Vintage Bar Group

Craig Trager was born and raised in Los Angeles, California and has over twenty years of experience in the restaurant and nightclub business. Trager cut his teeth managing under the tutelage of renowned restaurateur Silvio De Mori, owner of Cafe des Artistes and Mimosa. While working with De Mori, Trager learned the importance of treating customers in such a way that garnered incredible loyalty and a multitude of return clientele. Trager moved on to work with Brent Bolthouse as the Managing Partner of Babylon Restaurant. Always striving to create an environment where the customer’s needs are first and foremost, Trager felt the need to venture out and open his own establishments. In 1998, Trager formed the Vintage Bar Group with the intent to own and operate bars with the same theory that the TV show Cheers was based on; to make everyone who walks into a Vintage Bar Group establishment feel like a celebrity the minute they walk through the door and to provide those customers a place where the staff not only knows its customers by name, but their drink as well.

Tragers’s philosophy has a proven track record, launching seven successful lounges over the past 20 years. Daddy’s Bar & Lounge, The Well, NoBAR, The Woods, The Fifth, El Bar and the Parlour Room, all of which Trager’s company, Vintage Bar Group, currently owns and operates today, excluding Daddy’s, which closed in 2006 due to condemnation.

Trager’s establishments have been featured in several publications such as Los Angeles Magazine, Newsweek, Angeleno Magazine, Los Angeles Confiential and 944 Magazine. Vintage Bar Group establishments also boast a wide range of celebrity clientele ranging from the likes of Kevin Spacey to Justin Timberlake and Drew Barrymore.

Vintage Bar Group is currently expanding its services to include business and design consulting as well as providing full-service liquor catering for events. It is Trager’s long term goal to open THE TRAGER, a classically-hip, boutique hotel in the Los Angeles area.