Double Trouble
Learning the art of the deal (and the drink) with investors extraordinaire PAUL and WES KARGER.
Bankers, brothers, and boys about town Wes and Paul Karger play good-twin, bad-twin seamlessly: Wes the conservative and steady, Paul the excitable flirt. As coheads of the Karger Group, an investment advisory practice within financial services firm UBS, the “thirty-ish” fraternal twins win over clients ostensibly with their magnetic personalities as much as with their ability to manage wealth. As Wes puts it, “Our motto is, friends might not be clients, but clients should always be friends.” And so a typical weeknight might find the duo holding court at the hippest tables in town, sipping drinks and talking shop.
>>7 P.M. The Kargers hit the newly renovated downstairs vodka bar at the Good Life (28 Kingston St., 617-451-2622). They’ve shed their custom-tailored suits—Wes wearing a black Ferragamo blazer, Paul less subtle in a Creamsicle-orange Detour button-down. As they choose from among 140 or so vodkas, the twins and friend Barbara Quiroga discuss this month’s MassArt auction, which the Karger Group is sponsoring. One grape martini in, Paul declares the scene “fratty.”
>>8:30 P.M. Sorellina, the sprawling new Trinity Place restaurant, means “little sister” in Italian (One Huntington Ave., 617-412-4600). Only there’s nothing little about tonight’s spread. The growing party shares dishes family style: tartare, capellini, and Kobe beef meatballs. As a fourth bottle of wine is uncorked, chef-owner Jamie Mammano stops by to shake hands. Paul laments Wes’s impending move from their shared South End apartment. “He’s fallen for another,” he says with mock sadness, then raises a glass in toast.
>>11:30 P.M. Apéritifs at South End restaurant-lounge 28 Degrees mean Grey Goose and soda for Paul and Laphroaig single-malt whisky (neat) for Wes (One Appleton St., 617-728-0728). People they know parade through. Wes is deep in conversation with one while Paul regales the rest with stories from a recent trip to Dubai. By 2 a.m., everyone else is beat, but the Kargers are already mapping out tomorrow night.
>>7 P.M. The Kargers hit the newly renovated downstairs vodka bar at the Good Life (28 Kingston St., 617-451-2622). They’ve shed their custom-tailored suits—Wes wearing a black Ferragamo blazer, Paul less subtle in a Creamsicle-orange Detour button-down. As they choose from among 140 or so vodkas, the twins and friend Barbara Quiroga discuss this month’s MassArt auction, which the Karger Group is sponsoring. One grape martini in, Paul declares the scene “fratty.”
>>8:30 P.M. Sorellina, the sprawling new Trinity Place restaurant, means “little sister” in Italian (One Huntington Ave., 617-412-4600). Only there’s nothing little about tonight’s spread. The growing party shares dishes family style: tartare, capellini, and Kobe beef meatballs. As a fourth bottle of wine is uncorked, chef-owner Jamie Mammano stops by to shake hands. Paul laments Wes’s impending move from their shared South End apartment. “He’s fallen for another,” he says with mock sadness, then raises a glass in toast.
>>11:30 P.M. Apéritifs at South End restaurant-lounge 28 Degrees mean Grey Goose and soda for Paul and Laphroaig single-malt whisky (neat) for Wes (One Appleton St., 617-728-0728). People they know parade through. Wes is deep in conversation with one while Paul regales the rest with stories from a recent trip to Dubai. By 2 a.m., everyone else is beat, but the Kargers are already mapping out tomorrow night.
Originally published in Boston magazine, April 2006
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