How This Entrepreneur Reworked His Business Idea in the Face of Financial Armageddon
While a key aspect of his plan changed, City Winery founder Michael Dorf achieved his original goal: to build a place where people could eat, drink and enjoy an intimate concert experience.
By Lambeth Hochwald •
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The financial crisis of 2008 changed everything. Michael Dorf, who founded legendary New York City rock venue the Knitting Factory in 1986, was just three months away from opening a combined winery and music club in Manhattan that would feature visible steel fermenting tanks and a refined dining experience. Dorf anticipated bankers buying wines by the barrel.
But the subprime mortgage crisis doused those expectations. "We were not only in financial Armageddon, but there was such a reversal in big spending and ostentatious behavior," Dorf says. "It became taboo."
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