Executive Chef and Owner Scott Youkilis realized at a very young age that he had a passion for the restaurant business. Growing up in Cincinnati, Scott found himself surrounded by people in the industry—with an uncle who owned three successful restaurants in New York City, as well as a close friend of the family who operated a successful venture. With these seeds already planted in his mind, he developed a real zest for the fast-paced business and the lifestyle that went along with it. Over the past 15 years, Youkilis has held a variety of positions—from server to line cook to manager to chef—eager to learn about every aspect of the business before realizing his own dream of opening his own restaurant, which he successfully did in 2005. In its first year of operation, Maverick was named the city’s best new restaurant by San Francisco magazine’s readers poll, proving that his strategy had indeed worked. At the age of 16, Scott took the first step in his career when he was hired as a food runner and busser at Montgomery Inn in Cincinnati—and it was here that he firmly decided that it was his life’s calling to live, work and breathe restaurants. After graduating from high school, Scott attended Indiana University where he received a BS degree in Public Management. During his time there he worked in a gourmet deli, where he learned about food preparation and received an informal education in seasonal ingredients and food products from all over the world. He became fascinated by everything culinary and food-related and knew he wanted to further this education in a more formal manner. Upon graduation, Scott moved to Providence, Rhode Island where he enrolled in the culinary program at Johnson & Wales University. Determined to broaden his knowledge of the restaurant business and culinary arts, he dedicated himself to acquiring as many skills and as much knowledge as he possibly could absorb from the talented instructors. During his three semesters here, Scott honed his culinary skills at the Odeon and Bar Odeon in Manhattan, under the supervision of his uncle who played a major role in getting him involved in the business, and also completed a three-month internship as a line and banquet cook at the Brown Palace Hotel. After receiving his Associate’s Degree, Scott moved across the country to what he admittedly describes as the culinary epicenter of the United States—San Francisco. As a line cook at North Star Restaurant, he began to truly understand the essentials of California cuisine and cooking and its influence on the kitchens across the country and world. When the restaurant underwent management changes, he headed for the mountains to Tahoe City where he accepted a position as line cook at the city’s four-star resort, Resort at Squaw Creek and then went on to became one of West Shore Café’s most valued servers for the summer season. Scott realized that he missed the creativity and the cutting edge culinary community he found in the kitchens of San Francisco and moved back to the city that he has now called home for the last five years. He happened upon a newly-opened restaurant— Sociale, where he knew one of the servers, Mike Pierce, and took a position as assistant manager and server. Of course at the time he didn’t know that he and Mike would eventually join forces and become business partners and open a venture of their own. Over the two years they spent at Sociale, he and Mike developed a strong friendship and cemented a professional bond. They realized that they both shared a similar vision, and that they would complement each other perfectly, with Scott in the kitchen and Mike managing the front of the house and wine program—and thus, Maverick Restaurant Group was born.