Jeff Makjavich: Oral History Interview

This interview is with Jeff Makjavich of Les Caves Wine Bar. In this interview, Jeff discusses his history within hospitality and his decision to return to Les Caves.

Jeff talks about his early experiences in hospitality working as a barista and in small restaurants. After experiencing the ceremony of full-service restaurants, Jeff decided that’s where he wanted to work. From there, he continued working in restaurants, but at a higher level. Eventually, he was hired a restaurants with established wine programs. While he didn’t get it at first, Jeff knew he needed to learn about wine or he would be limited within hospitality. Jeff continued to learn about wine on the job and off the cuff. Working at Little Bird, Jeff grew into the hospitality professional he is today and played the role of wine director assistant.

Jeff discusses his first go at Les Caves and how he returned to it years later. Jeff was offered a job in April of 2019 through mutual connections and was enthralled by the atmosphere of the wine bar. After taking the job, Jeff was noticing little things he would do differently around the wine bar. He wanted to be able to decide what wines he was pouring and refrain from taking reservations. During the pandemic, Jeff decided to leave Les Caves and go back to restaurants. During this time, Jeff remotely created wine lists for a restaurant in Texas and learned more about curation. It was when he was getting comfortable in his job that Jeff was offered to come back to Les Caves, but this time as an operating owner.

Later in the interview, Jeff talks about the changes he has made to Les Caves. Jeff’s goal for the spot was to create a casual place for people to hang out and drink wine on the daily. He is determined to make Les Caves different from other wine bars by staying open later and changing the business model of a usual wine bar. Les Caves offers a wine list presented like a bottle list and does not open a new bottle until the previous one has been finished. At that point, the customer can pick the next bottle they open. Jeff finds that this doesn’t waste wine and allows customers to explore wines they may not have tried otherwise.

This interview was conducted by Rich Schmidt at Les Caves Wine Bar in Portland on August 6, 2026.