Have you met Andrea?

Andrea is the glue that holds our head office together. She’s enthusiastic, well-spoken, and a genuinely pleasant person to be around. Her fun-loving attitude is the ray of sunshine on an otherwise dull day. We’re lucky she found us.

Andrea’s journey with Sunset Grill began when she was a new mom. “I first discovered Sunset Grill as a new mom looking for a restaurant open in the early hours of the morning,” she explains. “We loved it because it was fast and delicious and really baby-friendly.” For Andrea, finding a place to both entertain and occupy her children in the wee hours of the morning was a godsend.

So, when she stumbled across a job posting for an Office Manager at Sunset Grill’s head office, she was immediately sold. “I was a new mom coming off a maternity leave, and I wanted something with a good work/life balance,” she says. She knew the brand was family-focused through her own experiences at the Sunset Grill on Maple Avenue in Milton, and thought it would be a perfect fit for her young family. Four years later, Andrea has built a meaningful career with the brand while at the same time being able to spend quality time with her family. However, she sometimes yearns for more.

“There are days that I wish I could be a full-time mom, and be at the school, volunteering, being more present, but, I think that in the bigger picture, me working helps to give my family opportunities for things that we wouldn’t have if we didn’t have that income,” she says. For example, last spring, Andrea had the opportunity to bring her husband, Jeff, and two children, Cecilia, 9, and Cole, 6, to Grenoble, France. “I wanted to expose my kids to seeing that the world was bigger, and I wanted them to have a memory of going to Europe when they were young so that they would always have the notion in the back of their head that they’d want to go back and see it or explore new places,” she shares.

Grenoble has a special place in Andrea’s heart – she spent an entire year living there while in university majoring in European Studies. “It was the best year of my life,” she boasts. She’s done a lot of travelling across the globe, and it was special for her to be able to share a part of that with her children.

They’re a very outdoorsy family, that much is clear. She really enjoys getting into nature, spending time at the cottage, and adores being around water in any capacity. And for the past three years, they’ve enjoyed their winters skiing up at a chalet in Beaver Valley. “We don’t sit around a lot,” she laughs. “It’s been amazing.”

Andrea is selfless in all that she does, and that translates to what Mother’s Day means to her as well. “I still think about… I’m always focused on celebrating my mom [on Mother’s Day],” she says. “I’m always surprised at anything that my family does for me.” That doesn’t mean she wouldn’t appreciate a little breakfast in bed, or better yet, a seafood-based meal fit for a foodie. Fun fact: Andrea was the inspiration behind Sunset Grill’s famous crab cake benedict dish. The more you know.

As for what the future holds, Andrea is excited to travel more with her family, and watch her little ones grow up and discover who they are and what they want to do with their lives. Can you really ask for much more than that?

One thing remains constant: we don’t know where we’d be without her. Thank you for being you, Andrea.