Hidden Gems: Meet Dwaine Hood of Bull Creek Distillery

Today we’d like to introduce you to Dwaine Hood.

Dwaine, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
Bull Creek Distillery started in 2018 as a small restaurant and event space, in 2020, we opened our distillery and launched our first Bourbon called gunstock reserve. We launched gunstock reserve on March 12th and we were shut down due to covid on March 15th.
With our future uncertain we looked for ways to stay afloat. That is when the CDC reached out and asked for our help making hand sanitizer. We gutted our whole restaurant and turned it into a manufacturing center for hand sanitizer.

During the 3 months, we produced hand sanitizer. We were able to produce almost 55,000 gallons of hand sanitizer and were able to help out many organizations such as our local police, fire and Ems personnel as well as our local school district. We also were able to help out many other key organizations such as Veterans Affairs hospitals and multiple local food production companies.

After we got the ok to reopen our restaurant we had no idea the traffic that we could expect as covid was still in full swing. What we were met by was an overwhelming amount of support from our community and this amazing city. We remained fully packed all summer long. This was a blessing and a course at the same time, as we were putting out record numbers of sales we were unable to release any new whiskeys. Finally, after a long-awaited break from releasing any new whiskey we were able to release 2 new bourbons. The first Bourbon we just released is our Distillers cut. This is a smooth bourbon great for not only your novice bourbon drinkers but also will grab the attention of bourbon enthusiasts. It has notes of sweet candied fruit that any whiskey drinker will appreciate.

The second bourbon we just released is called Barrel 42. For this bourbon, we partnered with Anthony Sherman, retired Full Back for the Kansas City Chiefs. Barrel 42 is a more complex and true to bourbon selection, it has hints of caramel, vanilla, and cream with a light rye spice finish that will hook any bourbon drinker after the first sip.

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Covid obviously threw a major wrinkle in our plans, however, due to our unwavering desire to succeed and out of the box thinking we were not only able to survive Covid but flourish during the pandemic. We were able to accomplish this due to some major capital improvements we made in our outdoor area.

Although it was a very dramatic time in America it turned out to be a blessing in disguise for us as it forced us to see what we had in our outdoor space. We never really fully appreciated what we had, we were able to grow our outdoor venue from 10 tables to almost 40 tables as well as added an outdoor concert area where we play live music 4 days a week during the spring, summer, and fall.

When you come and see our beautiful outdoor area you will see right away why we have been voted KC’s #1 outdoor dining Venue.

Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
We are a Distillery, full bar, restaurant, and event space that specializes in creating a destination-like environment in the southern Johnson county area. We are known for our beautiful outdoor space that is a hybrid of outdoor dining meets arboretum.

I think as a brand we are most proud of our unwavering dedication to creating an unmatched dining experience that you will have a hard time finding anywhere else in the Johnson County area.

For us, we want your readers to know about what many call a hidden Gem, we hear on a daily basis how amazing it is that we can keep such an amazing place hidden in a small town in Spring Hill, KS.

How do you think about luck?
I think luck is always a factor in life and business, for us it’s not what type of luck we have but how we respond to said luck. Anyone can and will have bad and good luck but it’s what you make of that luck that decides the success you will have. For our company, it’s about finding ways to make our luck work in our favor whether it be bad or good.

Contact Info:

• Email: [email protected]
• Website: www.bullcreekdistillery.com
• Instagram: @Bullcreekdistillery
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/bullcreekdistillery