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Cabo Wabo is the name of two nightclubs and restaurants located in Cabo San Lucas, BC, Mexico, and in Harvey's Lake Tahoe in Stateline, Nevada, as well as a popular brand of tequila, all founded by rock musician Sammy Hagar.

Cantina

Hagar, already a successful rock musician, visited the Mexican town of Cabo San Lucas in the early 1980s. Hagar joined the band Van Halen in 1984 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. The cantina cantina was orignally 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, Nevada, Hagar opened a second location in the basement of the historic Harveys casino on the South Shore of Lake Tahoe.

Hagar claims he coined the name after watching a man walk unsteadily along a local beach. Using the town's nickname, Cabo (which means "cape" in Spanish), and hortening "wobble" to "wabo" he said of the man that he was doing the "Cabo wabo". In 1988 he wrote a song of that name for Van Halen's 1988 album OU812.

Tequila

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 in to 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.

In May, 2007 it was announced that Hagar would sell an 80% interest in Cabo Wabo Tequila to Gruppo Campari, the world's seventh-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.

Footnotes

1. Barry A. Jeckell (March 18, 2004). "Hagar Brings 'Cabo' To Tahoe". Billboard. Retrieved 2007-11-28.
2. Bruce R. Miller. "There's life after Van Halen". Retrieved 2007-11-28. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |name= ignored (help)
3. Stacy Perman (April 30, 2007). "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.
4. George Raine (May 2007). "Wild for Wabo: $80 million will lift Hagar's spirits". San Francisco Chronicle. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)

External links

• Cabo Wabo official website
• Cabo Wabo Official Merchandise
• Interview with Sammy Hagar from Cabo Wabo Tequila, includes the origin of the tequila
• BoozeBasher review of Cabo Wabo Reposado

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