It all began over a glass of wine and too little volatility in the stock market
Joe Kline and Curt Dahl were both traders. Joe began trading on the floor of the CME, where he met Curtis in 1990. In his off time, he had an incredible passion for design. On many days, after a stressful 7 hours of trading, you would find Joe unwinding in his garage/workshop or creating designs on his computer.
Curtis, on the other hand, got the trading "bug" at age 15 when he sat with a neighbor hour after hour as he traded from his home office. After two years at the CME, he started trading from a screen and soon opened his own trading firm (which he later sold in 2000).
Their paths crossed once again when Joe and his wife moved to the east coast in 1997 and Joe began to trade at the NYC trading firm Curt owned.
A common appreciation for great food and wine meant many dinners with spouses and one such dinner at Joe's home led to the beginning of Joseph & Curtis Custom Wine Cellars. Over a glass of wine after dinner, Curt was commenting on a custom wine rack Joe had designed and built for his wife. The design was cutting edge for its time as it used both wood and copper rods to store/display the wine bottles and nothing like it really existed back then. Curt suggested starting a company to design and build one of a kind wine cellars on the strength of that design and the rising trend of wine's popularity.
Joe & Curt agreed that a commitment to outstanding customer service and great designs were not one path , but the only path to success and they have never looked back. To this day we meet each and every client and are involved in each and every project. Every design is created in house.
Many clients we meet comment happily 'oh, there is actually a Joseph and a Curtis!' It means something to them and it means something to us.
Our trading backgrounds still haunt us with many of our clients being from Wall Street. When they hear that we also were traders they often say 'I wish I could find something like this to do and switch gears, what you guys did is so cool!' We think so too.
Cheers!