- April 22, 2024
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The docks at Bull Creek Campground bustled with boaters and fishermen Monday afternoon, a few hours after the Flagler County Board of County Commissioners approved a bid by Woody’s Bar-B-Q owners Christopher Zwirn, Joe Rizzo and Matt Crew to run the county-owned campground’s restaurant and nearby docks and bait shop.
“There’s a lot of feeling out in my district that this could be a destination for a lot of folks,” County Commissioner Nate McLaughlin said. “I commend staff for finding a qualified group of people to come in and do something.”
The JMC Food Company, recently formed by Zwirn, Rizzo and Crew, would focus on “down home country cooking,” according to a letter from Zwirn to the county, with dinner offerings such as pork chops, snow crab and catfish. It would open at 5:30 a.m., when it would offer all-you-can pancakes for breakfast, and close at 9 p.m.
Zwirn proposed making the campground an ecotourism destination, and adding kayak and canoe rentals, as well as a general store selling basic groceries and light fishing tackle.
“Special events we hope to attract will include but not be limited to sponsored fishing tournaments, the possibility of lake ecology and wildlife tours, motorcycle rides and any event that showcases the natural beauty and unique features of the area,” he wrote.
Flagler County has owned the Bull Creek Campground since 2007. The county took over management of the bait shop — which sells crickets, worms and shiners to fisherman who come from all over the country for spring crappie fishing on Dead Lake and Crescent Lake — several years ago, but the restaurant has been vacant for about 15 months.
Sitting on the shore of the cypress-fringed Dead Lake, which connects to the much larger Crescent Lake, it was once a hangout for people who lived in rural western Flagler: a place to watch the game and have a beer or a plate of fried chicken or ribs before wetting a line.
But the restaurant had a spotty history after the county took it over and leased it out. Managers had a tough time attracting people to the remote location. The wood building was prone to flooding, and restaurant inspection reports from 2011 and 2012 noted pest activity.
Finally, it shut down, and when the county went out for bids, not many came back.
Of the people that replied, Commissioner Barbara Revels said in the meeting, some were “scary, scary people” with criminal backgrounds who wanted “to make a fortune on the county’s dime.”
JMC Food Company was the only legitimate bid, Coffey said.
The company would pay $1,000 a month in rent to the county, and put at least $20,000 of its own money into repairing and opening up the facilities.
The dozens of fishermen and boaters at the campground’s docks Monday had brought their own meals in lunchboxes and coolers, but local resident Glenn Patten, hanging out by the waterside with his dog and a friend, said he’d frequented the restaurant before the county took it over, and he'd like to see it open again.
“I used to come down here all the time," he said. “They have the customers, they just need the talent. I’d like to see this place bustling again.”
