Born in the Philippines and raised in Texas, June is the CEO & Partner of Houston-based Goodnight Hospitality founded 2019 consisting of retail shoppe Montrose Cheese & Wine, Rosie Cannonball, a 2020 James Beard Award semifinalist for Outstanding Wine Program, and ultra-fine dining venture, MARCH which garnered accolades such as Best New Restaurants in Esquire, the No. 2 Restaurant in America in Robb Report’s Best of the Best 2022 and a 2022 James Beard Award semifinalist nod for Best Chef Texas. They will open The Marigold Club, their fourth concept in 2024.
In her career June has opened over twenty hospitality concepts with numerous James Beard Award winners and nominees and Food & Wine magazine’s Best New Chefs. She remains a partner in the eponymous June’s All Day, named one of Food & Wine magazine’s Restaurants of the Year in 2017.
She is a known leader in the hospitality community and her personal accolades include: Wine Enthusiast’s Sommelier of the Year 2018; Wine Enthusiast 40 Under 40 2016; Key Panelist at Women in Wine Leadership Symposium and numerous Food & Wine Festivals across the nation; Food & Wine magazine’s Sommelier of the Year 2014 (she is the only person to have received both the Restaurants of the Year & Sommelier of the Year accolade), Star Chef’s Rising Star Sommelier 2012, Wine & Spirits Best New Sommelier 2011, TEXSOM Best Sommelier Winner 2009 and is one of 25 women in the Americas to earn the Master Sommelier credential.
An avid sparkling wine drinker and determined to find cause for celebration in day-to-day life, in 2017 she launched her own wine, the popular and thirst quenching, June’s Brut Rosé.
What made you want to become an MS?
Passionate about sustainable enterprises in the industry and job security in the wine business, one of my biggest roles in the CMS-A is lending support and lecturing/teaching the Business of Sommelier and Wine Business in general. My dream is to help our industry build their own restaurants, wine shops, groups, and business and pay forward what I learned from my school-of-hard-knocks experiences — be they success and failures — so more wine professionals will have a ownership and equity wherever they may be in the industry.
