Oklahoma Distilling Company
A Q&A session with Hunter Stone Gambill, one of the most interesting characters in town...well, almost in town! Coming soon to town!
I hear you’re opening a location in OKC. How similar to/ different from your Tulsa location will it be?
When I opened the Tulsa location in December 2017, Oklahoma prohibited us from allowing people to even visit distilleries. I did allocate space in the distillery for a tasting room should the law change. In October 2018, the law did change, and so we started giving tours which come with complimentary tastings. Before that though, I had started the build out on Local Cider and Angry Bear Mead, which is Oklahoma’s first cidery (and meadery), which has many of the same privileges breweries do. Oklahoma City is different from Tulsa in that it is purpose built as a restaurant and tasting room with production.
What attracted you to OKC? What excites you about the city?
I grew up in the Oklahoma City area. I spent my entire life out of Oklahoma, having gone to UNLV and worked as a food and beverage manager before moving to Oregon for grad school where I learned all things alcohol. Then we moved to Guatemala where I worked at a brewpub. After Guatemala, my wife and I moved to China for 8 years. She’s from Tulsa, and so we moved to Tulsa. However, with me expanding to Oklahoma City, we’ll be moving to OKC in the coming months.
Tell me about the tacos. What makes them special? How’d you decide that what your distillery really needed was some tacos? Will the OKC location have tacos?
Tacos. Tortillas are the perfect serving vessel for fatty meat. Throw in some citrus, something spicy, and something with a crunch, and you’ve got yourself the most perfect food in the world!
Yes, OKC is going to have tacos. The restaurant is going to be menu of Korean & Mexican, dubbed “Kor-Mex.” We’ll be making our own purple corn tortillas. Look out for things like Kimchi Nachos and Carnitas Kimbab, as well as traditional dishes like Kimchi Jeon, Dolsot Bibimbap, and Street Tacos.
In your 20s, you had a lot of adventures. How do you use what you learned in teaching/education, AmeriCorps, embassy work, etc in your day to day life in the distillery?
I’ve always had a sense of adventure and a love for being a positive force in my community. While people think of distilling, cider making, and restaurants as production and service, I see it as community development. Whatever I do, I want it to make a meaningful difference for my community. In Tulsa, we’ve been able to really connect with our community and build relationships. If you watch a movie or read a book, you’ll notice that dialogue occurs most often around the table. Food and drink = life. So, I don’t just make spirits and cider or bring basic food to the community. If you’re well-traveled, I want you to come to my space, and feel like “Damn, Oklahoma’s what’s up!”
Take, for example, vodka. To most people it is the most boring spirit. It’s meant to have a neutral taste and be clean. There’s not really a lot of differentiation in vodka. However, our vodka is different. For starters, Indian Grass is our state grass and each bottle carries that significance by having a blade in each bottle. Additionally, water is the single largest flavor in vodka. I go to the Great Salt Plains in western Oklahoma to get water from what was once a glacier formed during the last age that was trapped in sandstone. All the minerals from the sandstone leave a crisp taste in our vodka. So, any distillery not finding a good source of water for their vodka is really missing the point of vodka.
You’ve got three stills, each with special features and unique advantages. Is asking you to name a favorite like asking a parent to admit to having a preferred child, or does one of them openly hold a special place in your heart?
I use all three for different reasons. I’ll have another two stills in Oklahoma City that are different from the ones I have in Tulsa. At the end of the day, it’s all science. So, it’s pretty fun to get to do science shit all day.
Anything else you’d like our readers to know?
We’ll be serving beer at our Oklahoma City location that I make using Oklahoma grain that we’ve malted and roasted ourselves.
Thanks, Hunter, for sharing a little bit about you and what you do with our readers! OKC welcomes you with open arms, thirsty throats, and hungry tummies!
