Max Kuller’s eclectic, eccentric journey through life has led to his current place on the wine side of the restaurant world. Born in Los Angeles and raised in Maryland, from early on Kuller had his palette spoiled by his mom’s great cooking and dad’s uber-wine and restaurant connoisseurship. 

Before settling in as the Wine Director of his family’s DC-based restaurant group, Fat Baby Inc. (proof, estadio, doi moi/ 2 birds 1 stone), Max received a degree in Installation Art at Brown University, cut his teeth at Providence’s famed Al Forno (an Italian Mafioso hangout that reputedly invented wood-fired grilled pizza), and flirted with an MFA at American University until turning pro in disc golf.

Max’s first FOH job was as a graveyard shift milkshake boy at a 24-hour DC diner. Even as he now plays a central leadership role in his restaurant group, he cannot leave behind his beverage roots:  he currently oversees his group’s wine and beer programs, and curates a kaleidoscopically playful program at FBI’s Southeast Asian Outpost doi moi.

A 20-year vegetarian, and co-creator of Providence’s now defunct intellectual funhouse “telephone,” Max plans to one day weave all of his hippie-laced ambition into a theme park combining his love for vegetable gardening, waterfalls, pinball, music, captivating landscapes, sport of all sort and hospitality into a Willy Wonka-esque theme park.

Max lives happily with his amazing wife Emily, and silliest of the sills doggy Damon in Burleith, DC. He is also credited with inventing Champagne Golf and is very proud of this.