Winner (#1)

Sea Breeze

Rick brings the experience and expertise to the business. He is passionate about fish, “no bones about it!” He is a long-time familiar face in the Dallas area where he has been selling, cooking and buying fish for almost 20 years. Rick started in the wholesale end where he worked for two of the top wholesalers in the business, Landlock Seafood Company and Sysco Food Services. Rick has always been an innovator. He parlayed his knowledge and talent learned in the wholesale business into his own seafood shop in 1991. Rick’s Fresh Seafood Shoppe was one of the first independent seafood shops in the metroplex. He oversaw all of the daily operations, developed the menus, bought the equipment, purchased the seafood, merchandised it and even prepared it. He moved on to more grocery experience in the fall of 1996 where he managed the seafood operations at Simon David/Tom Thumb in Dallas and Bon Vivant Market in Plano. Rick has also worked in catering and in purchasing for the Columbian Country Club. It was there that he developed strong relationships with vendors and manufacturers. More recently, Rick spent almost four years with the Plano Central Market as the Seafood Market Manager. He was awarded The HEB Manager-in-excellence Award in 2003. While at Central Market, he opened four of their stores and was selected by senior management to manage and renovate the seafood department at their original Austin location. Rick took care of the merchandising, product sourcing and training of the department’s employees. He was able to generate and maintain the highest department profits of the entire division every month.