Our Story
In 2005, David Kaplan moved to E. 7th Street in the East Village, renting an apartment above the then-wine bar, The Bourgeois Pig, owned by Ravi DeRossi. The two became friends and looked to open a business together, finding a space just a block over on E. 6th St — where they would soon create Death & Company.
Death & Co opened its doors on New Years of 06/07 and days later the bar appeared on the front page of New York Times Sunday Styles section.
With its arrival, Death & Co ushered in a new era of cocktail culture.
Shortly after opening, Alex Day joined the bar team, starting with just one Sunday swing shift and moving up the ranks from there. Alex and David found a fantastic working relationship and formed Proprietors LLC in 2008, a hospitality consulting company. The two moved to Los Angeles in 2010 where they met Devon Tarby, then the lead bartender at The Varnish, who joined the Proprietors team. In the following years, Proprietors developed beverage programs and opened bars and restaurants all over the world. Proprietors proved that the team excelled at (and loved!) opening bars, but there was still more to explore in the hospitality world.
Dave, Alex, and Nick Fauchald wrote three award-winning cocktail books: Death & Co, Cocktail Codex, and Welcome Home. Death & Co opened its second location in Denver, Colorado in 2018 as part of the ground-up boutique hotel The Ramble, which introduced the team to Ryan Diggins and led to a partnership with a goal to open more cocktail-anchored hotels. Death & Co Market, an online shop offering curated cocktail goods, launched the following year. The third (Los Angeles) and fourth (Washington, D.C.) Death & Co locations followed soon after in 2020 and 2023, respectively.
In October of 2018, the team formed Gin & Luck, a full-scale hospitality group. Death & Co became the group's flagship brand while Gin & Luck positioned itself for momentous growth.
Since then, Death & Co has grown well past its humble beginnings in New York and now calls major cities across the country home. Gin & Luck has opened numerous concepts and is now focused on Death & Co, our new brand Close Company, and expanding into hotels with Midnight Auteur and our first boutique hotel, Municipal Grand.
Timeline
2005 - 2006
Dave moves into the apartment above Ravi’s wine bar, The Bourgeois Pig, on 7th St in the East Village. The two decide to go into business together and look for a location.
2006 / 2007
Death & Co opens in the East Village of New York on New Year's Eve
2010
Alex becomes a partner in Death & Co
2014
Death & Co Modern: Classic Cocktails book publishes
2018
May - Death & Co Denver opens
September - Gin & Luck is formed
October - Cocktail Codex: Fundamentals, Formulas, Evolutions, our second book, publishes
2019
December - Death & Co Los Angeles opens on New Year's Eve
2021
November - Our third book, Death & Co Welcome Home, publishes
2023
July - Death & Co Washington D.C. opens
December - Gin & Luck consulting project, MOLLIE Aspen, a boutique hotel in Colorado with a food and beverage program created by our team, opens
2024
The team geared up for a massive year of openings, while Gin & Luck embarked on a Reg A crowdfunding campaign
2025
January - Gin & Luck hosts its first annual company summit, bringing together the entire national team for a week of strategic planning
May - Close Company Nashville opens
June - Close Company Las Vegas opens inside The Venetian Resort
July - Municipal Grand opens in Savannah
July - Fashioned, our cocktail education platform, launches exclusively to Citi Onyx cardholders as part of a larger partnership with Citi
October - Close Company Atlanta opens
November - Death & Co Melbourne opens, our first international licensing deal in partnership with Australia Venue Co
December - Death & Co Brisbane opens
Mission
Creating experiences and connecting people through cocktail anchored hospitality.
Values
Connection – We build relationships and host with intuition, empathy and transparency.
Curiosity – We learn and improve through active observation and creative problem solving.
A.B.K. (Always Be Knolling) – We anticipate, prepare and execute with intention.
Excellence – We will forever be chasing excellence, even when we sometimes fail. It is a pursuit without end.
Contagious Joy – When we're having fun, it emanates out and influences our work and the people around us.