Cabo Wabo

This article is about the chain of nightclubs. For the song by Van Halen, see Cabo Wabo (song).
Cabo Wabo
Private
Industry Nightclub
Restaurant
Bar
Genre Nightclubs
Restaurants
Bars
Founder Sammy Hagar
Headquarters United States
Products Food, alcohol
Website www.cabowabocantina.com

Cabo Wabo is the name of a chain of nightclubs and restaurants located in Cabo San Lucas, BCS, Mexico, as well as Harvey's Lake Tahoe in Stateline, Nevada and a third location on the Las Vegas Strip in Nevada just outside the Miracle Mile Shops at Planet Hollywood, and on Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, California.[1]

It is also a popular brand of tequila. All were founded by rock musician Sammy Hagar. The Cabo San Lucas location is generally considered to be one of the top three most popular nightclubs in town. But as opposed to competing nightclub/bar Squid Roe (which plays top-40 music and attracts a younger/spring-break clientele), Cabo Wabo typically attracts an older adult clientele with its mostly rock music selection.[2][3]

(This is not to be confused with Southern California's Cabo Cantina chain, operated by Sunset Restaurant Management Group, which includes a location mere blocks away from Cabo Wabo Hollywood.)

Cantina

Hagar performing at the Cabo Wabo

Hagar, already a successful rock musician, visited the Mexican town of Cabo San Lucas in the early 1980s. Hagar joined Van Halen in July 1985 after the departure of its former singer, David Lee Roth. Seeking a place for himself and his friends to relax and play music, he convinced the Van Halen members to partner in opening a large bar, restaurant, and performance space. Launched in April 1990, the cantina was initially a financial failure, leading Hagar to buy out his band-mates. Under new management, the bar became popular with both locals and tourists as the town quickly grew into a major resort. In 2004, after plans fell through to open in Las Vegas, Hagar opened a second location in the basement of the historic Harvey's casino on the south shore of Lake Tahoe.[4][5] A third location was opened in Fresno, California in 2008,[6] but had its license pulled by Hagar at the beginning of 2009. Cabo Wabo Las Vegas opened in The Miracle Mile shopping center at Planet Hollywood in November 2009.

Hagar claims he coined the name after watching a man walk unsteadily along a local beach after a heavy night's partying. Using the town's nickname, Cabo (which means "cape" in Spanish), and shortening "wobble" to "wabo" he said of the man that he was doing the "Cabo wabo." Hagar later used the phrase in his lyrics and title for the Van Halen song. In 1990 he hired Noel Vestri, an innovator in computer graphic designs (including work on Vans Tennis Shoes) to design a logo for the brand, which is still used today.

Tequila

Patrons drinking in a portion of the cantina

In the late 1990s, Hagar began selling his patrons a house brand of hand-made tequila he commissioned from a family-owned distillery in the state of Jalisco. In 1999, a wine importer from Napa Valley began to import the tequila into the United States. An instant success, sales rose from 37,000 cases the first year to 140,000 cases in 2006, making it the second-best selling premium tequila in the United States.[7]

Several of the Cabo Wabo offerings have performed quite well at international spirit ratings competitions. For example, the añejo offering received three silver, one gold and one double gold medal at the San Francisco World Spirits Competition between 2008 and 2012.[8] Its reposado tequila received a score of 92 from the 2008 Beverage Testing Institute.[9]

In May, 2007 it was announced that Hagar would sell an 80% interest in Cabo Wabo Tequila to Gruppo Campari, the world's sixth-largest spirits company, for $80 million. Skyy Spirits of San Francisco, a vodka producer and subsidiary of Milan's Gruppo Campari, planned to market Cabo Wabo globally, with continued participation by Hagar. Gerry Ruvo, president and chief executive of Skyy Spirits, said, "Sammy has done a fantastic job building the brand, so we are going to obviously spend time with him and work with him to continue our efforts to take the brand to an even larger level, both here in the U.S. and, more important, globally." Ruvo said Great Britain, Spain, Australia, Southeast Asia, Japan, Germany and Italy are considered key expansion markets for tequila.[10]

Footnotes

  1. ↑ "Cabo Wabo". LA Weekly.
  2. ↑ "Cabo San Lucas Nightlife". Luxury Villa Connections. Retrieved 2011-03-24.
  3. ↑ "El Squid Roe Review". Fodor's Travel Intelligence. Retrieved 2011-03-24.
  4. ↑ Barry A. Jeckell (2004-03-18). "Hagar Brings 'Cabo' To Tahoe". Billboard. Retrieved 2007-11-28.
  5. ↑ Bruce R. Miller. "There's life after Van Halen". Sioux City Journal. Retrieved 2007-11-28.
  6. ↑ Yuriar, Norma; Whitehurst, Winston (12 December 2008). "Cabo Wabo Restaurant Leaves Fresno". KMPH Fox 26. Retrieved 7 October 2011.
  7. ↑ Perman, Stacy (2007-04-30). "Tequila With A Rock 'n' Roll Chaser: How Sammy Hagar took Cabo Wabo from a vanity hangout to a $60 million business". Business Week. Retrieved 2007-11-28.
  8. ↑ Proof66.com (2012-10-21). "Proof66.com Ratings Summary Page for Cabo Wabo anejo". Proof66.com. Retrieved 2012-10-21.
  9. ↑ Proof66.com (2012-10-21). "Proof66.com Ratings Summary Page for Cabo Wabo reposado". Proof66.com. Retrieved 2012-10-21.
  10. ↑ Raine, George (May 7, 2007). "Wild for Wabo: $80 million will lift Hagar's spirits". San Francisco Chronicle.

External links

Coordinates: 22°53′22″N 109°54′56″W / 22.88944°N 109.91556°W / 22.88944; -109.91556

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