David Halpern

As a founding member of Four Entertainment Group (4EG), David Halpern serves as the chief operations officer of Four 4EG's Chicago concepts, David Halpern ensures each of the Windy City’s seven bars – aliveOne, Central Park Bar, Estelle’s, Easy Bar, The Getaway, Remedy, and The Owl – provides consistently superior service, captivating décor, and high-quality products, resulting in a strong brand definition and a loyal following.

When Halpern graduated from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, in 1995, he never considered operating neighborhood bars to be in his career path. After spending his collegiate summers working for the hospitality industry in the Hamptons, Halpern decided to further explore the industry and reconnected with his college friend Ben Klopp. Although the pair had no previous experience in business management, they were determined to be successful in the hospitality industry. In 1996, they opened aliveOne in the Lincoln Park neighborhood of Chicago. A few years later, they opened Estelle’s, in the nearby Wicker Park.

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In 2002, with a desire to expand aliveOne’s intricate mix of music and spirits into another city, Halpern and Klopp partnered with Bob Deck, a mutual college acquaintance, and Dan Cronican, a childhood friend of Klopp’s, and chose Cincinnati as their next venture. The foursome not only opened aliveOne Cincinnati, but also Mount Adams Pavilion. After much success with the first four bars, the team continued to open and operate several additional establishments in Chicago, Cincinnati, Columbus, and Northern Kentucky. In 2007, the team converted their individual businesses into a larger operating company that is now Four Entertainment Group.