Tulsa distillery, cidery to open OKC location
The state's first cidery distiller is set to expand from its home in Tulsa to the west end of downtown Oklahoma City just two addresses away from Stone Cloud Brewery.
Hunter Stone Gambill, owner of the Oklahoma Distilling Co., opened for business two years ago on a similar block where two breweries were located. The cidery opened in March. Over the past two years, the distillery has gone from whiskey to vodka and rum to various combinations with made-in-Oklahoma products, including a rum-based coffee liqueur and an “Oklahoma Beersky” created with Stonecloud.
Collaborations also have included an Oklahoma smoked grain rye where Gambill's crew smoked their rye at a barbecue restaurant.
The Tulsa operation includes a restaurant and tasting room, which also will be included with the second location in Oklahoma City at 120 N Western Ave.
“We are the only distillery with a tasting room with regular hours,” Gambill said. “There are about nine other distilleries in Oklahoma, and most are brands. They just sell one or two products. They're basically manufacturing. Think Budweiser vs. Stonecloud. Yes, you can go to Budweiser and do a tour, but that's not what they're known for. Whereas with craft breweries, they are known where you can go in and tour and taste.”
Gambill said his decision to
expand into Tulsa was motivated by the need to expand and his desire to grow into the Oklahoma City area where he grew up.
“We do extremely well in Tulsa, but not as well in Oklahoma City,” Gambill said. “In Tulsa, we have really strong relationships with restaurants. We're not in the community yet in Oklahoma City as we are in Tulsa, where you can go to almost any independent restaurant and they have our spirits.”
Collaboration is already underway in Oklahoma City, with spirits created with Ponyboy Bar in Uptown and the creation of a beer-stilled liquor with Stonecloud.
“With our location in Oklahoma City, we will do production from it but we also will be able to send some cider from our Tulsa location as well,” Gambill said. “For the distillery, we will be moving some of our location there. Some will be made from Tulsa, others from Oklahoma City.”
The addition of the Oklahoma Distilling Co. to the area west of Classen Boulevard is seen as validation of a risk taken a few years ago by the Pivot Project's buying up industrial properties west of Classen that were long written off as blighted and too detached from downtown to be successfully redeveloped.
In the years since, hundreds of apartments, a salon, gift shop, plant shop, restaurants and bars built around t he 21c Museum Hotel have extended Film Row to Classen Boulevard. The Pivot Project, consisting of Jonathan Dodson, Ben Sellers and David Wanzer, bought the former Sunshine Laundry building at NW 1 and Classen and started with little more than four walls, a fraction of the roof and a vintage neon sign.
Joel Ir by, who opened Stonecloud Brewery in the landmark building, has since leased a second nearby building for storage for the growing business.
“When we redeveloped the Sunshine building, we were told a building west of Classen couldn't be successful,” Dodson said. “And now Joel has been named one of the 10 top new breweries in the country.”
Dodson believes the next wave of growth will take place between Classen and Klein Avenue, a vision shared by Gambill.
“The whole area is going to expand,” Gambill said. “And not being the richest person in the world, this is an opportunity for me to get into an area that I think will grow in the next two to five years and I've got a long-term lease agreement to capitalize on that.”