Former Nectar Lounge Owner Launches Massive Industry Rolodex of Vendors

By Seattle Mag March 29, 2014

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!–paging_filter–pThe guys behind a href=”http://\/\/seattlemag.com.239elwb01.blackmesh.com/bi-monthly-rooftop-dinner-…“strongBastille/strong /aand a href=”http://\/\/seattlemag.com.239elwb01.blackmesh.com/article/bocce-meets-bavari…“strongVon Trapp’s/strong/a (and a href=”http://\/\/seattlemag.com.239elwb01.blackmesh.com/article/ballards-stoneburn…“strongStoneburner/strong /aand a href=”http://\/\/seattlemag.com.239elwb01.blackmesh.com/article/poquitos-people-pl…“strongPoquitos/strong/a) have gotten behind a new vendor management tool called stronga href=”http://www.tateslist.com” target=”_blank”Tate’s List/a/strong. As boring as they may sound to non-industry goers, it’s actually a pretty brilliant idea. And before you ask, no, it is not related to a href=”https://www.angieslist.com” target=”_blank”Angie’s List/a./p
pa href=”http://\/\/seattlemag.com/article/seattles-restaurant-empire-builders” target=”_blank”James Weimann and Deming Maclise/a are invested in the local start-up from Tate Rogers, who owned strongNectar Lounge/strong in Fremont for nearly a decade before selling in a year-and-a-half ago.nbsp;/p
p“Tate’s List was an idea of mine that I had about four years ago when I was running Nectar. After I sold Nectar, I started thinking about what I was going to do next and this idea came back to me.”/p
pThat’s when he met with Weimann and Maclise./p
p“James has always been a mentor to me because he owned Ballroom, two doors down from [Nectar], so I got to know him really well. When I pitched the idea to him, I was really just looking for some kind of feedback, confirmation from them, and they both really liked the idea.”/p
pThe guys put their heads together and came up with the core of what Tate’s List should be, which is really a dumping ground for industry contacts. Sort of “the little black book” of restaurants and bars to help with some of the major pain points in the industry/p
p“The number one thing that we’re addressing out of the gates is…an easy way to explain it is vendor management. Anyone from a small little neighborhood bar all the way up to the James and Demings of the world, the Tom Douglases of the world; they still have to deal with the everyday decision making of whose going to clean the taps and fix the toilet./p
pThere’s also plenty of space on the website (not quite launched yet) for industry nights, deals, and Washington-made products, like bourbon, vodka and beer./p
pWhen I chatted with Rogers two weeks ago, he told me there were already more than two-thousand industry recommendations on the site. So many, he wasn’t able to launch in March as he had previously planned, because there was too much work to be done./p
pTate’s List is free for bars and restaurants. And even for vendors. However, the way Tate’s List makes money is by charging vendors a small monthly subscription fee in nbsp;exchange for a featured, blinged-out listing./p
p“What we’re really trying to do is eliminate the number of hours put into researching by showing you who other people in the industry actually use.”/p
pAngie’s List does get some backhanded cred for the idea./p
p“The idea was really — I guess it came from those type of sites, because what I kept seeing was that every time I turned around, another site would pop up for some contractor. There are so many places on the Internet right now to find resources. Nothing has ever been designed for [the restaurant] industry. Nothing local.”/p
pLook for Tate’s List to launch mid-April.nbsp;/p

 

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