Latest / WashCo Insider / Alex Colussy & Melina Robinson
Transcript
- speaker-0: Welcome back to another episode of The Washco Insider, where we take you behind the scenes with the people, places, and experiences that make Washington County such a special place. Today we're talking about a local entrepreneur who has built quite a collection of businesses and experiences right here in Washington County. From AngCo Barn and Fields and Roughcut Tavern to AngCo Cuts and Cones, Alex Colussy has created destinations that bring people together. Now she's adding something a little more frightening to the mix with the AngCo After Dark. A brand new haunted corn maze that's bringing some serious scares to the farm this Halloween season. Joining Alex today is Melina Robinson, event manager for AngCo After Dark, and we're going to talk about what inspired this latest venture, what it takes to bring a haunted attraction to life, and what visitors can expect when they step into the corn after dark. Alex and Melina, when we come back. Guys, thanks so much for joining us today. we're gonna get into the after dark stuff in just a bit. But first, Alex, you gotta tell me. so you've got a a number of different new businesses that you've started up under the AngCo umbrella. Take us back to the beginning, like how did that all start for you? speaker-1: So it came from we have Rough Cut Tavern in Burgess Town and my husband and I, we live on a farm, his family, I'm married into it. So we actually have our own now. And whenever we purchased that farm, it came with two cows. Okay. Three. I think it was three. So I didn't care honestly if they stayed because I didn't know I was what I was getting into. And then I quickly came to love them. And now we have twenty eight, I think, twenty-six or twenty-eight of them. Okay. So I really love them now. So I started building the herd, well, my husband and I started building the herd because we wanted to use that beef to eventually supply Rough Cut Tavern. speaker-0: And how long have you guys owned Rough Cut Tavern? speaker-1: This year is ten years, July eleventh. speaker-0: Kidding. Okay. Very cool. speaker-1: So we have been in the process of breeding, building, whatnot. And then we decided that it's hard to make money as a farm. Sure. So we were gonna do cuts to sell. So then the meat market came into play. And then one night my husband says, Well, I want an ice cream shop. And I said, absolutely not. I lost that battle. So we settled for the hard to serve ice cream. So we don't have soft serve, we have the hard serve ice cream. We have a dipping cabinet. There's ten different flavors in it. And then we have the choppings and whatnot. And in that building or that section of the building, we will have the meat market. speaker-0: Okay. Now this is all part of the same building that the Rough Cut Tavern is. speaker-1: All part of Rough Cut Tavern. So you walk through the two double doors and if you make a right you'll go into the tavern. If you make a left, it'll take you into the ice cream shop and the meat market side. speaker-0: It's a pretty much one stop shop. So you want something from a cow, you got ice cream. Yeah. You want a steak to take home and cook, you got that. Or if you want to walk across probably a a wall, I assume. Yeah. You've got a fresh cooked burger there. Yeah. So tell me a little bit more about Rough Cut Tavern. I haven't been up there. I don't live that far away, so it's gonna be on my immediate plans. But it you know, is there a certain menu item that you guys are famous for? Do you have a favorite? I mean, what is tell us a little bit more about? speaker-1: Some of our biggest sellers is gonna be our burgers. We do half pound Angus beef burgers, which is where our cattle came from. They're all Angus beef. so bacon cheeseburgers or cheeseburgers is kind of like our go to that people seem to order the most of. We have other things, beer cheeseburgers, mac and cheeseburgers. People love that. We take mac and cheese and put it on top of it. We have the cowboy burger, typical onion ring, barbecue, bacon, and that. but like our steak salads, they're actual steak. they're not the chip steak. People like that a lot. So we cook everything on a char broiler. It's not a flat top, so it gives it little extra flavor because it's on a grill. yeah. So speaker-0: Yeah. So the tavern for ten years, cuts and cones you opened in May, right. And so the meat market you're getting close to. speaker-1: Right. So yeah, we have our freezers in there and I will be bringing back two full cows I believe next week. and then those will come in, they'll be prepackaged, ready to go. It'll have ground beef, steak, roast, stuff like that. we it's gonna be limited. So everything that we're having so far is locally. we have two we're bringing back. I have two more that I'll be sending in the next probably thirty days or so. till we get things rolling, it's gonna be first come, first serve. I'm hoping in a year or two we'll have a pretty steady supply. we have I talked to actually somebody up over the hill, not even two miles away, the baker's about trying lamb. So we just we love to try things. So we're gonna throw it in there. speaker-0: No, it's it's very clear and I was just telling my wife the other day I wish we had a a meat market nearby and I did Google Map View and I think it's like eighteen minutes from the house. So you've got a customer on the way. So two years ago you guys bought the farm, 120 acres, give or take, right? Tell us about that. What was the original vision for the farm and maybe how has it evolved? Has it evolved? speaker-1: Yeah, so the original vision was actually going to be and it's still sitting there, our barn was going to be used for weddings. When we purchased it, we did the township meeting for the variants and whatnot. It was approved and then we started working on it. Then the ice cream shop came. So my husband does a lot of things. Josh is great. He builds anything I really ask him to build. so the barn's on hold. It's still being in the process of work on. So that was on hold. Ice cream shop room was built for that in the meat market. So that's finished. And then I asked them to plant me a cornfield. So that came into play. So the original thought of the farm was obviously to use the income from the weddings to help fund the cattle and get everything up and running and yeah. speaker-0: You guys are very photographer friendly, right? So sunflower fields and tell us a little bit about you know what photographers can look forward to. speaker-1: So I had my husband figure out how to plant sunflowers. So our very first year we did sunflowers. I think it was actually it was in the same field as the corn. So it's five acres. All five acres. It's beautiful. Drive past it and they're right there for you to see. we tried the next year. We learned some lessons. Residual chemicals killed them, but it's okay. So then we ended up with wildflowers. This year I tried. so next year I think I figured out the wildflowers pretty well. We have the least road that you drive up to for the field is beautiful on sunsets because it has an amazing sunset that falls right into like the backdrop of the canvas of like a field and trees and whatnot. So I have a lot of photographers asking if we are doing that and it's something that I'm slowly getting into and I have to learn a lot about that because I didn't know. much about that going into it. But yeah, we s we have sunflowers, wildflowers. I've had people use the corn for a backdrop last year and yeah, it's pretty cool seeing what they can make happen with just w what we have just sitting there. speaker-0: Yeah, I've loved to see, just even in Washington County, the creativity that farms are latching on to to help monetize this piece or that piece. there's so many cool farms out there doing unique things. Speaking of, so at the Washington County Tourism Promotion Agency, we tend to pride ourselves on generally knowing what's what's happening. You know, from one weekend to the next, this event, new attraction, this and that. And I don't know, maybe a week or two ago we hear about AngCo After Dark. speaker-1: Mm-hmm. speaker-0: I haven't heard of AngCo before dark. And so, you know, we're we're kind of scrambling. We're like, what is this? And Melina reached out and kind of we got an idea of what you guys were doing, so we threw some billboards up and started you know helping get the word out. but generally this stuff hits our radar like months in advance. And I think I know why now after talking to you that it just hit our radars because I think you just decided to do it. So tell us about like where did this where did this idea come from? How quick did you start running on it? And what has the last month and a half been like for you guys? speaker-1: so we actually had my husband and I talked about doing it last year and then there was a drought and the corn didn't grow. So then this year he cross planted it for me and he says, Alex, you need to go mow the corn down for your trail and I said, y it yeah, I'll get to it. I'll I'll get to it and then I never got to it. So then he gave me a chainsaw with a weed whacker or like a weed whacker with a with a little saw blade on the end. Yes, thank you. So I walked through the corn and I had multiple helpers that came out. They were great. So we cut each single sock down and carried it out because I procrastinated. I didn't even start cutting it out until Melina came into the picture because I put a status up and it was on Facebook and I said, I need help. I need an event coordinator and she reached out and we never talked really before that at all. And she met with me a few days later and I like, Okay, I guess we're doing this so I went out and cut the field. speaker-0: All right, let's pause there for a second. So Melina, when we talked the other day I I said so what's your background? Expecting you to say something like I've you know worked in events or this or that and you said speaker-2: Yeah, just child care. I've done a lot of vents there though, like, you know, parties and things, but speaker-0: So had you been had you had your eye out and this this is just like something that caught your attention, like this speaker-2: I was just like, well, scrolling one day and then I saw it and I was like, I know her, like I know her husband, so maybe this could be fun. But I am a big chicken, so I mean work in a cornfield this you know, not really speaker-0: Seems like a So so you said this is something you guys started thinking about maybe last year and just the timing was maybe right or you know, moving quickly. But we talked the other day, you started into a pretty quick sprint rate. This is mid September that you kinda officially decided to speaker-1: Yeah, we did it in thirty days. speaker-0: thirty days. Thirty days. speaker-1: I went out and bought the decorations and speaker-2: We build them. speaker-1: Yep, we put together out in the field and yeah, like I said, we had a lot of people where they came out and helped build things, help cut things and whatnot and speaker-0: Animatronics. Yep. Yeah. speaker-1: That speaker-0: So how do you go about finding people that want to spend their evenings hiding in a cornfield scaring strangers? Tell me about speaker-1: Well you get paid to have fun. Yeah. I put a Facebook status out looking for people and I put indeed ad an indeed ad up and I got some off of that. We have a few students from W and J. Yeah. Yeah. I had one girl reach out to me on our Facebook and then she recruited. There was like six of them. Yes. So we have that. We speaker-2: How the local FFA speaker-1: Yes. speaker-2: then it will help their FFA as well. speaker-1: Yeah, the Fort Cherry F F A had the first weekend I think four or five of them. Yeah. So the way it works is I pay them to work, but then also I donate towards the F F A for them coming out as well. So Yeah, yeah. speaker-2: It's like a win-win. speaker-1: And the kids love it. Yeah. speaker-0: So I'm starting to see a little bit of a a theme here. So just a week or two two ago, we had Rich on who was telling us about the scare fair down at the West Alexander Fairgrounds. You guys are now a thing, the trolley museum's doing a scare thing. what kind of makes what you're doing a little bit different? And then from there, walk us through the experience. So somebody pulls in to the lease road, what do they see, what do they experience? speaker-2: Well, they see a little guy with his arms flopping around so you know where to pull in. Like air. speaker-1: Yeah, we have one of the guys. Yeah, so I put that there so that whenever they pull in the lease road they know where they're going. so when they pull in we have food trucks right there so that people can get drinks or food for who whenever they're available. And then they come up, we have a tent up, they have the option of doing like a shirt or t shirt if they'd like to purchase that to support us, and then For the do you wanna talk about the family side of it? speaker-2: Yeah, sure. We also have a family side from five to seven. for that you just bring your child and then you trick or treat through the field. we have pumpkins with treats throughout. that's then slow running, but it's been doing really well. speaker-0: And that's a no scare. speaker-2: scare, yeah. So we cover the things that are extra scary. the kids have really enjoyed it to get the trinkets and things and I think it's like a fun, different thing rather than just a pumpkin patch. speaker-1: Yeah, for sure. And it's all through a field. So the whole thing's through the corn. There's no buildings or anything. So I think that's what sets us apart a little bit because it's just really a walking speaker-2: Mm of speaker-1: through the field. We have decorations and the animatronics and all that, but there's no actual building. So I think kids also love that because they love to run. Right. I have a four and an eight year old and they my husband doesn't like when they're on their tablets. And I tell you what, when I take up to the field, they run around like crazy kids. They they love it. So and I think that's probably a lot of where we ended up with the family too on that idea because I need there's not a whole lot for like kids and whatnot to do. And it gives them an ac an extra option in our area. speaker-0: Yeah, no, I think that's great. I mean, so so five to seven, bring your kids out. They're not gonna get scared, they're gonna get the trick or treat, they get a pumpkin. you have food trucks most nights, right? And so this is you started October second, goes through the thirty first, every Friday and Saturday, five to seven is the kind of the family no scare, and then eight to eleven is full all the scare. speaker-1: Full scare. speaker-2: Very scared. speaker-0: So your husband was fully bought into this the whole time and totally believed in it. Absolutely. Right? No. Tell me the flashlight story. speaker-1: the flashlight story. This is how I this is how I found out he was he did it for me and that's why he did it. So when we were talking about it, we were saying, we were in the dark and it was it was dark and he says, Well what if you give them some flashlights? You know, like just get like thirty or forty of them and then they can return it whenever they go through and then when they give it to the person at the end, they can bring it up to the person in the beginning. And I said You don't think anybody's gonna show up, do you? And he says, N not r no, not really. And I said, okay. And then this past weekend I was actually away on Saturday, so Melana ran it. So she did great. And told me there was almost two hundred people there. And he says to me, He says, I guess I'm just gonna have to let you do whatever you want, 'cause apparently it works. speaker-0: You know what, I think there's a model for this, right? Think back to a certain cornfield in Iowa with a baseball field in it. Maybe if you cut the corn. They will come. speaker-1: About that. speaker-0: So Melina, you've been helping to kind of bring this whole experience together. What's been the most exciting part for you watching it as you were building up to opening speaker-2: I think the best part is making Alex's dream come true. and the other part about it that's kind of exciting is that I grew a friendship through a cornfield, which you know, you never can find friends when you get older. So that's exciting. And I think it's just so exciting of how many people actually've come and like traveled from different areas. Just for this cornfield that's just laying there in the field. speaker-1: Yeah. speaker-0: So I've been in the event world for quite a while and I think it's easy for most people to underestimate the amount of work that it takes to pull something like this together. Talk to us about the things that the public wouldn't have seen that was just like struggle bus for the last sixty days for you guys or so. speaker-2: Probably mud. mud was very strumpless. We like the first weekend it was very rainy before we started and Alex said, Come on, I'll show you through the cornfield I almost fell. It was just not the best. So I think I was just trying to put down the hay and the corn we have some stalks down because it gets really gross in there. speaker-1: Yeah. trying to make it as easy to navigate through as we can. So yeah, that's probably been our main battle is the mud. Yeah. speaker-0: So folks, if you're listening, right, speaker-2: Where baits. speaker-0: wear boots. You're going to a farm and you're walking through a cornfield. Get a pair of muck boots. speaker-1: I think one of my biggest one of my biggest laughs was we had somebody said, be prepared to walk and I'm thinking, It's a cornfield. Of course you're gonna walk speaker-0: What's all If you're lucky, you're gonna get scared enough to run through it. Right. speaker-1: Exactly. speaker-2: Yeah. That is true. I think the other thing was just like the food trucks and getting them last minute. Most people book them speaker-1: Well yes. That that was also the struggle. speaker-2: In like a year in advance, so trying to get all the food trucks has been a little struggle. So we've been doing our best. speaker-0: What trucks have you guys had? speaker-2: We had Pappy Tees, they were really great, barbecue. last week we had notorious VL Had Scully speaker-1: Yeah. speaker-2: ice cream, they've been fantastic. speaker-1: Cooley Coley. She is great. I love her. speaker-2: She's been doing good. She brought her scoop truck last week, so that was something different. speaker-1: Right. speaker-2: we've had a lemonade girl and a source. speaker-1: At least next year. Yeah. Kate's pretzels. Yeah. At least next year we'll know. To prepare more? We actually will have more than thirty days to plan for it. speaker-0: Hey, the longer we know about it, the more we can help promote too. All right, I've got some as we wrap up here, some fun questions. Melina, are you someone who actually enjoys being scared or do you t prefer to be the one doing the scaring? speaker-2: Yeah, no, I don't like either. Neither. No. I just like to just count the people, let in. I'll go in after it's dark. I always say to her, like last week and I was like, Hey everybody, Alex is in here. So y'all know I don't like to be scared. So I just help run it from the outside. I can set up the flashlights and things before everybody gets in. But once they're in it's yeah, game out. speaker-0: Good enough. Alex, if you could bring in any horror character into AngCo After Dark, who would it be? speaker-1: Josh really wanted to do Jeepers Creepers in the worst way, but we didn't make it happen. So hopefully next year. speaker-0: Maybe you can take call West Virginia and bring in the moth, maybe. speaker-2: Yeah, them all. speaker-1: I loved that movie. speaker-0: All right, Melina, what's one thing people should absolutely not do when walking through the haunted corn maze? speaker-2: go off the path and try to steal our flashlights. Because then your next person is not gonna be able to see because it's pretty dark. speaker-0: Now if the two of you went to a haunted house right now, who's most likely to be the first one to scream? speaker-2: Uh-huh. speaker-1: She probably wouldn't even make it out of the parking lot. speaker-0: You sound like you're in the like the right line of work here. speaker-1: Okay. speaker-0: So Alex, you you've you've built all these businesses over the years. What's been maybe the biggest surprise that that you've had in building these businesses in Washington County? speaker-1: I would say the biggest surprise, honestly, that people enjoy them as much as they do because I do them because I think people would have fun. having Rough Cut Tavern, it's cool seeing people meet. I've had people get married w after they've met there. I love having somewhere for people to go. And I think that's my biggest thing is like I said, I have a four and an eight year old and I like having things for people to go do together and that's probably speaker-0: that's definitely a common theme. You can see it. Every business you've created brings people together in a fun way. speaker-1: Yeah. speaker-0: So listen folks, if you're gonna make it out to AngCo after dark, you've got three weekends left, including this weekend. Three weekends left. Coupon speaker-1: I made a coupon. speaker-0: code too. Coupon code. Hey, you heard it here first. Listen in. What's that coupon? speaker-1: So if you go to our website, it's www.ancoafterdark.com. If you click on the tickets, I made a coupon code and it is visit Washington PA. Hey And it takes three dollars off of their coupon. So instead of eighteen, it only is fifteen dollars online. speaker-0: You heard it here first. That is the ticket, literally. Fridays and Saturday nights until Halloween night. Five to seven is the family no scare portion. Adults eight bucks, kids ten bucks. eight to eleven is the full scare, all the scares eighteen bucks. you can get your tickets in advance or you guys do take cash or Venmo at the at the gate, right? Yes. Yeah. speaker-1: So for the tickets also, if you buy a ticket and you have I think it's until the midnight the day before that you buy the ticket for. If anything comes up or if it's gonna rain, say you buy it Wednesday and it's gonna rain Saturday all of a sudden, you have until Friday at midnight to go on and you can change the date actually that you bought the ticket for. So I like that option for us because you never know if it's gonna rain. speaker-0: that's good at you guys. Yeah. speaker-2: People like it in the rain. Saturday was speaker-1: They do. Show up in the rain. speaker-0: I'll tell you, I'm excited about everything you're doing in Burgettstown. Keep on keeping on. You're bringing people together, whether it's at the restaurant, ice cream shop, meat market, after dark. You're doing a great job. Thanks. Thanks for what you do and for joining us today. And speaker-1: Thanks for having us. speaker-0: for you listening at home, thanks for being with us today. We'll see ya on another episode of Washko Insider next week.