If there are two things that chef Andrew Weissman does with gusto, it’s cooking and exercising. The four-time James Beard–nominated owner of San Antonio’s Il Sogno, Sip, Sandbar, and the recently opened Luxury—an outdoor restaurant made up of repurposed shipping containers—runs up to 160 miles a month, does yoga five times a week, and occasionally throws in a round-trip bike ride to Austin on Sundays. “I have crazy amounts of energy,” says the 44-year-old father of two (with a third due in December). “The kitchen is like a battlefield. You have a team of people bumping into each other in a heated environment. It’s very parallel.” When he’s not sweating over a stove or handlebars, he’s hanging out at his home office.
About the Items on Andrew Weissman’s Office
• I love cycling. Next to running, it’s my true love as far as exercise goes. This is an all-carbon Pinarello Prince. The way that particular bike is built up, it’s, like, a $9,000 bike. I have three bikes. That’s my road bike. You can drop several grand on a bike, easy.
• I usually run for two hours in the morning and then meet my yoga instructor and do yoga for an hour and a half or so. There’s a beautiful balcony above Il Sogno, and I do it there.
• I started Le Rêve, my French restaurant that’s now closed, with $43,000, and within six years it was recognized as the sixth-best restaurant in the country by Gourmet. Almost all the others were multimillion-dollar operations.
• I’m training for my first marathon in November. The Garmin is my running partner. It records cadence, distance, heart rate, topography. My goal—it may be ambitious—is to break 3 hours, 30 minutes.
• These cigars are mostly Cubans. I’m not a huge drinker, but I like to have a Belgian beer if I smoke one. Belgian beer goes hand in hand with cycling.
• These came to me through yoga. The lavender oil helps calm me down. I even use it on my kids’ pillowcases. The peppermint is like a splash of cold water. It awakens your limbic system.
• Bills are part of the fabric of my life. Signing checks, paying bills at the restaurants and our house—I’m in charge of the bills. I sit down in here for two hours every two weeks, shredding and paying.
• The Nike Free are my favorite running shoes. They always seem to be in short supply, and the green was the only color available. You shouldn’t put more than three hundred miles on any running shoes.
• Maureen, my wife, gave me this humidor as a wedding gift. At Le Rêve, we had a well-heeled clientele, and people were always giving me cigars. I smoke only on special occasions.
