Kevin Caravelli
Maude | Los Angeles
June 2017
Kevin Caravelli’s father was obsessed with wine, and a love of all things vinicultural seeped into his son’s St. Louis upbringing. A stint at French bistro Chez Leon with the late great restaurateur Leon Bierbaum—whom Caravelli credits as his mentor—solidified his passion for drinking and serving good juice. Before he realized his place in the industry, though, Caravelli worked for local and national political campaigns, picking up restaurant shifts between election cycles.
Caravelli moved from St. Louis to Chicago to work for a labor union and eventually found his way to the floor of Grant Achatz’s Alinea. After three years working in one of the world’s best restaurants, he made the leap to his first lead sommelier role at NoMi Kitchen at Park Hyatt Chicago.
In 2015, Caravelli headed to the West Coast to work at Curtis Stone’s Maude in Beverly Hills. Today, as general manager and sommelier, Caravelli builds a new wine list every month to pair with Maude’s vegetable-focused tasting menu. He’s now 25 menus in, with a list that has grown to 200-plus labels of dynamic, food-friendly wines.
