David Kaplan and Alex Day introduce Chapter & Verse downtown
David Kaplan and Alex Day, the duo behind hospitality consultancy Proprietors, have set up a new headquarters and a cocktail lab in downtown's Arts District, on the third floor of the Traction Avenue building that once housed electronics store Crazy Gideon's. Long gone are Gideon Kotzer's "everything-must-go" TVs and microwaves. In a light-filled aerie is Proprietor's office/testing grounds. It's dubbed Chapter & Verse and is outfitted with a huge wall of booze, a library of books on spirits, cocktails and design and a "dream station" for drinks-making "dedicated to the process of constant development," as Day describes it.
Kaplan, who is a founder of New York nightlife establishment Death & Co., and Day, who also worked there, are in the meantime planning to open their own bar downtown by the end of next year -- "a two-room, two-bar, high-energy new style offering with live music happenings," according to the Proprietors website. Kaplan would add only that it is a basement space and the two "have been working on it for what feels like our entire lives" (or, the past nine months).
Chapter & Verse arrives between Proprietors' projects in New York (the forthcoming Demi Monde); Mumbai, India (a yet-to-be-announced restaurant and bar); Jackson Hole, Wyo.; and Los Angeles, including the drinks programs at Bar & Kitchen at the O Hotel, Stella Rossa and Rosa Mexicano. "We modeled the space off an ad agency, a space dedicated to creativity" that functions as a development lab and training space for both clients and industry colleagues, Kaplan says.
Chapter & Verse also includes a coffee setup for Handsome Coffee, with a La Marzocco espresso machine on a counter alongside the bar in the middle of the office. "They're doing what we're doing in beverage" from a different angle, Kaplan says.
A nod to the idiom "to know something chapter and verse," Chapter & Verse "was built to facilitate education," Kaplan says. Working on all aspects of building bars, "we needed a hub." Bonus: One might spot Crazy Gideon himself still cruising the parking lot on his bicycle, dressed in a pink V-neck sweater and white sneakers with neon laces.
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Photo: David Kaplan and Alex Day. Credit: Joey Maloney
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