Meet Coly Den Haan of Vinovore in Silver Lake

Today we’d like to introduce you to Coly Den Haan.

Den is a third-generation restaurateur, has the hospitality business in her blood. Raised in Santa Barbara, her first after school job at the age of fourteen was as a busgirl. After moving to Los Angeles, she quickly accumulated experience in a myriad of capacities at Fred Segal’s famous Mauro’s Café, Farfalla on La Brea, and Barney Greengrass on the roof of Barney’s New York in Beverly Hills. She became a certified Sommelier with AIS & NASA specializing in Italian wines in 2008 and a certified beer specialist, in 2009.

She opened The Must in DTLA in 2008 to rave reviews and an enthusiastic welcome from the neighborhood. Within a year of opening, The Must receive numerous accolades in the press. Den, along with her business partners, went on to open Perch, which also received glowing feedback and quickly became a downtown institution. Like The Must, Perch earned several write-ups and awards, and required no operating capital whatsoever from day one. Most recently, she has partnered up with Dean Harada on Silver Lake’s recently opened female-driven wine shop, Vinovore, which carries wines by female winemakers. With their combined and complementary skill sets, she and Harada will be sharing specially curated wine and gift boxes with the city of Los Angeles.

Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
There are bumps in all roads dealing with business but so far, Vinovore has been smoother than most I’ve known. I was worried that there would be some push back concerning the all-female winemaker approach but the feedback and support has been extremely positive. This makes me incredibly grateful and proud!

Please tell us about Vinovore.
Vinovore (think carnivore but with wine) is a small yet mighty wine shop with creative gifts and useful goods. All our wine offerings are made from female vintners across the globe. As well, we also offer gift boxes, appropriately called Beast Boxes, filled with hand-chosen wine and specially curated items that can be easily customized based on the customer’s input.

I am extremely proud that we specialize in female winemakers from all over the world. As far as I could find, we are the first wine shop to do this which is both inspiring and disappointing. If others don’t follow in our path I will make it my personal mission to put a Vinovore, celebrating women making wine, in every town and city I possibly can!

Featuring all-female winemakers definitely sets us apart but there is so much more at Vinovore I want to do. I have always found many wine stores to be very utilitarian and stark – just shelves and wine. Coming from a restaurant background where the aesthetics, vibe, and overall environment is so important, I wanted to incorporate that logic into a retail wine concept. Why not make it cozy and inviting with interesting architectural elements? Customers really seem to love the warm and unique interiors at Vinovore and sometimes wander around shopping for over an hour! Another way I really wanted to make Vinovore different was in the way consumers actually could pick out their own wine. I developed a tasting chart inspired by the Chinese Zodiac and astrology charts, but for wine. The large wine chart hanging in the store is broken down into nine categories coded by colors and animals. Each category represents a few styles of wine by their personalities and characteristics. Once you read the chart and decide what kind of Vinovore you are or the kind of mood you are in, you simply look for a colored dot on the bottle that matches your wine spirit animal. For instance, perhaps you love rustic, earthy, and smooth reds. These flavors would make you a Red Lion! After discovering what vinovore you are, you just look for the bottles with a corresponding red dot. This type of tasting chart may lead you to try a wine that you may have overlooked in the past because you weren’t familiar with the region or varietal, but because it’s a Red Lion, there are higher chances you’ll love it!

Do you look back particularly fondly on any memories from childhood?
Playing card games with my Auntie Janet while she chain-smoked and drank Chardonnay.

Pricing:

• Our wines range from $9-$130 a bottle, but the majority fall between $14- $20.
• The Beast Boxes at Vinovore can start around $25-$30 but can go up to $250 depending on the wine and other items guests can choose from when they customize it.

Contact Info:

• Address: 616 North Hoover Street, Silver Lake, CA
• Website: www.vino-vore.com
• Phone: 323.522.6713
• Email: Grr@vino-vore.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/vinovorela
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/vinovorela
• Yelp: www.yelp.com/biz/vinovore-los-angeles

Image Credit:
White Oak Communications

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