Duncan/Channon. Award-winning branding. Advertising. Design. Digital. Social media. Mobile. Broadcast. Print. Outdoor. Identity. Packaging. Media planning and buying. Account planning. Production. Not to mention the Tip. All in one action-packed agency in downtown San Francisco.
All things related to the “Toast of the Tip” speaker series, where we engage in “Private conversations with people we think are cool” for the edification of invited friends.
Wine and web guru Gary Vaynerchuk poured out 90 minutes of wit and wisdom at Duncan/Channon’s private penthouse lounge last Thursday in a jampacked Toast of the Tip event that included a blind tasting for the entire room. Garyvee, as his 750,000 Twitter followers know him, delivered thoroughly unvarnished, thoroughly entertaining and thoroughly insightful opinions on, for example, the wine industry (“Napa just caters to 50-year-old white men and ignores young people”), the media industry (“The New York Times is out of business”), the future of TV and video watching (“a program called Boxee”) and social media (“The future is here”), while recounting his own colorful path to entrepreneurial success with, among other things, a $45 million retail wine business. At every turn, he proved he is truly a unique figure in whatever world he cares to visit, including ours.
At last it can be told: Darryl “DMC” McDaniels, from hip-hop’s seminal and legendary Run DMC, officially and completely blew the roof off the Tip at a secret birthday party this past Saturday night. The recent Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee, performing with local DJ Sol, rocked the mic for four tunes, including an incendiary “Walk This Way,” and then posed for pics with everybody and their brother/mother/cousin — including not a few gobstruck D/C creative directors. Word.
Not content to refer to the classic “barnyard” aroma of an old Burgundy, gonzo wine/web phenom Gary Vaynerchuk feels compelled to spell it all out: “a little sweaty sock, sheep butt, cow poop…”
That’s a sommelier we’ll listen to.
And now we’ll get that chance, in person, at D/C’s July 23 Toast of the Tip, where the “first wine guru of the YouTube era,” New Jersey’s irrepressible Mr. V., will be uncorking unvarnished opinions, unique observations and slightly cracked apercus on the joys of vino and the power of the social media that has catapulted him onto Conan O’Brien, the pages of the Wall Street Journal and the top of the Internet heap. Date: July 23. Place: The Tip (on 15), Duncan/Channon’s private “sheep-butt” tasting room.
Not if you live a thousand years are you likely to have a life story as wild. Alan Aldridge is the cold-water-flat kid who grew up to be design guru to the Beatles and not only beat out John Lennon for a girl’s affection one evening at the height of Beatlemania, but slow-danced with Princess Margaret, the Queen of England’s sis, in the palace she shared with her husband. And that’s just the start of it. In fact, there were so many jaw-dropping, hilarious stories at the Tip last night it became clear Alan will have to come back for an encore — he himself said we didn’t even make it out of the Sixties. So stay tuned. And if you can’t wait, check out his new illustrated memoir, The Man with Kaleidoscope Eyes, which he delightfully autographed to dozens of Tip guests. Many thanks to The Man for an incomparable performance and a fitting finish to year one of D/C’s Toast of the Tip.
“He designed posters for the Rolling Stones; was best friends with Jimi Hendrix; and served as the creative director for the original Hard Rock Cafe…; he even penned a best-seller… Back in the 1960s, Aldridge was as deified in the world of graphic design as the Fab Four were in music. John Lennon even appointed Aldridge the group’s official design consultant.”
“In addition… he was known for his 1968 poster for Andy Warhol’s film Chelsea Girls, in which he transformed a woman’s naked body into a veritable Chelsea Hotel… [and] produced psycho-surreal images for the Rolling Stones, the Who and Elton John (the cover of the 1975 album Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy).”
And that’s not even half the story. But we couldn’t be more excited to say he’ll be telling more of it this June 19 at Duncan/Channon’s sixth Toast of the Tip event, where he will also be autographing copies of his new memoir/art anthology, The Man with Kaleidoscope Eyes. As his Beatle bosses once put it: a splendid time is guaranteed for all.
Never mind why. It was just part of the rollicking visit by legendary restaurant designer/developer/owner Pat Kuleto to the pseudo-legendary Tip last Thursday night. Not only did the irrepressible Kuleto provide fascinating insights into his design and development process — which is grounded in storytelling, of imagining the building as a narrative motivated by site, city and history — he also provided insight into his romantic initiation. Unfortunately, he then challenged his interviewer, a certain D/C ECD, to do the same. Luckily, the ECD did not also take him up on the challenge to sing, which Kuleto, a former folksinger, did beautifully, entirely accapella.
On behalf of a mesmerized, fire-code-defying crowd that spilled out the door of the Tip and a completely agog Duncan/Channon staff, we offer a tip of the Tip’s hat to Pat Kuleto, who is both one of the world’s great restaurateurs and raconteurs.
Boulevard, Martini House, Farallon, Fog City Diner, Jardinière, Waterbar, Epic Roasthouse. They are the best of the best of San Francisco’s great restaurants. And they were all developed, designed and are co-owned by Pat Kuleto.
In addition, solely as designer, Pat has created more than 160 other restaurants around the country — including the Hard Rock Cafe Las Vegas. He is the padrone of the 761-acre Kuleto Estate Family Winery in Napa and proprietor of Nick’s Cove, the restaurant and hotel he restored on Tomales Bay. He has been named Best Restaurant Designer by Bon Appetit and honored as a Top 100 Innovator in Time. His Boulevard has been Zagat’s number one San Francisco restaurant for seven years in a row.
And now, to top off his illustrious career, he will be guest of honor at the Toast of the Tip in D/C’s private penthouse lounge, where he will regale and instruct mere mortals amid a feast of fine wine and hors d’oeuvres.
One audience member no doubt summed it up for many when she said that Craig Finn performing his Hold Steady songs, alone on acoustic guitar, for 100 lucky invitees, gave her “goosebumps.”
This past Friday evening at the pseudo-legendary Tip, Hold Steady singer and lyricist Craig talked onstage with D/C’s de-frocked rock critic, Bob Duncan, for close to an hour, and revealed, among other tidbits: he had at one time hatched plans to become a comedian; his parents had attended the Newport Folk Festival in 1966 and somehow missed Bob Dylan; he is just as witty in person as on record. He interspersed his thoroughly engaging chat with haunting, stripped-down versions of “Arms and Hearts,” “Certain Songs” and “Magazines.”
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