Alumnus Vince Anter (CDM ’10) (middle in photo) returned to Chicago to shoot the fourth season of his show, “V is for Vino.” Lisa Young (left), an associate professor of hospitality leadership, and Nick Thomas (left), director of DePaul's School of Hospitality Leadership, both collaborated with Anter to film an episode at DePaul.
Alumnus Vince Anter (CDM ’10) ventures to vineyards far and wide to share his love of wine and travel as the host of the popular wine-themed video streaming show, “V is for Vino.” This spring Anter returned to Chicago to begin shooting his show’s fourth season at the place where his passion for wine began – DePaul. The episode is scheduled to debut July 15, 2022 (learn more: visforvino.com).
Anter, a certified sommelier, and
DePaul’s School of Hospitality Leadership (SHL), where he guest lectures, teamed up to sponsor the episode. Anter, his co-producer and wife Lisa (CMN ’10), and a Los Angeles-based camera crew spent a week in May shooting segments of the show in the school’s
J. Willard and Alice S. Marriott Center for Student Development and Engagement and at iconic restaurants, wine purveyors and tourist spots across Chicago.
The forthcoming episode will look at wine from a different viewpoint than previous shows. “What we typically do is go to a wine region and explore the wineries, the types of grapes grown there, the climate, etc.,” Anter explains. “But I’ve wanted to do a consumer-facing episode for a while. What I mean by that is, how to buy wine in a store, how to order wine in a restaurant, things that I get a lot of questions about. And I thought there’s no better place to do that than Chicago because we have such love for this city. I met my wife here. I got married here. DePaul is here. Chicago has a special place in my heart.”
Nick Thomas, director of the SHL, tapped the school’s extensive hospitality industry network – including SHL advisory council and faculty members – to help Anter find the right interviews for the episode.
“Our
Hospitality Advisory Council represents virtually every aspect of hospitality and tourism,” Thomas says. “Vince wanted to do a day in the life of a sommelier, so we turned to John Colletti (Gibsons Bar & Steakhouse managing partner) to shoot it at Gibsons Italia. To shadow a chef for a day and talk about wine, we got Marc Jacobs, executive partner at Lettuce Entertain You and an executive-in-residence at our school, to host Vince at the restaurant, Aba.”
The video crew’s other locations included Binny’s Beverage Depot, The Green Mill, SuperDawg, Al’s Beef and Lou Malnatti’s, as well as various Chicago tourist attractions.
Showcasing Hospitality – and DePaul Hospitality Education – in Chicago
Anter and his filming crew captured footage in one of SHL's classrooms.
SHL decided to host the production to highlight the comeback of Chicago’s hospitality industry as well as the vitality of DePaul’s industry-connected hospitality leadership school, Thomas says.
“What was important for us to do is to not only showcase wine but to also showcase hospitality and tourism as a whole for this city, including the hotel, restaurant and event sides,” he says. “Hospitality and tourism, as a global business, is one of the largest in the world. One in 10 people work in this industry. We want to showcase that and how great our city is in delivering hospitality and tourism to customers from around the world.”
Anter’s career and continuing involvement with DePaul is an inspiration for students, says Lisa Young, an associate professor of hospitality leadership who participated in the video shoot and frequently asks Anter to guest lecture in her hospitality business classes.
“Most students, before they graduate, want to see what the next five-to-10 years will be like,” she says. “An episode like this—and seeing that Vince is a DePaul graduate—inspires them to think, ‘I want to be an entrepreneur. I want to go out and try these things and take risks.’ By getting Vince and our school involved in the show, we are making that connection for students.”
Among those benefitting directly is Jayme Coveliers, a Kellstadt Graduate School of Business student who worked with Anter’s crew on the episode as part of an independent study course arranged by Thomas.
“Working with industry professionals from L.A. and being able to shoot in a documentary style is a great experience,” says Coveliers, a DePaul College of Computing & Digital Media (CDM) graduate who studied digital filmmaking and hopes to go into the film business after earning his graduate degree. “It’s the kind of thing that could only happen at DePaul.”
An Unconventional Career Path
Much like a grape vine, there were a lot of twists and turns in Anter’s career path to become the host of “V is for Vino.” A native of Cleveland, he fell in love with Chicago during a visit and jumped at the chance to attend DePaul. Anter was a drummer and vocalist in high school who dreamed of becoming a rock musician. He auditioned twice to enter the School of Music, but wasn’t accepted.
Anter learned how to make Chicago deep dish pizza with Marc Malnati (right), chair of Lou Malnati's Pizzerias, while filming an episode for his video streaming show, "V is for Vino."“I was a good musician, but not a great musician,” he admits. He enrolled in CDM and in his junior year was one of a handful of students accepted into
Atlantis, a two-year, trans-Atlantic technology and business study abroad program. He and his U.S. Atlantis classmates joined a cohort of six French and six Swedish students who studied together for six months in France, six months in Sweden and a year in the U.S.
“It really opened my eyes to travel and wine and food, which was something I was always into,” he says. “My parents owned a restaurant, and way back, before I was born, my Dad imported wine. It’s always been in my blood.”
After Anter graduated with a dual degree in interactive media and international business, he moved to Los Angeles to give music a last try. “I wanted be a rock star, but so did a lot of other people,” he says. Before leaving for the West Coast Anter had worked as a waiter at Sapori Trattoria in Lincoln Park, where he was first exposed to wine service. He continued working in restaurants and bars in Los Angeles, where a mentor encouraged him to pursue his interest in wine by earning certification to become a sommelier.
“I realized when I started studying for my sommelier exam that there was no casual way to learn wine,” he says. “I thought, nobody is combining that in a (Anthony) Bourdain-esque kind of show, and really giving consumers an easy way to learn and understand wine while also showing them a travel component.”
Anter earned his sommelier certification and launched a wine club that included videos of him discussing wine as a bonus. “After I showed people a few episodes, people said, this is where it’s at, so we pivoted and made video the core focus.”
He describes the first season of “V is for Vino” as a “bootstrap” production that he, his wife and camera crew produced themselves. Since then the show, available on Amazon Prime and other streaming services, has attracted growing viewership and sponsors, which have allowed Anter to expand season four from three to at least six episodes. Past episodes were shot at vineyards across the West Coast and in Italy and Mexico.
Reflecting on the unconventional way he became a video wine ambassador, Anter is grateful to DePaul and his family for the opportunity to turn his passion into a career. “If it wasn’t both for my parents and DePaul pushing me toward the Atlantis program, I don’t think any of this would have happened.”
Learn more about DePaul hospitality leadership degree programs: