About Me

    Husband to one of the coolest lady I know, dad to great kiddos, a cat, and two dogs. I have a penchant for good food and wine and family! 

    Hailing from a Colombian mother and Yugoslavian father – I entered the restaurant business at the age of 15 and never looked back. My front-of-the-house career includes time spent at the storied Franco’s Trattoria in Scottsdale, Anne Rosenzwig’s fine-dining Arcadia restaurant in New York City and to Restaurant and Bar Angele in Napa Valley. During my four year stint in the California wine country, I embraced the interconnected relationships between food and wine, and farmers and winemakers. Upon returning to Arizona in 2007 to help open a new restaurant, I was soon approached to oversee the service staff of Prado at the Montelucia in Paradise Valley.

     A serendipitous evening shift spent helping an old friend at another local restaurant put me back in touch with another longtime friend, Charleen Badman. We exchanged phone numbers and were soon plotting the opening of our own restaurant, FnB. From the beginning, just as Charleen cultivated relationships with the best local farmers, I sought out top Arizona winemakers with efforts culminating in an all-Arizona wine list. In 2014, I released my own wine label, Los Milics, in collaboration with noted Arizona winemakers Kelly and Todd Bostock of Dos Cabezas Wineworks, of southern Arizona. In 2017 and 2020, my wine program at FnB was awarded a James Beard Nomination for "Outstanding Beverage Program." Charleen and I were inducted into the Arizona Culinary Hall of Fame as “Best Restaurateurs” in 2013.

   Since 2015 I have penned Pavle-On-Juice, a humble little column about Arizona Wine and its winegrowers for Phoenix Magazine. 

    Currently I am overseeing a project near and close to my heart. Call it it destiny or or putting yourself in oportunity's path, or just random crazy luck. The thing is the dream to have a Winery is slowly materializing as I type. What seemed a regular night of service at FnB, turned into a pivotal meeting--with our now business partner Mo Garfinkle-- that would forever change my life. The skinny is that we are building a winery, tasitng room, and lodging in the Sonoita-Elgin AVA in southern Arizona. Visit the Los Milics Vineyards and Winery tab to learn more.