1800 East Hwy 114 Suite 102
Southlake, TX 76092
Phone: (800) 558-0607 | Fax: (920) 746-5012
Whether you're an independent operator looking for a single convection oven, or a school district looking for multiple serving counters, we're here to help.
No kitchen job is too large or too small. From single item replacements to complete kitchens, Epi can help.
Brad Wimpee
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Brad Wimpee
Outside Sales - Dallas/Fort Worth, East Texas and Central Texas
Brad is a native Texan and a graduate of Texas A&M. His introduction to the food equipment industry began when he joined EPI five years ago. Brad covers a large and diverse territory which keeps him on the road 3 to 4 days a week calling on customers at schools and universities, hospitals and health care facilities, correctional facilities and restaurants. He enjoys working with end users and coming up with creative solutions to their operational problems so they can serve their clientele better and more efficiently.
Brad is an avid golfer and spends much of his personal time on the links in preparation for that call from the PGA Tour. He also loves soccer and is an avid supporter of Manchester United and the USA Men's National Team; as well as the Dallas Cowboys, the Dallas Mavericks and the Texas Rangers. Brad's gifts extend beyond sports as he is also a talented busker and can sing and dance with the best of them. When not enjoying sports or singing for his supper, he gives generously of his time volunteering with youth sports program and various church outreach efforts. Brad has developed a real passion for the foodservice industry and is proud to be associated with EPI and the manufacturers we represent.
Johnnie Merchant
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Johnnie Merchant
Outside Sales - San Antonio and South Texas
An eleven year EPI sales veteran, Johnnie is crazy. Crazy about his wife and kids, that is; his awesome customers and south Texas. In a previous life Johnnie spent eight years as a restaurateur creating the illusion in his mind that he is one of the world's foremost experts on kitchen equipment, kitchen workflow and the five second rule. Evidently his customers share some of that vision as he has become a trusted advisor to foodservice operators throughout the south Texas region.
When Johnnie is not busy visiting with foodservice directors, raising his boys or enjoying all that Texas has to offer, he can be found attending a 12 step program to kick his addiction to Mexican food. We have also noticed that he has an addiction to Texas barbecue, for which he has made no effort to seek treatment. (It's called denial.)
Kevin Early
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Kevin Early
Outside Sales - Dallas/Fort Worth
Kevin's days are filled to overflowing calling on customers that need foodservice equipment. He loves solving operational problems for busy end users. His favorite call is the dishroom; there's just something about the smell of dirty dishes and old food that starts his juices flowing! (Kevin reminds us of Robert Duvall's character Kilgore in the movie "Apocalypse Now" where he proclaimed, "I love the smell of napalm in the morning!") Other favorites are heavy duty cooking lines, serving lines and custom fabrication.
When not working, Kevin enjoys spending time with his wife and daughter, almost any type of physical activity, and travel to exotic locales. He maintains a love-hate relationship with golf and lives by the philosophy "work and play hard!"
Kristi Byler
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Kristi Byler
Outside Sales - Dallas/ Fort Worth and West Texas
Kristi has been working for EPI 5 years. Brimming with enthusiasm, she approaches each day believing that everything happens for a reason, and no matter what, she just keeps going until someone hollers STOP! She quips that her customers are always offering her food, and if she isn't careful, it's so easy to over indulge.
Kristi has found she has a passion for helping foodservice operators in schools, restaurants and hospitals solve their operational problems.
Kristi has learned it can be a challenge to juggle her professional life with her personal life as a mother, a wife, a sister and a friend. She credits her family for their support in allowing her to become the successful business professional she is today.
Kristi is a native of Southlake, Texas, and enjoys spending time with her family, hunting, fishing and watching her Texas Rangers. She relishes those long drives to west Texas allowing her to reflect on life, and someday hopes to compete in "The Amazing Race" and travel the world.
Lewis Munn
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Lewis Munn
National Accounts
Lewis is a native of Oklahoma, and a graduate of the University of Oklahoma where he majored in architectural design and engineering. He has 40 years experience in the foodservice industry; 8 years on the dealer level as a kitchen designer and engineer, and 32 years as a manufacturer's representative. Every day is a new day, and after all these years he still looks forward to working with people and helping them find solutions to problems then encounter in their foodservice operations.
Lewis works with restaurant chains to solve heating, holding and serving problems they encounter as their menus are constantly changing and evolving. He helps them maintain a high level of service, showing them how they can serve hot food in a timely manner with a heating decor that complements their concepts. Lewis also works with kitchen designers keeping them up to date on the latest cooking, heating, holding and reconstituting technologies so they can offer better solutions to their clients.
Linda Hale-Neira
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Linda Hale-Neira
CFSP and ServSfe Certified, Outside Sales - Oklahoma, Wichita Falls, TX & NW Ark
Linda grew up in a military family and lived all over the United States prior to settling in Oklahoma. A graduate of the University of Oklahoma at Norman, Linda went to work for Hobart Corporation as a direct factory rep in 1991. Eleven years later she joined EPI and began representing a number of other great lines in addition to Hobart. Even after twenty years she says it never gets old, and she still finds it just as exciting to go to work each day as when she first started.
Believing that an active life is the best way to reduce stress, Linda enjoys sailing, snow skiing, travel and baking sugar cookies. Linda balances her career with family and community involvement, and is active in the Oklahoma Restaurant Association and the Oklahoma Association for School Nutrition, as well as many philanthropic organizations in the area.
Mike Tabert
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Mike Tabert
CFSP and ServSafe Certified, Outside Sales - Houston
Mike graduated from the University of Houston in 1983 and began his food equipment career in 1984 as a retail sales rep calling of grocery stores and super markets for Hobart Corporation. In 1989 Mike moved into Hobart's foodservice equipment division where he began working with foodservice operators and equipment dealers.
Mike is a kinetic ball of energy and enthusiasm, and during his "off" time he enjoys sleeping, golf, managing youths sports, sleeping, gardening, Pawn Stars, Operation Repo, sleeping and going on cruises - where he spends an inordinate amount of time sleeping! He resides in Houston - the cultural capital of Texas with his beautiful wife Dana and his genius level stepson.
Sarah van Rensburg
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Sarah van Rensburg
CFSP, Outside Sales - Dallas/Fort Worth, East Texas and Oklahoma
Sarah, a Chicago native, graduated from Purdue University in 2002 and promptly moved to Dallas to accept a job in the food equipment industry with EPI. As the bumper sticker says, she warn't born here, but she got here as fast as she could. Like so many of our people, Sarah has developed a passion for the foodservice business and looks forward to each day working with end users and food equipment dealers in northeast Texas and Oklahoma. She likes the fact that every day is different and presents new challenges, and she enjoys working with a wide variety of people helping them solve their operational problems.
When not working, Sarah loves spending time with her husband and their two bullmastiffs. Sarah also loves to travel, and most important of all she is an avid reality TV junkie. We have an office pool at EPI that will pay off handsomely to the person who guesses closest to the date that Sarah achieves fame as the star of her own reality show.
Terry Mathis
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Terry Mathis
Outside Sales - Houston
Terry has 10 years of foodservice equipment experience serving customers in the greater Houston and southeast Texas area. Terry's primary focus is working with end users at schools and universities, hospitals and health care facilities, correctional facilities and restaurants. He enjoys the challenges of helping them solve problems and improve their operations so they can serve their customers more efficiently.
Terry and his wife Dolores have been married for seven years and have a five year old daughter. They enjoy spending time together outside and enjoying all that Houston and the gulf coast have to offer.
Toni Smith
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Toni Smith
Outside Sales - Dallas/Fort Worth, Consultant Services -Texas & Oklahoma
Toni has 30 years experience in the foodservice industry and has worked for EPI for the past 13 years. She calls on K-12 school foodservice directors in Regions 10 & 11; as well as universities and health care facilities in the Dallas/Fort Worth area. In addition Toni coordinates all our activities with the foodservice consultant community throughout Texas and Oklahoma. Toni attends many of the national equipment shows where she learns of new trends, techniques and equipment that she can share with her customers who are always looking for new ideas that can be applied to their operations.
Toni lives in Coppell, TX, with Greg, her husband of 32 years. Her children Jennifer and Patrick completed their K-12 education at Coppell ISD. Jennifer and her husband recently presented Toni with her first granddaughter, MacKenzie, who is the apple of her eye. If Toni ever retires, she plans to spend her time volunteering in the maternity ward as a "baby rocker"!
Tony LeCavalier
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Tony LeCavalier
Outside Sales - Austin and San Antonio
Tony is a native of Littleton, Colorado. Always the ferocious competitor, he played hockey for 20 years - 5 of those just for fun. In 1991 Tony began his foodservice career with Engster Marketing, now the Redstone Group, selling smallwares. In 1999, he was given the opportunity to start a rep firm in San Francisco for KBRW selling smallwares and bar equipment. It was there that he met the love his life and began what has become the best chapter of his life.
In 2003 Tony accepted an offer from EPI and moved to Texas with his beautiful wife Flavia and stepson Nick.
Since then they have added to their family with the birth of a son Liam and a daughter Isabella. In his 20 years in the foodservice industry Tony has enjoyed the relationships he has built with his customers, and he greets each new day with anticipation looking forward to seeing all those new friends he has yet to meet.
