is your greatest indulgence?

I probably have more of a sweet tooth than I would like to have. Again, a very common indulgence but for someone’s that not really a pastry chef I do have a little soft spot for the pastries. {do you have a go to dessert?} I don’t really have a go to dessert but I do love ice cream. There’s so much that you can do with it. Anything that you can come up with in your brain you can make it work. We just got a brand new ice cream machine here. I’m pretty excited to experiment with that.

If someone was visiting Charlotte and you had two hours to give them an experience where would you bring them?

That’s a really good question. If they were my personal family and friends I would want to take them here (Evoke) because this is where I spend most of my time since I’ve been back. Because of the amount of work it’s taken to open this place up. When I came here back in October (2015) this was just walls and boxes. It’s taken a lot to get it open. Unfortunately that means I haven’t had a chance to go out a whole lot. It’s hard to get around and see all the things. I have a big list of to-dos around Charlotte. There’s a lot of places I’d love to go eat.

If you could go back in time 10 years and give yourself one piece of advice what would it be?

Can we go back 15 years? {sure} I would probably just to go ahead and tell myself to get serious about the cooking. I would have loved in those earlier years to have traveled more and cooked. When I could travel light and cook in different places. Maybe overseas. That’s advice I give to a lot of the younger chefs I work with now.

Katie Levans wants to know about your parents?

My parents were kind of opposites. I picked up some things from one and others things from the other. I think they blended together really well though completely opposite in every way. From neat versus messy to loud versus quiet. Everything. I’d like to think I got the better parts of both of them. Depends on who you ask.

You can find Chef Robert making awesome food at Evoke or on Instagram here.