 |
| James Gardner Owner & President |
The Uniqueness of our Food
At Whiskey Creek® Wood Fire Grill, quality and innovative cooking procedures create distinctive food for our guests. We have created our own proprietary seasonings, rubs, and sauces that give our food a unique and award winning flavor. Our food is also exceptional in the way we prepare it. We use some of the finest beef this country has to offer, and cook it over full sized logs of oak and ash, which makes eating with us a memorable experience! Cooking over a real wood fire grill, also allows the fat to cook away, creating leaner and healthier meals. It is the combination of fire, smoke and our proprietary seasonings that makes our food taste so good!
Our History
The Whiskey Creek® concept originated in Florida in 1995, by restauranteur Larry Terrell. In the spring of 1996, Wild West, Inc, a Nebraska based company, acquired the rights to the Whiskey Creek® name and recipes and opened the first Midwest store in Kearney, Nebraska in October of 1996.
Wild West, Inc owner James Gardner began his restaurant career on June 15, 1971 in the family dining sector. He began in an hourly wage capacity learning all of the job positions from dishwasher to cook to server to manager. In 1976 at the age of 19, he became one of the company’s youngest franchisees. Over the next 25 years, Mr. Gardner became a territorial owner of Country Kitchen restaurants, selling franchises and company-owned stores in the states of Nebraska and Kansas.
He is a past chairman of the Franchise Advisory Committee of Country Kitchen family restaurants and was also a leader in the sub-franchisor meetings. He served on the Board of Directors of the Nebraska Restaurant Association and the Cattleman’s Ball of Nebraska. He was a trustee of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society in Nebraska. After selling the development rights that he had with Country Kitchen International, Mr. Gardner became the 2nd largest shareholder in Wild West, Inc., the parent company of Whiskey Creek® Wood Fire Grill until April 9, 2001, when Mr. Gardner purchased all outstanding stock in Wild West, Inc and is now sole owner of the company.