The Bugling Bull celebrates grand opening in Benezette
BENEZETTE – A bugling bull elk attracts attention from cows, other bulls, and elk watchers alike. Benezette’s newest gift shop, The Bugling Bull, is hoping to also draw a lot of attention, both from locals and visitors to the area.
After doing a soft opening around Memorial Day, The Bugling Bull held its official grand opening on Saturday, July 2.
The new business is located at 104 Winslow Hill Rd., Benezette, directly across from the Benezette Hotel. Matt Castle and Brian Kunes are co-owners of both businesses.
While The Bugling Bull is now another retail location for the Benezette community, the business almost did not exist at all. When Castle and Kunes initially purchased the property, they planned to demolish the building and use the property for additional parking for the Benezette Hotel.
“They had originally purchased the property and were going to tear the building down, and it was just going to be parking,” explained Carla Wehler, a friend of the owners with years of retail experience who was assisting with Saturday’s grand opening and addressed the media on their behalf. “Once they got inside and saw how structurally sound the building was and how old it was, they felt it was important to keep it as part of the community and turn it into something that would be an asset.”
Though now newly remodeled, the building itself is more than a century old. According to Castle, the oldest deed they were able to find was dated 1901, but they know the structure is even older than that.
During the remodel, they discovered a sign in one of the walls indicating that the building was once the location of a pharmacy. Now, it is once again a business space serving the community.
When Castle and Kunes made the decision to turn the building into a gift shop, they wanted to cater to both locals and visitors to the area.
“They thought it was important for it to be not just something for visitors to the area to come to, but a resource for local community members and people from the surrounding area to be able to come in and buy gifts and mementos from the area representing Elk Country, but also something that they could come and find an everyday item or gift item that they needed,” Wehler said. “It’s a resource for people to come to because there’s such a limited number of stores in the area.”
The business’ inventory continues to grow, with current offerings including items such as cookie cutters, decor, and clothing items representing both the Benezette Hotel and The Bugling Bull.
“Because this is a sister-business to the Benezette Hotel, it will feature both logos representing both companies,” Wehler said. “It’s going to have everyday items, fun things for campers, apparel, things like handmade soap by local artisans. It will be just a variety of things that are all kind of fun and exciting and talk about the region.”
One element that sets the business apart and has already proven to be a popular draw is its Fudge Shack.
The Fudge Shack offers an ever-changing variety of flavors of fudge for purchase, with all of the fudge being handmade in Benezette. Currently, the fudge is created at the Benezette Hotel, but in the future that operation will be moving to The Bugling Bull as well.
Wehler described some of the fudge offerings as being “signature flavors to Elk Country,” such as the business’ popular Elk Poo.
“Elk Poo is chocolate fudge with chocolate and white chips and mini marshmallows,”
Wehler said.
Other flavors of fudge that were available during Saturday's grand opening included cookie monster, dark chocolate sea salt, cappuccino, celebrate, Butterfinger, vanilla raspberry, Heath English toffee, peanut butter, oranges and cream, and chocolate.
Those who stopped by the new business on both Saturday and Sunday had the opportunity to enter a drawing to win a free half pound of fudge each month for a year.
Wehler described the new business as being Castle's creative vision.
“Matt travels around the United States and actually saw the design for the building down in Biloxi. He picked up a lot of ideas down there, came back and talked to his contractor, Eric Sidelinger, and told him what he was looking for for the design and the structure of the building. Eric took it from there, and then he started developing what would fill the space.”
While drawing on the popularity of the elk that frequent the Benezette area, the business' name also has a personal connection to the owners as well. In 2019, Kunes was drawn for a bull tag for the Pennsylvania Game Commission's weeklong general elk hunting season. He had a full body mount created from the bull he harvested, and that mount was the inspiration for the business' name and logo.
The mount is currently on display at the Elk Country Visitor Center, but after a future expansion at The Bugling Bull it will be relocated to the new business.
“In the future, they're going to expand the building, and the full mounted bull will be in that building. It will be connected. The logo and everything is designed after his bull,” Wehler said.
The Bugling Bull currently has two employees, but Wehler indicated that staffing is expected to increase heading into the fall due to the number of tourists that frequent the area during the rut.
So far, the business has been well supported by both locals and visitors to the area.
“It's been phenomenal,” Wehler said. “It's really impressive to see the amount of community support, whether it be by other businesses, by the local residents, or residents from surrounding areas like St. Marys and DuBois and Emporium. It's nice to see a lot of friendly faces coming in and shopping.”
The Bugling Bull is currently open from noon to 6 p.m. during the week and 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. on weekends.
Additional information about The Bugling Bull can be found on the business' Facebook page.