Q&A: Lance Fino

Lance Fino has lived in Bel Air for nine months now after living in Fort Lauderdale for 16 years. Originally from Bel Air, he decided to move back home to be closer to his parents. Fino, 40, is a C. Milton Wright alum and has been in the restaurant business for roughly 18 years.  

He is a bartender and server at . He also helps out with the liquor and wine orders.

Fino says that right now he is going through a bit of a "re-birth." He noted many differences of living here versus Florida, but stated in no uncertain terms he was done with the fun-in-the-sun lifestyle. 

"You just didn't get close with people in Florida," Fino confided while noting the nature of the culture was all about show-boating. He classified South Florida as being all about "smoke and mirrors."

Not to mention, Fino estimates he'd eaten crabs about 40 times in the first seven months back home. In Florida, he says, they don't know how to steam crabs.    

Patch: What is your favorite drink to prepare?

Fino: I'm really good at making martinis. I know lots of martinis, and we can make lots of them here. For a small bar we have an extensive list. 

Patch: What's on your iPod?

Fino: I don't have an iPod.

Patch: What kind of music do you like? 

Fino: I like country and 80s rock. I just started to get into country a few years ago. 

Patch:  Name one thing on your bucket list?

Fino: I want an old wooden boat, and I want to restore it and sail around in it. I've always been a boater and there's a lot of availability here. Like I'm talking an old mahogany Chris-craft, and not sailing around the world. But just to go cruising [on] the Chesapeake Bay, you can't find a better place.  Boating in Florida got very boring—it took me about two years. Here you have so many nooks and crannies, you have St. Michael's, Havre de Grace, Baltimore, Annapolis. If you had a cruiser boat on the Bay you could spend two or three years doing that.

Patch: What is your favorite event in HdG?

Fino: The Decoy Festival. I used to go there when I was a kid, I know the retrievers would demonstrate and I just loved watching them.

Patch: What's the best part about working at Chiapparelli's?

Fino: I love the food and I love the people.

Patch: If you could meet one person, dead or alive, who would it be and why?

Fino: I would probably say Ronald Reagan because he was my favorite president of all time. I'd love to go to him and pick his mind. 

Patch: What would you say to him?

Fino: I'd want to know how he did it, how he transcended from actor to governor to president. And why did he do it? Why does anyone want to be President, you know?  Everybody says "Oh, I wish I could be president," but why would you want to? It makes no sense.  You're making tons of money and you have all this freedom, why would you go and put yourself in the line of fire. He got shot, he took on the Russians and beat the Russians. There's so many questions I can ask that man. There's all kinds of things that he did that you wouldn't expect.

Patch: What was the last movie you saw? 

Fino: The last movie I saw in the movies was probably The Hangover. I thought it was funny. I liked it a lot. I like one-line movies, I like funny movies.  

Patch: Where is your favorite place to be on a Friday/Saturday night, if you're not working?

Fino: I'd like to be in Ocean City. I need to be near the ocean. 

Patch: I can't live without…

Fino: Money.

Patch: Who is your favorite NFL team? 

Fino: Miami Dolphins. [The Ravens] weren't here when I left and they're here now and I don't wear purple. When I was younger, I was a Dolphins fan and a Dan Marino fan. I went down there and met Dan Marino many times. 

Patch: What was that like?

Fino: It was pretty interesting, it was pretty cool. He was pretty laid-back and nice.

Patch: Have you had other brushes with celebrities when living in Florida?

Fino: Oh yeah.  I'll say one thing, we hosted an NFL party in the restaurant, it was with all the great quarterbacks during the Super Bowl a few years back. I couldn't believe it. It was [Joe] Montana, [John] Elway, Marino, Boomer Esiason who I did talk to about the Maryland Terps. They were all there. Jim Kelly. I couldn't believe it. It was a Coors Light sponsored event and they only ordered one drink.  They couldn't drink any booze, they could only drink Coors Light.

Patch: What type of restaurants did you work at in Florida? 

Fino: I never worked at clubs, it was mainly a steakhouse with a bar or a martini bar. It wasn't like a club though it felt like it sometimes. One was like a fine dining- a real steakhouse with a bar and another was a Sinatra martini bar with a whole yacht crowd. In Fort Lauderdale, people would come and vacation, they were from all over the place. I got to know people from all over. But didn't really get to know anyone. 

Patch: Is Florida transient, then, compared to Harford County or Maryland?

Fino: Yeah, transient is a good word. It makes it hard to get close and to get to know anyone. The last place I lived in Florida, I lived there 10 years and I barely knew my neighbors. A couple of them, I'd know them and wave to them. And you wouldn't loan anyone any money down there, because people just disappear. You go the gym and this guy needs $50 for something and he'd be gone. 

We call it smoke and mirrors in South Florida. It's all smoke and mirrors. Great place to go and vacation and my friends were just amazed by what they would see. It could get pretty crazy. It's just show-off, though. People can go out rent their clothes, rent their car and show it off. And they did. It was crazy.  

Patch: Did you like Florida?

Fino: I did, I did like Florida but I was done with it. Not that I wouldn't go back to vacation.

Patch: If you won the lottery, what would be your first big purchase?

Fino: An RV, a Winnebago.

Patch: What is the most rewarding part of your job?  

Fino: It's the people-satisfied customers, satisfied quests. 

Patch: Tell me one thing that people might not know about you?

Fino: I was born in Dundalk, some people don't believe me.

Patch: What do you do when you have to unwind?

Fino: Exercise, it could be the gym or it could be running. Run, walk, jog whatever you want to call it.

What's your favorite thing to eat and drink?

Fino: My favorite thing to eat, I guess that'd have to be steamed crabs. To drink, I guess that would be a cold beer, spoken like a true Marylander.