Ep. 2514 McKenna Cassidy interviews Marie Cheslik of Slik Wines | Next Generation

I feel like what your mission is and what you've achieved truly has a different, like, essence and flavor than that kind of, like, trait offering. Like, I think Americans can be, can I swear on this podcast? I assume that everybody listens is over twenty one years old, so I just wanna make sure. Americans really cut through the bullshit very quickly. They have a very good sense of, like, you're lying to me, or this isn't genuine. I feel like you're trying to upsell me, or I feel like this is a trick. And so for me, it's been really funny to, like, approach it with humor and being like, look, I get it. Like, I'm talking too much. And just getting and seeing people where they're at has always been a big thing of mine, where a lot of Americans are at is barefoot, you know? It's like barefoot, Muscato. And that's okay. I'm not here to say we're too good for barefoot muscato. It's like, this is normal. And this is what I grew up drinking with too, and I get it. My uncle from Muncie Indiana loves barefoot muscato, and he has a membership at Cooper's Hawk. And he's like, I'm into wine. And I'm like, yes. That is most of America. Let's start there. Those are my people. That's great. Welcome to the Italian Mind Podcast. This is the next generation with me, Mackenzie. For the next episode, I invite you tokes or with me what young adults are up to in the Italian wine scene. Let's feast on our discussion of Italian wine and culture. Grab a glass with us. Chinchi. Okay. Hello, everyone. I'm Makenna from the Italian wine podcast and I'm so excited for our pod today. I think it'll be a blast and a new perspective, but also just a good time. So please grab a glass of wine and sit down with us. Marie and I are prepared. I'm joined by Marie Cheslick today. She's a wonderful woman, first of all, but also a influencer, a wine educator and author. She's also a registered nurse. Who started to work in wine and in Michelin Star Restaurants here in Chicago, and now has built, an online wine learning platform and is about to release a new book, how to read a wine label, which we're so excited about. So welcome Marie, and thanks for joining the pod. Kinda, that was wonderful. You should do my intros for everything. So thank you. I appreciate it. You just did that so nicely in, like, twenty seconds. I'll come around with you and I'll be, like, Marie's entering the route. Yeah. Okay. Literally. I would love that. That's fabulous. But, yes, thank you so much. I'm very happy to be here. It should be a really nice convo today, so I can't wait. Well, and, like, and we're buddies too. So I feel like I'm already I feel like we're just, like, at your apartment and says Everyone just listening to our hangout. Yeah. Literally. It'll be good. It'll be good. Thank you. Okay. So just tell us a little bit, like, you were born in Chicago, talk to us about your background, like, where are you coming from maybe before the timeline I just offered? Yeah. For sure. So I was born in the Midwest, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. So I'm actually I've been very Midwestern my whole life, grew up drinking a lot of beer, but not really a lot of wine. And I didn't really get into wine until I moved to Chicago and started working in restaurants here. So I went to nursing school here. That was always part of the plan. I had my bachelor's degree at University of Illinois in Chicago. Got my bachelor of science in nursing. I said, great. I couldn't pass my board's exam the first time. I am a notoriously horrible test taker, especially when I was younger. And I was like, well, I need something to do while I'm like, you know, figuring this out. So, I was working at restaurants, and I said, man, this is really fun. I really like doing this. And then started working as a nurse in Chicago, and then I said, miss working in restaurants. Like, I really wanna try and really try seriously. And for me, seriously, met Michelin Star. So I was going for all my Chicago locals. I was going either in between parachute or Elska at the time, and then I really liked Kyle Davidson, who was the general manager and the beverage director at the time at Elsca, I told him my goals about working in wine. I saw wine as a way to make working front of house more of a career. And so for me, it was like, yes, like, certainly, career service exist, especially in bigger cities, especially like in New York City, but I liked having wine as a skill set and as a way to add something to my tool belt, essentially. So I worked my way up from server to wine director over at Elscar, and then COVID came, messed everything up, and then started working as a travel nurse within the city, so local travel nurse. And then I started slick wines in August of twenty twenty, which has been lots of things but always a wine education platform always down for approachable wine education. And now recently, yes, it's taken a form of a book. So it's been quite a journey, but we're doing it. That is a great joy. What was your kind of, like, what was the moment where you were like I'm only familiar with beer. Was it in Elska that you got exposed to what wine is, or you had already had, like, moments of tasting with history people or what was that like? Yeah. I had some moments where I've worked I worked at other restaurants before, and that was always just part of the program for any restaurant. It's just like, you need to have some baseline knowledge of wine. And it was always so interesting because it was such a huge part of the restaurant and a huge part of your check as a server, but it was always, like, something you kinda just get away with by the skin of your teeth. Right? Like, a lot of people are just, like, just know the basics or know how to lie to people or know, like, two wines off the wine list and just sell those all the time. You know what I mean? We call them pocket wines, which I still teach somalia is in servers just being like, just when you start out and you don't know anything, just, like, know five wines for sure, and then go from there. But I think it was just such an obvious blind spot for front of house. And when I say front of house, I mean servers, bartenders, anyone in the restaurant world who interacts with guests, so not chefs, not the dishwasher. And for me, it was like, what a skill set to be able to really understand a huge part of this restaurant, and there could be so much potential with that is what I sell. Yeah. That's brilliant. It's interesting because, like, I feel like the word, like, making wine approachable can kinda be like this, like, buzzword in your like, alright. You're you're also gonna try to make this approachable. But, like, I feel like what your mission is and what you've achieved is just truly has a different, like, essence and flavor than that kind of, like, trait offering. And I just think it's cool how it's developed. So I wanna, like, dive into that a little bit. For sure. Yeah. And thank you for saying that. I feel very tired of the approachable conversation as well too, because it's people say it, but then people don't really do it, or they don't stick around with it, or they don't actually know how to communicate it. But I talk with so many I think talking to so many midwesterners really humbles you because you, like, people don't care. People really don't care how much knowledge you have. Like, people want your help, but they're like, please stop talking after, like, two minutes. And I'm like, got it. I have to, like, do this as short as possible and, like, speaking, not a dig at anyone, but, like, speaking at a fifth grade level, which is so hard for wine people too. But that's how most people communicate. So it's been really fun working and trying to figure that out. In doing that with a sense of, like, joy and presence, not like, oh, I have to, you know, speak on these different terms, but also enjoying it on those. No. I agree. Yeah. I think, like, Americans can be I think they're, can I swear on this podcast? I