The Cooper Spirits Co. has added to its family business. The Philadelphia-based brand recently announced the appointment of Chad Solomon as Director of Trade Advocacy and Innovation and Christy Pope as Marketing Manager.
Solomon and Pope have over a decade of experience under their belts. They were part of the hospitality team at Sasha Petraske’s renowned Milk & Honey Bar in NYC, and held other stints at Little Branch, Julie Reiner’s Flatiron Lounge, Audrey Saunders’ Pegu Club, and Jean-Georges Vongerichten’s Spice Market. In 2006, the duo co-founded Cuffs & Buttons, a craft cocktail consultancy, creating cocktails at high-profile events, crafting beverage programs and training bartenders across the globe. In 2014, they opened craft cocktail salon the Midnight Rambler in the basement of The Joule Dallas in Dallas, Texas. The bar was named “Hotel Bar of the Year” 2019 by Night Club & Bar magazine, a “Top 4” nominee for the second year in a row as “Best American Hotel Bar” by Tales of the Cocktail Foundation, amongst many other local and national accolades.
“Robert’s spirit and ingenuity is alive today in Cooper Spirits and its products,” said Andrea Cromaz, Vice President of Marketing. “Chad and Christy are invaluable assets, not just because of their insights and abilities, but because we see that same spark Robert had in both of them. We’re thrilled to welcome them to the Cooper Spirits family and look forward to its future and continued growth.”
The Cooper Spirits Co. founder Robert Cooper is most commonly known for creating St-Germain elderflower liqueur. Cooper sold the brand to Bacardi in 2012, but driven by his aspirations and continued to build his spirits portfolio. Delving into whiskey, he launched Lock, Stock & Barrel, a fine 13-year-old straight rye, which was followed by Hochstadter’s Slow & Low Rock and Rye, inspired by America’s oldest pre-bottled cocktail featuring rye whiskey, navel oranges, honey, rock candy and bitters. It was with this product that Cooper’s path intertwined with Solomon’s and Pope’s, as they worked in tandem to develop the name formulation, branding, and launch of the product. From there, Cooper went on to create Hochstadter’s Vatted Rye Whiskey and Hochstadter’s Family Reserve Straight Rye Whiskey, as well as reintroduce Crème Yvette, a berry-violet liqueur, from his family’s Charles Jacquin et Cie imprint. Solomon and Pope now take the helm and introduce the next chapter of Cooper Spirits.
As Director of Trade Advocacy and Innovation, Solomon will primarily be tasked with driving trade and consumer awareness for the brand and its portfolio of products. He will assist with sales and distribution efforts by determining key accounts and markets for Cooper Spirits, collaborate with the marketing team on new product launches, provide creative direction for labels and packaging, and spearhead programming for events like Tales of the Cocktail, Bar Convent Brooklyn, local cocktail weeks, Speed Rack competitions, and PDX cocktail week, among others.
In her role as Marketing Manager, Pope will be responsible for translating the company’s business objectives across its existing brands and future expressions into marketing strategies that drive revenue. She will also oversee Cooper Spirit’s National Tasting Program, assist with customer inquiries, execute national trade events and on premise programming, develop sales team training materials, and more.
“We’re excited to embark on this venture with Cooper Spirits,” said Chad Solomon and Christy Pope. “It was an honor to work with Robert on the creation of Slow & Low, and it feels as if that journey has come full circle by joining the Cooper Spirits team. There’s a lot of exciting things on the horizon for the company and we can’t wait to dive in.”
Given Solomon’s and Pope’s strong ties to the bar and restaurant industry, they felt their first initiative in their new roles should be to give back to the community. As such, they worked with Cooper Spirits’ marketing and sales team to lead industry aid activities in New Jersey, Nashville, Chicago, Florida, and Texas. Working with local accounts in each market, Cooper Spirits has been purchasing meals for out-of-work hospitality employees and their families to feed as many of those in-need as possible.
Further, they collaborated with the United States Bartenders Guild Tampa Bay for its “A Drink Pocalypse” virtual fundraising event. 12 bartenders/mixologists from the Bay area took over the organization’s Instagram Live to demonstrate do-it-yourself bartending techniques live from the Mandarin Heights in Seminole Heights, including how to smoke an Old Fashioned, recipes and ingredients for Barrel Aging cocktails, how to cut your own ice, and more.
