My name is Dylan Riches. I’ve been a hospitality professional for well over a decade and behind the bar for most of that. Though I’ve made a lot of drinks over the years, it is the care we get to provide people that makes this trade so rewarding.

I am constantly looking for ways to take that care and extend it beyond the bar. How do we, as hospitality professionals, make an impact in our community greater than just providing good service? I have worked on several programs and initiatives in the past that have aimed to help our environment and the people in it. But I am only one person, and for a while, I’ve wrestled with how to make my impact bigger. That’s what lead me to start Project Tessellate.

Project Tessellate’s main goal is enabling and empowering people, both hospitality professionals and others, with the knowledge and tools they need to start their own social and environmental initiatives in their communities. There is no limit to the scope of this, geographical or in focus. People from anywhere in the world can use these resources to help communities of their choosing. It is about giving people the ability to take action and having all of those actions, big or small, add up.

My hope is to give more meaning to the things we do, both behind the bar and outside of it. Whether it be a simple drink, or a pop-up for a cause, give everything purpose.