David Lib Hope left his native Gers over ten years ago and moved to New York. Co-owner of a renowned cocktail bar and passionate about mixology, he plans to open other establishments.
12 years ago, David Lib Hope, then an ambulance driver, decided to change his life and took the plunge by moving to the United States. He then left his Gers village of Roquelaure and flew to New York, where, thanks to an acquaintance, he found a place in a French restaurant: “I had no experience in this sector at the time,” David recalls, 34 years today. And above all, I didn’t speak English at all. But I fell in love with this city and its inhabitants, so that I stayed there ”.
After three years, the Gersois is hired in an Italian restaurant. “In this establishment, they let me create my own cocktails,” explains the barman. I made a lot of progress there and I discovered a passion for mixology. “
Always looking for new challenges, the young New Yorker then decides to leave his post and opens his consulting company for beverage establishments. He tries his adventure in Miami but returns to New York after a few months: “The clientele was really different, remembers David Lib Hope. I came back to the Big Apple and got hired at 67 Orange Street, a Harlem cocktail bar ”. Hired to improve the situation of the establishment, he then became co-owner and manager of the bar.
“There isn’t a day when I feel like I’m working. “
“We offer many cocktails and a few dishes on the menu,” explains the barman from Gers. With the health crisis, we had to adapt: we closed for a few weeks and had to put our staff out of work. We built a patio and offered drinks to go. I was also in the kitchen. I had to redo the map and watch tutorials on the internet, ”laughs David Lib Hope. Customers have since returned. Tourists and regulars come to discover the cocktails à la carte. The latter have attracted the attention of the media and food critics in recent months.
What to give ideas to David Libhop: “We were contacted by an investor who owns a building in the district of Soho, affirms the American by adoption. We are going to open a second establishment there at the beginning of next year ”. Ultimately, the Roquelaurois imagines opening a bar in Mexico. “I have a lot of projects, assures the Gersois. But above all, I really like what I do. There isn’t a day when I feel like I’m working ”.
67 Orange Street recognized
67 Orange Street, named after the address of one of the first New York bars owned by an African American in the 1840s, has been cited in three rankings listing the best establishments. In October 2020, the media Eater New-York places it in the 24 best cocktail bars in the city. The summer issue of Esquire magazine, meanwhile, cited the bar of which David Lib Hope is the co-manager in the 27 best in the United States. 67 Orange Street is also present in an international census, since it obtains the 457th place in the Top 500 of bars in 2021.
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