Phillips hails from New York City where he enjoyed a successful 15 years in Marketing and PR.

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In 1992, Phillips worked to launch the famous MercBar in Soho New York. After the launch, he embarked on another career. This time in media, and over the next decade, launched two award-winning magazines in New York (CITY and Black Book.) 

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Ready for a change, Phillips sold his interest in the New York magazines and moved to Arizona to assist with the Phoenix Mercbar operations and in the process, launched two more magazine titles (Desert Living and ITEM.)

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Always ahead of his time, and before there were “bloggers” and “influencers”, Phillips next launched the very influential EATERAZ.com, a food website that reported on the local food scene. Its stories went out to over 10,000 registered subscribers each day. 

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Through EATERAZ.COM, Phillips had been able to do more hospitality consulting working with companies such as Breakthru Beverage, Sanctuary Resort & Spa on Camelback Mountain, The Mondrian, The Theodore, Petite Maison, Mabel’s on Main, Iruña, Fox Restaurants, and more.

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In 2009 Phillips launched Affordable Food Festivals, a company that produced large-scale culinary events such as the Arizona Barbecue Festival, the Arizona Taco Festival, the Tucson Taco Festival, the Surprise BBQ Festival, Big Boy Cook Club, the Taste of Paso Robles Wine, Street Eats, and many more. All events have been runaway successes with some attracting more than 30,000 per event. 

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BBQ events led Phillips to open Bootleggers Modern American Smokehouse (as seen on Guy Fieri’s Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives) which currently has two locations in Phoenix and Old Town Scottsdale.

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With the advent of Covid-19, and events being cancelled, and MercBar having to close for the duration, Phillips pivoted back into journalism, but this time, by creating a content production company.

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Partnering up with a longtime friend who is a TV & Film Producer (The Infiltrator with Bryan Cranston, City of Lies with Johnny Depp, LIVE PD and more,) they formed Criminal Minded Media, a content company creating journalistically driven, non-fiction, episodic stories for Television, Podcasts, and feature length documentaries.

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Phillips is currently a partner in 151 Hospitality, and is planning with partner Peter Hearn, to open three new restaurants concepts in Fall ’24.