He refers to it as, “making lemonade out of lemons.”
And what Chris Dutton means by that he’s going to throw an impressive retirement celebration for the Blame My Roots country music festival featuring country legend Sammy Kershaw and the popular Bryan Martin, both of whom were signed to perform at BMR, and the event will feature a true farm-to-table food experience.
“Ranch Night” is set for this evening at the Dutton Cattle Company in Flushing, Ohio.
“Doing the festival was challenging for a lot of different reasons, but we gave it a go and we’re very proud of the shows we put together for the people who came,” he said. “But it’s a tough business to get into because the industry is so lopsided with which festival gets the headliners and which ones don’t. We tried to play the games for a few years, and we put on some terrific shows for the people who came.
“We saw an opportunity after the Jamboree went away and we did what we could,” he explained. “Now, ‘Ranch Night’ is going to be a great time because it’s going to be about two things – great music and great food.”
Did he say food?
He did. He sure did.
“There have been country concerts in parking lots and in giant stadiums, but this is going to be at an active cattle ranch. So, we’re going to have the chance for something very cool – a true farm-to-table eating experience on the actual farm,” Dutton explained. “Of course, the food will center around our beef, and we’ll have a serving line of options to go with like they have at a Chipotle restaurant.
“That will be the best way to feed a large crowd great food as quickly as possible,” he said. “And I believe we’re going to have a big crowd because there’s a lot of Sammy Kershaw and Brian Martin fans out there. The folks at the Pike 40 will be creating most of the food ideas like beef tips and brisket and so on, and there will be other offerings for those who are not beef fans.”
A Cow’s Moo
While the country music festival was staged along U.S. 40 at the Valley View Campground, ‘Ranch Night’ will take place where Dutton was raised.
The Dutton Cattle Company is seven miles from Interstate 70 and just off of Ohio 331 in Flushing, Ohio. It is reclaimed land stripped of its coal several times before agricultural practices permitted nature to return the land to viability. These days, the Dutton ranch produces thousands of pounds of Wagyu beef each year that’s distributed regionally and featured at the Pike 40 Restaurant in Morristown and the Vagabond Kitchen in downtown Wheeling.
“We’ve wanted to do something like ‘Ranch Night’ on the farm for a lot of years, and we’ve talked about it a ton but never really got to the point to where it was time to make it happen,” Dutton said. “That conversation began after we started developing and building on parts of the farm where we have a couple of Airbnbs, and we realized how great of a location it would be for something like ‘Ranch Night.’ We’ve had a few ‘farm days,’ but nothing like this for sure.
“I know on the show ‘Yellowstone’ they filmed a farm day that turned into a nighttime event with live entertainment with barbecue and white tents everywhere. That’s similar to what I would like to make happen,” he said. “And we’ve had similar events, but with a few hundred people, and ‘Ranch Night’ is going to be bigger than that with a lot of different elements.”
Just as he did with the BMR weekends, Dutton enjoys tweaking certain aspects of the fan experience and adding amenities he’s experienced elsewhere. ‘Ranch Night’ will be no different.
“When you do an event like ‘Ranch Night,’ there’s a lot of things you have to do, and then there are certain aspects that can be twisted a little to make them unique, and that’s what I enjoy the most,” he admitted. “We did that with Blame My Roots with the cabana seating, and with a lot of things in the VIP area, and we’ll have some of those things again because of how much people enjoyed them.
“’Ranch Night’ will be organic and authentic,” Dutton added. “And there’s going to be a couple of terrific shows that go along with it all. People are going to have a lot of fun at this party.”
