Meet Ari Stevens Zhang | Co-Founder

We had the good fortune of connecting with Ari Stevens Zhang and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Ari, can you walk us through the thought-process of starting your business?
I’ve started businesses since I was about four years old. Everything from flower stands to Beanie Babies and Paper Routes. My first business was a gift-wrapping service. All my uncles paid me to wrap gifts for their wives that Christmas. I genuinely believe that some of us are born with an entrepreneurial spirit that we can’t shake. I’ve always had side businesses for myself, even when I was working for others.
When starting Good Clean Fun, the core idea was to make natural wine more accessible to a broader audience.

What should our readers know about your business?
My business, Good Clean Fun, is a neighborhood natural wine bar & shop in Downtown Los Angeles. We also have an online store and a fantastic wine club that lets you select your bottles by type instead of just dealer’s choice. Our defining trait is that we aren’t just a run-of-the-mill conventional wine bar. We only sell natural wine. If you’re unfamiliar with the term, the easiest way to explain is that it’s wine made with minimal intervention in both the vineyard and the winemaking process, often without added chemicals or preservatives. We apply this ethos to everything we serve, from beers and sake to produce and cheese, even the potato chips we use for caviar service.
The road to where we are now has been a bumpy one, to say the least. We opened at the tail-end of the pandemic and have seen many ups and downs and changes in consumer behaviors. Our key to staying alive has been adaptability. You have to know when to pivot and execute the changes effectively.
At the end of the day, the brand we are building is about people. From our employees to our customers, in real life and online, we are attempting to build a community bound together by our common love of grape juice and good times.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Los Angeles is a unique place to visit because it’s a small country’s worth of experiences spread out over 15 square miles. I have some must-haves when people visit, ranging from Downtown to Malibu. I love taking people to The Broad or The Getty, grabbing some seafood at the beach, and hitting up some over-the-top restaurants in Hollywood or Beverly Hills. The secret spots I’ll keep to myself 😉

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
My family has always been encouraging of my business endeavors, no matter how outlandish they sound. Currently, my husband has been very supportive of our project. Starting a restaurant or bar is one of the most difficult things to attempt in any field of business. I wouldn’t have made it this far with this project without him.
My business partner and best friend, our Marketing Manager, are also instrumental in where I am today. They are never-ending resources for brainstorming and gaming out ideas.

Website: www.gcfwines.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gcfwines

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/good-clean-fun-dtla

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/gcfwines

Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/good-clean-fun-los-angeles

Image Credits
Good Clean Fun