Dream Team

Nick DiBartolomeo is the Founder and CEO of Launch Hospitality. Nick oversees all owned asset investments and leads the consulting group on all managed assets. 

He is the former, longtime Executive Vice President of world-renowned Blackberry Farm, Blackberry Mountain and related Blackberry brands. 

He is a graduate from the University of New York at Binghamton with a BS in Applied Mathematics and received his MBA from Louisiana State University.

Roy Milner is a Managing Partner with Hare of the Dog Distilling and Launch Hospitality. He oversees all production beverage efforts and provides general management oversight for all all spirit and beer brands.  

With more than 20 years in and around the craft brewing industry, Milner began exploring his passion for great beer in Knoxville as a home brewer while attending the University of Tennessee. A native of Chattanooga, Roy has traveled extensively to gather the knowledge and expertise to make the best beer possible.

Prior to Blackberry Farm, Roy worked as a brewer with multiple breweries in the Southeast, and has held several Sales and Marketing positions with beer and beverage companies throughout the United States before coming back to Tennessee.

Passionate about all things Southern, he is a lover of music, cooking, beverages, and travel, and is proud to call the mountains of East Tennessee home. 

Tyler Brown is the Corporate Chef and manages all menu development and culinary operations for Launch Hospitality.

Tyler Brown understood early on how food and community intertwine, as the evening meal was his family’s sacred time. That experience has stuck with him through his career. 

After culinary school at Johnson & Wales University, he started as a line cook and then served as sous chef at Peninsula Grill in Charleston and the Fearrington House in Pittsboro, NC Later, as chef de cuisine at the Capitol Grille in Nashville’s Hermitage Hotel, he helped shape the restaurant into a four-star, four-diamond destination. When he became executive chef in 2006, Brown began implementing seed-to-plate sourcing with the creation of the heirloom Garden at Glen Leven and 150 head of heritage Red Poll cattle at Double H Farms.

Josh Tallent is the Director of Service and heads up all beverage programming and FOH Operations for Launch Hospitality.

Josh has held positions with White Lodging, Curio and Blackberry Farm where most recently he has served as the General Manager of Blackberry Farm Brewery in Maryville, Tennessee.

Phil Robertson is the Managing Partner of Pinchy's Lobster & Rawbar.

Phil has been with Pinchy's since Day 1 and has helped set the standard for what has become one of the most successful seafood houses in East Tennessee. 

Prior to Pinchy's, Phil lead all restaurant operations at Harpoon Harry's seafood house in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee for over a decade. 

Bobby Tallent through our partnership with Warren Jackson CPA oversees all bookkeeping and tax for all Launch Hospitality managed and owned assets. 

Robert (Bobby) S. Tallent, CPA is a Certified Public Accountant. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration with a major in Accountancy from the University of Tennessee. Bobby provides a wide range of services for the firm including business, management, QuickBooks and other accounting software consulting, individual, partnership and corporate tax preparation and non-profit organization audits. Bobby has been conducting non-profit organization audits, as well as, Governmental (OMB) Circular A-133 Single Audits since 1990.

Bobby is a member of the Tennessee Society of Certified Public Accountants (TSCPA), as well as the American Institute of Certified Accountants (AICPA). Bobby is currently the Treasurer for the Board of Directors of CASA.