How NYC’s Favorite Booch Got Its Start at Dean & DeLuca

By Patric Watzman

Seek North has a fun story, and the path to get to where we are a path was cleared by a lot of sweat and love. This is how we got our unexpected and humble start.

As with everything around here, it all began in the kitchen. Or, as Seek North co-founder Julian Lesser calls their kitchen, “Philippe’s Mad Scientist’s Lab”. He is referring to Phillippe Trinh, his partner in life and business.

Before kombucha, Philippe loved all things sour. So he set about experimenting with lacto-fermented vegetables, kimchi, sauerkraut, and anything else that would put a tang on his palate. Experiments with fermented vegetables turned into early trial and error with fermented drinks. Fermented drinks led to delicious kombucha—but there was still a long way to go before this amazing elixir ended up in people’s hands.

Philippe started pumping out the ‘booch in earnest when Julian was going through his extensive treatments for Neurological Lyme Disease, which requires various antibiotic treatments. By then, they both knew about the immune system’s relation to the gut’s microbiome. So along with their diet change, Philippe became a kombucha brewer not only to help Julian recover, but also to take care of his own gut health and immunity. As Julian began to get back on his feet and return to work at his digital marketing agency, Northern Seekers, Philippe had been making so much ‘booch they literally needed to give it away.  They began to share Philippe’s handcrafted kombucha with their friends, families, and coworkers. They were unaware how much these seemingly small moments would ultimately come together to change their lives and careers.

From 2017 to 2019 Dean & DeLuca was a digital marketing client of Julian’s, and their Director of Digital Marketing was one recipient of Phillippe’s many kombucha bounties.   Unbeknownst to Julian and Phillippe, the kombucha became a huge hit among the employees and even found its way into the beverage buyer’s hands. Without a contact or a sales pitch, Julian later received a surprise call from the beverage buyer inquiring about how quickly they could get their kombucha into their stores.  Without knowing the first thing about large-scale Kombucha brewing, Julian instinctively said, “Soon. Let’s get a meeting set up!” A week later,Philippe ended up at Dean & DeLuca’s HQ offering samples of about a dozen of his home-brewed concoctions while explaining what kombucha is, how it’s made, and the proven benefits it offers.  After that chance encounter, the Dean & DeLuca X Seek North partnership was born.  Philippe and Julian had to quickly learn about packaging, large-scale brewing, and all the ins and outs of the CPG industry.  Within three months, Seek North Kombucha was served at all of their NYC locations.

Seek North Kombucha stocked at Dean & Deluca’s Soho Flagship store.

Through this exclusive partnership, Philippe and Julian had the opportunity to test two dozen flavors on tap over the first few months.  They learned the three undeniable fan favorites: Blueberry Pomegranate Lemon, Hibiscus Ginger, and Pineapple Elderflower. With this information in hand, they bottled all three flavors and they went onto the shelves all NYC Dean & DeLuca locations.  Kombucha on tap continued to be available as well. This partnership offered the two entrepreneurs an extremely exciting yet challenging opportunity to explore uncharted waters together. 

In January 2019, after a strong partnership for one and a half years, the famed Dean &DeLuca began to show signs of trouble, with stores closing across the country and product offerings slimming down.  Philippe and Julian saw the writing on the wall, but they also knew they had something special with Seek North, after so many hours of work, and an existing fanbase they didn’t want to let down.

As Seek North’s only partner, Dean & DeLuca’s waning stability was a major concern for Philippe and Julian.  Rather than give up, they plowed on and reinvented themselves. They decided to grow beyond their partnership with Dean &DeLuca and launch Seek North Kombucha as a brand to be sold to other retailers.  They put their true selves and stories out there for everyone to see, made new bottles and labels, and partnered with the Global Lyme Alliance. This gave Seek North enough passion and fuel to hit the ground running.

In May 2019, they were in a total of four stores, all of which were Dean & DeLuca stores in NYC. About six months later, they are now available through over 200 retailers all across New York State and online.  Julian and Philippe have formed new partnerships with amazing brands and retailers as well as dedicated distributors and an awesome team of employees.

Dean & DeLuca Soho flagship store with the launch of Dean & DeLuca x Seek North kombucha.

Despite its coming to a close, Seek North is thankful for its time with Dean & DeLuca, for their faith in the product and everything they taught and had to offer in partnership. If not for that early support from such an iconic company, they may not ever have been able to offer such amazing ‘booch, and they almost certainly wouldn’t have been able to do what they now love on this scale. “We truly wish Dean & DeLuca the best and hope to see them in their rightful, prestigious place again soon,” say Phillippe and Julian.

As for you, if you want to know where you can get your hands on such a storied beverage and taste the love that goes into each bottle, you can hop over to our -Locations- page to see where you can find us and take a look at how much we’ve grown. We made sure we’re everywhere you really want us to be.

Thanks for sticking with us through it all. We hope to be here as you keep finding your guiding star, seeking north too.

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This article was originally published for Seek North Kombucha on Seek North.

Learn more about Seek North and read more here: Seeknorth.com