Opening the bar…
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The bartender says
Hi, I'm Steve.
I'm a data architect born, raised, and based in Philadelphia. By day I design the systems that turn raw data into something a business can actually use.
I run Tabby Stack, a data consulting firm, where I architect data platforms and lead the teams that build them, from ingestion pipelines to ML models in production.
- Snowflake
- dbt
- Airflow
- Python
- ML in the warehouse
- AI
Recent stops
- Founder & Lead Data Architect, Tabby Stack January 2022 – Present
- Senior Data Engineer, Preset January 2022 – March 2023
- Senior Analytics Engineer, Flywheel Software December 2020 – December 2021
- Data Engineer, Inspire Energy April 2019 – December 2020
The full story Résumé on Google Drive ↗
From the chalkboard
Writing
Top shelf
The reading list
Reading now
$100M Money Models by Alex Hormozi (53%) · Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow (81%) · Abundance by Steven Kotler (45%) · The New Father: A Dad's Guide to the First Year (New Father Series) by Armin A. Brott (90%) · The Inner Game of Tennis by W. Timothy Gallwey (60%) · Memory's Legion by James S. A. Corey (17%) · Mother Night by Kurt Vonnegut (41%) · Go the F--k to Sleep by Adam Mansbach (56%) · Selling Your Professional Service Firm: A Primer by David C. Baker (57%) · Elon Musk by Walter Isaacson (75%) · The State of the Art by Iain M. Banks (54%) · Company of One by Paul Jarvis (72%) · Million Dollar Weekend by Noah Kagan (66%) · Agencynomics by Spencer Gallagher (61%) · 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene (51%) · Atomic Habits by James Clear (36%) · The Pragmatic Programmer: 20th Anniversary Edition, 2nd Edition by David Thomas (37%) · Getting Everything You Can Out of All You've Got by Jay Abraham (66%) · Lying by Sam Harris (75%) · Mastery by Robert Greene (55%) · The Cold Start Problem by Andrew Chen (49%) · The Art of Flavor by Daniel Patterson (50%) · The Neil Gaiman Reader by Neil Gaiman (45%) · Designing Data-Intensive Applications by Martin Kleppmann (85%) · Traffic Secrets by Russell Brunson (43%) · Stealing Fire by Steven Kotler (47%)
Every book I've read is a star in the sky above the hammock, grouped by kind. Lie back and look up.
Science Fiction 54
Wool · Rendezvous with Rama · The Faith of Beasts · The X-Files: Cold Cases · Ancillary Justice · Hyperion · and 48 more
Fiction 45
The Alchemist · The Fall of Hyperion · Misspent Youth · Breakfast of Champions · Horns · The Overstory · and 39 more
History & Science 63
How to Get Rich · Powerhouse · The Third Chimpanzee · American Prometheus · Mythos · Odyssey · and 57 more
Data & Craft 16
Rise of the Machines · Nexus · Dark Pools · The Singularity Is Nearer · The Coming Wave · Zero to One · and 10 more
Business & Money 53
Bullshit Jobs · Thinking in Bets · Good Strategy/Bad Strategy · The Terrifying Art of Finding Customers · The Four Conversations · Abundance · and 47 more
Habits & Growth 22
So Good They Can't Ignore You · The Compound Effect · The Power of Habit · Make Time · Gorilla Mindset · Plays Well with Others · and 16 more
Mind & Kitchen 22
Everything Is Tuberculosis · The Expectant Father · How to Keep House While Drowning · The Daily Stoic · Strategies for Beating Small Stakes Poker Tournaments · Together · and 16 more
House specials
From the lab
SQL Formatter
Paste ugly SQL, get it back in my style: lowercase, leading commas, explicit aliases. It's real SQLFluff running in your browser via WebAssembly.
- sqlfluff
- pyodide
- webassembly
Recipe Tracker
A shared tracker for working through NYT Cooking's most popular recipes of 2025. Ratings, notes, and photos, synced with Supabase. Members only: it's ours.
- supabase
- vanilla js
- food
Terminal Mode
Hit the theme button in the top-right until the site turns green-on-black. For when you miss 1983.
- css variables
- theming
The Bookshelf
My reading list, rescued from a 2020 Flask app that used to sync it from Notion, now rendered as book spines.
- jekyll data
- css
Behind the bar
Favorite drinks
The recipes I keep coming back to.
Jungle Bird
- 1½ oz Planteray 20th Anniversary rum
- ¾ oz Campari
- 1½ oz pineapple juice
- ½ oz fresh lime juice
- ½ oz demerara syrup
Shake with ice and strain over fresh ice. Garnish with a pineapple wedge.
Chartreuse Swizzle
- 1¼ oz green Chartreuse
- 1 oz pineapple juice
- ¾ oz fresh lime juice
- ½ oz velvet falernum
Build over crushed ice and swizzle until the glass frosts. Top with more crushed ice, and garnish with a sprig of mint and a little grated nutmeg.
Shakerato
- 2 oz fresh espresso (a double shot)
- ¾ oz Meletti coffee liqueur
Shake hard with ice until it foams, and strain into a chilled coupe. The crema shakes up into a thick head.
A bar spoon of simple syrup if you like it sweeter.
Il Professore
- 1 oz gin
- 1 oz Campari
- 1 oz sweet vermouth
- ⅓ oz coffee liqueur (a small-batch Italian one if you can find it; Kahlúa is fine)
Combine in an old-fashioned glass filled with ice and stir. Garnish with an orange slice and a few coffee beans.
A Negroni with a touch of coffee liqueur, from Antonio, the barman in the hotel's lobby.
OG Hurricane
- 2 oz dark rum
- 2 oz light rum
- 1 oz passion fruit syrup
- 1 oz fresh orange juice
- ½ oz fresh lime juice
- ½ oz rich simple syrup
Shake all the ingredients hard with ice. Strain into a Hurricane glass (or tiki mug) over crushed ice. Garnish with an orange wheel, a cherry, or dehydrated citrus.
A serious rum drink, not a Bourbon Street sugar bomb. Passion fruit is the key, so quality matters (Funkin or Liber & Co), and adjust the syrup to its sweetness. Use two rums, not one; I like Appleton or Smith & Cross with Plantation 3 Stars. Batches well for parties without ice; pour over crushed ice to serve.
House Tiki
- 1½ oz aged or Jamaican rum
- ¾ oz light rum or rhum agricole
- ¾ oz fresh lime juice
- ½ oz orgeat
- ½ oz orange liqueur
- ¼ oz rich simple syrup (adjust to taste)
- ¼ oz allspice dram or falernum (optional)
Shake with ice. Strain into a tiki mug over crushed ice. Garnish with a mint sprig, dehydrated lime, or whatever's appropriate.
For when I want tiki but don't want to follow a recipe, or I'm trying new rums or clearing bottles. Pairings I like: Smith & Cross with Plantation 3 Stars (funky, bold), Appleton Estate with rhum agricole (balanced, grassy), El Dorado 8 with Probitas (rich, smooth), Plantation OFTD with Denizen White (heavy, complex).
Coffee-Pineapple Boulevardier
- 1½ oz bourbon
- ¾ oz coffee-infused Campari
- ¾ oz sweet vermouth
Stir with ice until well-chilled. Strain into a rocks glass over a large cube. Garnish with an orange peel, expressed.
For the coffee Campari, steep coffee beans in Campari for 24 to 48 hours. The coffee adds a roasty depth that suits bourbon, and a barspoon of pineapple Campari bridges bitter and tropical. My defaults are Buffalo Trace or Wild Turkey 101, and Carpano Antica Formula.
Through the telescope
Next launch
Rockets are a big part of why this bar is in orbit. Launch data comes live from The Space Devs ↗.
Up there tonight
The moon over the bar is lit the way the real one is tonight. The ISS position is live from Where the ISS at? ↗.
Say hello
Want to collaborate, talk shop, or argue about cheesesteaks? Emails are always welcome.
Your tab
The résumé
Founder & Lead Data Architect, Tabby Stack2022
Senior Data Engineer, Preset2022
Senior Analytics Engineer, Flywheel Software2020
Data Engineer, Inspire Energy2019
Renewables Engineer & Analyst, Penn Group of Companies2018
Data Engineer, Susquehanna International Group2017
Technical Strategist, Exelon Corporation2016
Open since2016
Open the full résumé on Google Drive ↗
You found the far side
Campfire
Every good little planet has a campfire around the back. Pull up a log. Here's what I think about when I'm not thinking about data:
- Technology, especially the kind that runs quietly in the background
- My cat
- All things energy
- Rockets
- Well-formatted SQL (leading commas, lowercase, fight me)
- Arguing about where to get the best cheesesteak
The marshmallow is ready when it's golden. Don't let the robot tell you otherwise.