Kristopher Esqueda

Kristopher Esqueda’s love for restaurants began at a young age in his hometown of Santa Barbara, CA. As he was growing up his uncle began to expand his small café to various locations throughout his hometown. As a young boy Kristopher and his cousins would accompany his uncle to the restaurants and “help” him open and close the restaurants. Now, Kristopher realizes that the mornings spent sitting at the counter observing his uncle shaped his desire to be involved in the restaurant industry.

During high school Kristopher enrolled in a restaurant hospitality class which involved servicing a dining room of teachers and faculty and also creating the food. While Kristopher thoroughly enjoyed this class, this is when he found out that his calling was not in the kitchen but out on the floor interacting with guests.

After graduating from high school Kristopher received his first experience at a higher caliber French restaurant in San Francisco while attending San Francisco State University studying to receive his Bachelor’s degree in business marketing. His love for restaurants continued to grow while learning more and more about cuisine, wine and hospitality.

It was not until working with now business partner, then boss, Mark Bright in late 2007 that Kristopher’s passion for restaurants and more importantly wine began to really take shape. Bright took Kristopher under his wing and helped unleash his creative side all the while feeding his passion to learn more and more about wine and restaurants.

After some time, Mark and Kristopher came up with a grand idea of creating a company where their ideas, talent and creativity could be shared with the rest of the world. The ideas began to flow and take shape into more than just an idea and a name was chosen, Markris Wine Group was formed.

“My desire with Markris is that we can bring fresh new ideas to an industry where it seems everything has been done before. The benefit of us being young and a young company is that we are not afraid to take chances. We love risk and challenges, partly due to the fact that we don’t know any better. We are a company who stays current, young and fresh and we hope that this translates to any and all of our projects that we are involved in. We plan to share as many of our exciting ideas as possible over the next few years and hope that our company will continue to grow and flourish.”

Mark Bright

Born in Chicago, Mark Bright has been passionate about wine since he went to Europe at the age of 15. At 17, he starting working at Aqua Restaurant in the Bellagio Hotel, Las Vegas, while attending the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, where he studied Food and Beverage Management. At UNLV Mark was the President of the Wine Club and helped organize many events to benefit the school. He joined the Bellagio Sommelier team on his 21st birthday, working on the floor at Aqua Restaurant.

In 2004, Rajat Parr, the wine director for Michael Mina's restaurants, invited Bright to be the opening sommelier for one of the biggest restaurant openings in San Francisco's recent history - Restaurant Michael Mina. Bright fell in love with San Francisco's diverse culture and cuisine and found many people who shared his passion for food and wine. During his time at Michael Mina, Bright also assisted in the wine programs at many of Mina's restaurants including Arcadia in San Jose, Sea Blue and Nob Hill at MGM Grand Las Vegas, and Stonehill Tavern at the St. Regis Monarch Bay.

Bright's consulting business has worked with many restaurants and chefs throughout the Bay Area, including, Dosa, Circa, Cosmopolitan, Lingba, Oola, Pampas in Palo Alto, Sushi Groove, Home Restaurant, and 111 Minna. In 2007, Bright opened his first restaurant, Local Kitchen and Wine Merchant in San Francisco, as a co-owner. The development of this location was exciting and revolutionary, combining a wine merchant, wine bar and restaurant. In addition to Bright's consulting business, he was also a sommelier with the Ritz Carlton Half Moon Bay, working in the restaurant Novia and the Ritz Carlton's wine program.

Knowing that the best wine professionals in the industry are ones who know there is always more to learn, Bright continues his exploration and study of wine. His studies and travels have taken him throughout the wine regions of South America, Australia, South Africa, Europe, United States, China, and the sake breweries of Japan.

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