The Story Behind Dates Weiser: "How Two Brash Buffalo Guys Rocked the Casegoods Establishment"

With the recent rollout of its highly acclaimed new xo line and the opening of its New York City showroom, Dates Weiser has established itself as a major player in custom casegoods. Elegant, hip, and eminently practical, xo is creating its own niche in corporate design circles. But who is Dates Weiser and where did these guys come from?

As Allan Weiser tells it, his company really began the moment he saw "Jim Dates carrying beautiful wood cabinets from his clapped-out Chevy van into a friend’s kitchen. I’ve always been drawn to exceptional craftsmanship and these cabinets were gorgeous," says Mr. Weiser.

"This guy approached every job like John Roebling building the Brooklyn Bridge. I told him I’d help him get more business if he’d teach me this kind of craftsmanship."

The time was the early 1980’s and Mr. Dates was building his amazing cabinetry in his garage in North Tonawanda, a village near Buffalo. Mr. Weiser, meanwhile, was part of a research team at Roswell Park Cancer Institute experimenting with the development of new cancer drugs, while finishing up his master's degree in biochemical pharmacology.

Bored with the confinement of lab work, Mr. Weiser took a leave of absence from the cancer research team to learn from Mr. Dates the craft of building custom cabinetry. Although they quickly decided to become business partners, it soon became evident that Mr. Weiser was clearly more adept at schmoozing than sanding. Within weeks, he had brought in the partnership's first commission: the refinishing of the locker room at a local athletic club.

During the mid '80s, after several years of creating one-of-a-kind residential cabinets and furniture for well-heeled homeowners, the partners decided to begin a new venture. Winding down their kitchen cabinets and dining table work, Dates and Weiser started going after commercial business. Soon, they were building desks, credenzas, and conference tables for companies like Bausch & Lomb, Kodak and Saatchi & Saatchi, and most recently, the corporate headquarters for Delaware North and Mark IV Industries here in Buffalo. Working with professional designers, Dates Weiser brought the same fanatical attention to detail and responsive customer service to the creation of corporate furniture that had built their reputation in the residential market. After working with a number of corporate contract firms in Rochester in the late '80s, Dates Weiser expanded its regional scope and brought its celebrated high-quality custom work to several projects in Boston and Hartford. At Rowe Wharf in Boston, DW worked with the interiors partner at Skidmore, Owings & Merrill to create custom corporate furniture for the executive floor at the Beacon Company. DW won this plum assignment by brilliantly executing the partner's request for a half desk of teak and inlay designed, created and delivered to his office in just ten days.

After highly successful custom furniture installations at Aetna and Travelers in Hartford, Mr. Weiser brought the company's growing contract interior portfolio to Manhattan. Soon DW was working with Kohn Pederson Fox Conway to produce exquisite furniture for the ABC-TV executive dining floor.

In creating xo, Dates Weiser sought to engender a sophisticated yet reasonably priced system that offers interior designers the flexibility to specify casegoods with the look and adaptability of custom design. xo was born out of the niche that DW has long occupied as one of the nation's premier custom resources.

For more information about Dates Weiser or xo, please contact Karen Dickstein at 212.353.1383 or KarenBDE@aol.com.

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