Ben Stapleton opened his first bar last month, Barrel Down, a beer hall at 525 W. Seventh St. in downtown L.A.’s Financial District.
When he first got involved with the project he had no idea what the capital raising process would be like. He certainly didn’t think it would involve screaming from the top of a mountain in a suit.
But in January, Stapleton and his four partners launched a Kickstarter campaign to fund the build-out of the bar’s upstairs loft, which serves as a space for private events. The campaign promised that those who donated $100 or more would have their names shouted from a mountaintop in gratitude. After raising more than $20,000 on the site, they had a lot of people to thank.
Stapleton, 35, who’s a vice president at the downtown office of commercial real estate company Jones Lang LaSalle Inc., said that on his way to Angeles National Forest to perform the shout-out on camera, he stopped at a liquor store to pick up an appropriate toast: beer. It was 9 a.m. and he was wearing a suit and tie.
“The guy at the counter was, like, ‘Where exactly are you going this morning?’” Stapleton said. “I was, like, ‘I’m going to shout at the top of a mountain.’”
Church Service
Suzanne Isabelle Simmons, owner of online pet supply business Purr-Fect Growlings Inc. in Los Angeles, learned how small the world is after attending a morning service at L.A.’s Holman United Methodist Church.
After the service, Simmons introduced herself to the new senior pastor from South Africa, Kelvin Sauls, who helped with the service that day.
She learned Sauls had been pastor at a church in Hayward and had also been a pastor at a church in Ohio, where Simmons grew up.
It turned out that Sauls’ godparents, Bob and Tina Williams, were Simmons’ next-door neighbors when she was growing up in Akron, Ohio.
The Williamses had left Akron, Ohio, and moved to Hayward, and attended the church at which Sauls had been pastor.
Simmons was amazed at the coincidence, she said. She had not seen the couple in 40 years.
She gave Sauls her contact information and asked him to let them know he had met her the next time he spoke to them. Sauls did, and told her he learned from the Williamses that her father had been well-known around town for his catering business.
“I could not believe this,” Simmons said, recalling the incident. “It amazes me how small the world is.”
Staff reporters Hannah Miet and Carol Lawrence contributed to this column. Page 3 is compiled by Editor Charles Crumpley. He can be reached at [email protected].
