Sammy Hagar's Cabo Wabo Enterprises Adds New Names to Company's Management

Press release
Source: Rogers and Cowan

Sammy Hagar’s Cabo Wabo Enterprises is pleased to announce the addition of two new, highly experienced individuals to its team. Elizabeth Blau who is most well known for her association with Steve Wynn’s operations at the Bellagio, MGM/Mirage Hotels and the Wynn in Las Vegas is taking over as head of the Restaurant and Bar Division for Cabo Wabo Enterprises. Steve Kauffman who has had over 35 years of experience in the spirits industry will be taking the reigns as head of the Tequila and Spirits Division for Cabo Wabo Enterprises. Both will bring a spectacular array of experience and innovative ideas to the already thriving company.

Elizabeth Blau possesses the qualifications for her new position above and beyond that of any regular restaurateur. Blau started her restaurant career as a teenager serving tacos at Pancho McGee’s in West Hartford, Connecticut, a credential that couldn’t be more in tune with her newest job. Blau later worked as a caterer while attending Georgetown and had her big break during a summer job at the James Beard Foundation in New York City where she met Le Cirque’s owner Sirio Maccioni. Since then, Blau has opened several restaurants with Maccioni including Osteria del Circo and Le Cirque 2000 at the New York Palace. Later, she was recruited to the Mirage Resorts by Steve Wynn and eventually had a hand in revamping the famously dull Las Vegas food landscape.

Blau has since founded Elizabeth Blau & Associates, a consulting firm that specializes in strategic restaurant planning and development. She opened her first restaurant, Simon Kitchen and Bar in 2003 at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. She has also spent the last five years as Senior Vice President of Restaurant Development for MGM/Mirage in Las Vegas responsible for the design, development, integration and promotion of new restaurant concepts for all MGM/Mirage Resort Properties. Most recently, Blau opened Wynn Las Vegas as Executive Vice President of Restaurant Marketing and Development for the property.

Steve Kauffman has over 35 years of experience in the wine and spirits industry. His career started as stock broker for Dean Witter then served as marketing manager for Pfizer Laboratories. Kauffman’s experience in the wine and spirits industry includes tenures as Executive Vice President of Marketing for Seagram Wine Company, Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Sebastiani Vineyards, President of Joseph Garneau Company (a division of Brown Forman) and Executive Vice President of Marketing for Brown Forman Corporation, one of the industry’s leading wine and spirits companies. Kauffman also severed as CEO of Nautilus, Inc and Chief Operating Officer for The Century Council, a not for profit organization that fights alcohol abuse. Until his new position as president of Cabo Wabo Tequila he owned and managed Kauffman Consulting which specializes in marketing and strategic planning. Kauffman’s impressive resume will allow him to bring an extraordinary wealth of experience and knowledge about the wine and spirits industry, as well as extensive management experience in other businesses to Cabo Wabo.

Cabo Wabo Enterprises has experienced remarkable growth within the past year. With an impressive revenue of $25 million for the 2005 fiscal year, Cabo Wabo finds the first quarter sales of 2006 up 50%. Cabo Wabo Enterprises is run by rock legend Sammy Hagar and includes two Cabo Wabo Cantinas, located in Cabo San Lucas (Mexico) and Lake Tahoe, as well as a line of super premium tequilas. With such tremendous growth, Cabo Wabo is looking toward the future and is delighted to see what contributions Blau and Kauffman will bring to the booming company.

“This company has grown way beyond my ability to run it all by myself,” says Sammy Hagar. “I look forward to concentrating more on what I do best including singing, playing guitar and writing music and leaving the dirty work up to the professionals.”

Cabo Wabo Tequila is sponsoring Sammy Hagar’s “Livin’It Up 2006” summer tour which begins on June 3rd at the Hyundai Pavilion in Glen Helen, CA. The tour will create an outdoor Cabo Wabo experience at each amphitheatre it visits beginning in the afternoon with a village-like set up that features bikini girls, body builders, mariachi bands, a Waborita™ bar, festive Cabo-esque street food vendors, beach volleyball, contests and more. Concert goers will be partying from the second they arrive. The evening’s performance will feature Sammy Hagar and The Wabos followed by Michael Anthony and Sammy Hagar as The Other Half [of Van Halen]. The unprecedented ticket prices are in the $10 range for lawn seats and in the $20 range for reserved seats, the exact price varies slightly by market. The reasonable price is Hagar and Cabo Wabo’s way of giving back to the fans.

For more information on Cabo Wabo Enterprises and Sammy Hagar please visit www.cabowabo.com or www.redrocker.com.

For more information on Elizabeth Blau and Elizabeth Blau & Associates, please visit www.elizabethblau.com.