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Friday, Mar 29, 2024

Vintage Punker

David Gibbs Company: Studio Oaks LLC; Ivanhoe LLC; Note Under the Door LLC; Note Under the Door Hospitality LLC Born: Potsdam, N.Y., 1965 Education: Dropped out of Curry College to become a rock musician Most Influential People: Adam Duritz of Counting Crows; Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine; other members of the Gigolo Aunts; restaurateurs Dustin Lancaster, Matthew Kaner, Andy Paxon and Nick Caballero. Career Turning Point: Seeing his friends Dustin Lancaster and Matthew Kaner open Bar Covell in Los Feliz, followed by a conversation with his wife about what to do with his own wine collection. Personal: Lives in Sherman Oaks with wife Gillian Vigman and children Ben and Katie. Hobbies: Finding obscure bands; restoring an old Mercedes-Benz automobile with his son. Former punk rocker David Gibbs has established himself as a wine bar operator with three locations in Sherman Oaks. In 1981, Gibbs and three friends formed the band Gigolo Aunts in Potsdam, N.Y. In his 30-plus-year career as a guitarist and vocalist, he has shared the stage with some of music’s biggest acts, touring internationally with Counting Crows, Nine Inch Nails and Jane’s Addiction and playing in bands with Tom Morello, Boots Riley and others. After moving to Los Angeles, Gibbs co-founded three wine-centric eateries: Augustine Wine Bar in Sherman Oaks, Mirabelle Wine Bar in Valley Village, and Sushi Note in Sherman Oaks. He met with the Business Journal at Sushi Note to talk about his music days, his favorite wines and his passion for customer service. Question: How are your wine bars faring? Answer: I always compare them to kids. Augustine is like my son — he can brush his teeth and make his own breakfast and gets up on time, but sometimes you have to remind him to wash behind his ears. (Sushi Note) is not an infant, but a toddler. We’re still wondering: is he going to put his finger in the socket or not? When you first open a place, it really is like having an infant. Any little thing can crush a new business. That’s a reason why relying on partners and people you trust is so important. I can’t imagine doing this without a very supportive wife and supportive partners. Economically, how are they doing? They’re doing well. Augustine just had its fourth anniversary. We paid off our investors and we’re in the clear in 18 or 19 months, so that’s a really great feeling. (Sushi Note) is on par to do the same thing. Mirabelle was a little slower taking off but it’s finding its groove. We’re sort of rolling the dice on that little stretch of Burbank Avenue. The rent is so inexpensive in that area. Young families are moving there. You want to build believers, not just casual fans. Why did you decide to open your restaurants in the Valley rather than downtown or West Los Angeles? I live here, so I know this demographic because I am this demographic. I despise when people say things like: “It’s good for the Valley.” No, it’s good for Los Angeles. Augustine will go toe-to-toe with any wine bar in the city, and in my opinion, (beat) it. So will Sushi Note. People think you have to go over the hill to get a good meal. No, you don’t. It’s just this weird association. The Valley was this fancy, relaxing home of the stars in the ’40s and ’50s. It was not until the ’70s and ’80s when it became “America’s suburb,” and became the butt of a lot of jokes. It has never really shaken that image. Why was last summer the right time for you to open Sushi Note? It was a terrible time to open this place. Sometimes you’re under a lot of economic pressure, or pressure with the city for permitting. You play the hand you’re dealt, and it was time to open it. A lot of the problems with new businesses – especially restaurants, bars, anything like that – is that you take on this debt you can’t get out from under. We came right up to the edge of that, just skated it. How do you market your restaurants? Bread & Butter is our publicist and they’ve helped a ton. We try to do word-of-mouth because nothing is better than that. I’m 53 and social media is tough for me. That’s a young person’s game. I would rather focus on finding a great wine to go with an Alfonsino. How did you get involved with Augustine Wine Bar after already establishing yourself as a musician? Matthew Kaner and Dustin Lancaster had opened Bar Covell. We used to live in Los Feliz so I could walk there. When we moved (to Sherman Oaks), I found myself driving back there to have a glass of wine or catch up with friends, and I would lament that there wasn’t anything like that here. I kept asking them, “Why don’t you open a Covell in Sherman Oaks?” I had lunch with Dustin, and he was like, “I’m too busy to do it in Sherman Oaks. However, if you find the space and go through all of the crap, Matthew and I will partner with you.” And we did. What made you decide to open more restaurants after Augustine? That urge that I had to be creative musically is always there. It just got transferred. I like designing things. I like starting an interesting idea in my head and seeing it come to fruition. I just like it. What sparked your interest in wine? My high school girlfriend’s father drank one wine. He drank Beaulieu Vineyards Georges de Lateur Private Reserve. He had a bunch of it in his basement. I realized later that he had an incredible influence on me. He got up early, worked all day, he had this Rolex Day-Date. I felt very sophisticated when he’d offer me a glass of wine at dinner. When I traveled with the band, I was exposed to a lot of different wines from different parts of the world. I liked the stories that go with it. I like the history. It’s a very nice communal experience to share a bottle of wine. Are you a collector now as well? That started on tour. Twenty or 25 years ago, depending on the success of your band, you’d get a rider. We’d put on the rider: “Two bottles of the oldest wine you can find in Yecla, (Spain).” And I just started buying them on the road. Pre-9/11, you could travel with it in your carry-on, so I’d bring a cardboard box with the Styrofoam inserts and I’d bring home a dozen bottles of wine. It was much more affordable 10 or 20 years ago, especially old California. What’s your desert island wine — the one you’d want if you were stranded on a desert island? It changes. If it’s a desert island, it’s probably going to be hot, so I’m going to go with an old white that’s refreshing yet has enough body to satisfy me and pairs with the fish that I spear. Rudi Pichler Gruner, maybe. Franz Hirtzberger Gruner. Old Hanzell Chard. I’ve got a magnum of ’85 Richie Creek chardonnay which I’ve never tasted in my life. I’m dying to open that. What was it like to tour with the Gigolo Aunts? It was really fun. I was lucky that I got to play with the guys I got to play with, who were all much better than me. We knew each other and we got along well through every incarnation of that band. I liked the travel. It felt like every night something magical could happen, and you were at the center of that magic. It could be that you ate a great meal, that you met a cool person, that you saw a great sunset. Every night, you had that opportunity. That’s what I liked most about that lifestyle. It sustained years of touring. What were your biggest “punk rocker” moments? In Spain, there’s this festival called Benicàssim. It’s like their version of Coachella. Our promoter introduced us to this Spanish song called “La Chica de Ayer,” or “The Girl from Yesterday,” and said jokingly that we should cover it. This song was an enormous, life-changing hit for this three-piece band “Nacha Pop” in Spain in 1981. We roughly translated the lyrics and recorded it one afternoon on the fly. Two days later we played on the main stage at this festival. In the spur of the moment, our bass player, Steve, suggested we do that Nacha Pop song, which we’d never tried to play live, we’d just learned and recorded the other day. But we did it anyway and people went ballistic. It blew their minds. We were singing the chorus in English and they were singing it back to us in Spanish. It was a great feeling that I cherish. Why did you shift your career away from music? My entire life, I was consumed by a love for music. Playing and consuming music was so vital to my identity — who my friends were, where I went. That passion didn’t die, it was replaced. When I met my wife and had a family, instantaneously, that burning desire to be on the road or collect guitars or read about bands was replaced with my family. That became the driving force of my life and music took a backseat. I don’t want to get up, get in a van, and go play the Grog Shop in Cleveland at 12:40 on a Tuesday. But there’s a thousand kids that do. Let them do it. But you still play somewhat professionally, right? When I play with Tom (Morello). It’s fun because I love him as a guy, I love everybody in the band. I’m just the bass player. I putz around and stand in the shadows, but it’s really fun to go play for 50,000 people in Brazil. In (Gigolo Aunts) I was stressed — am I singing in tune? Does the audience like this? All of those things were replaced with — are my kids okay? Is my son’s math grade improving? What band do you play in with Tom Morello? He’s had a solo project called the Nightwatchmen for years. We made a band called Street Sweeper Social Club with Boots Riley, who directed (the movie) “Sorry to Bother You.” He wrote that when we were on tour almost 10 years ago. What about your personality enabled the smooth transition from musician to restauranteur? It wasn’t that smooth. The biggest thing was learning that running a restaurant or a wine bar is a form of putting on a show every night. You have jobs like getting water and making sure the food is good, but you really only have one goal, which is to make their experience pleasurable and memorable. Once I wrapped my brain around that, it was easier to notice that I was good at this. When Augustine is packed and everything is going well, it’s like a ballet behind the bar. What else did you learn from the music business that you have applied to restaurants? Be true to who you are and what you do. Let the people that like it, like it. If you change what you’re doing because you think you’re giving somebody what they want, you’re going to fail. Do what you like, do what makes you happy, and be true to that. If you do it well and there’s a market for it, you’re going to be fine. What are your day-to-day responsibilities at the wine bars? I’m not at all three locations every day. I’m generally here (at Sushi Note) and (Augustine) every day, even if I just drive by here and spend the evening there. It ranges from cheerleading the staff to communicating between vendors and chefs to maintenance to seasonally changing the menu and wine program. How do you balance your restaurant work with your personal interests like music and family? Right now, they’re a little out of balance. I need to get a little better at that. A big lesson I’m learning is delegation. I still haven’t fully wrapped my brain around being an owner or co-owner of a place. I’m a worker, I’ll clean the gum off the bottom of the tables. I’d very much like to improve that aspect of my ownership. Another thing is that you have to be able to exercise or do something that has nothing to do with your job or business, just to go away and refocus. It’s a privilege to serve people. True hospitality is a privilege. It’s something we’re lucky to be able to do. What is your next restaurant concept? I opened a bar on a cruise ship with Norwegian Cruise Line. It’s called Syd Norman’s Pour House. The second one is opening in May. It’s a music venue. It’s kind of an homage to the Whiskey or the Rainbow or really the Troubadour. It’s like your neighborhood bar on a boat floating around the Caribbean. The cruise industry is hungry for content, whether its food and beverage or entertainment, because the demographics for that are changing. How so? It’s not just old retirees on cruises now. People travel all over the place and they’re exposed to good food, good entertainment, good drinks everywhere. The cruise industry is desperately trying to catch up to that. I’m more than happy to provide something for them.

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