New Main Street business brings hemp-based products and art gallery
Nikole Babb
nbabb@cherryroad.com
Downtown El Dorado has been a historic place for people to shop, dine, and celebrate the holidays together with city-wide activities. The rural town holds many small businesses that are hidden gems run by locals that were raised and still live in El Dorado. As times change with inflation, population, trends and more, the business owners, old and new, still have one thing in common: they love El Dorado and its residents. This column, Explore El Dorado, will take readers into a different shop each time, giving them a look inside a space they may have never been in, allowing them to get to know the shop owners.
This eighth column features a business where a changing art gallery and hemp-based products meet up, Gold City Hemp.
Two Manhattan, Kan. natives, Brad Benco, and Rachel Curtis, have opened a CBD and hemp-based product store that also features an ever-changing art gallery installation. The duo went to primary and high school together in the Wildcat Nation city but found their way back to each other a few years ago. While Benco is the primary business owner on paper, Curtis is the reason he moved to El Dorado to open the store.
“He was living in Manhattan, and I was driving up to see him several times a week,” explained Curtis. “I suggested he move down here since I work at the college and open up a shop similar in nature to the one he already worked at.”
Benco took the offer to heart and began to work with Curtis on finding the perfect building. He knew he wanted his shop to be on Main Street, which is exactly where he’s located. Curtis walked down Main Street one day and saw the shop was open for new owners. The rest has been elbow grease and hard work to open up – which they accomplished ahead of schedule.
“The building was perfect for what we were looking for,” said Curtis.
Prior to moving to El Dorado, Benco assisted in the operational running and day-to-day business of an American Shaman Botanicals CBD franchise store for eight years. When he purchased the building, he realized it was much bigger than he needed and decided to add an art gallery inside for community enrichment. Since Curtis is a Painting and Drawing Instructor at Butler Community College, this was the perfect gateway for her to utilize and share art with the community. She will serve as the Art Gallery Director for Gold City Hemp.
Benco says he’s most looking forward to bringing education surrounding the products to the community while offering high-quality products for customers and a space for people to ponder and enjoy art. The gallery will be free admission while the CBD and hemp-based products are nestled in the back left corner to allow for a separate shopping area.
While the full line of products offered isn’t available now, Gold City Hemp is offering a small selection during their soft opening hours. A full variety of products will be available upon their grand opening, which is expected to be in June. Products carried and to be carried include CBD, hemp-derived THC, Delta 8, Delta 10, pre-rolls, flower, edibles, beverages and THCA vapes.
“We wanted to have our gallery up for the community now with limited products for sale,” said Benco. “But we’re still waiting on our signage and more product to come in. We got the building a month early so it looks like we aren’t functioning from the outside, but we have a bit of product and we’re starting slow.”
Among those products will be a variety that cater to different needs, including pain management, sleep assistance, medicinal, relaxants and psychoactive strains. Infused beverages will also be available for sale for different needs as well. Benco says the most important part of consuming or using these products is education and intention. He plans to develop a relationship with his customers as they allow and learn their needs to better guide them on their choices.
“Our goal is to have a one-on-one with our customer base and get to know people as they come into the store,” said Benco. “After seven plus years of working at my last store, as soon as certain customers walked in the door, I knew exactly what they were coming for. The goal is to make sure they’re comfortable knowing what they’re purchasing.”
Although there is no age requirement to purchase CBD products in Kansas by law, provided the CBD products meet the state’s requirements, retailers typically set their age limit to 18 or 21 years of age to purchase. It is set by the shop owners’ discretion. Gold City Hemp has disclosed that the age requirement varies by product, and they will consult with every buyer about each purchase.
The art gallery currently installed includes former and existing Butler Community College faculty pieces, which total to about 20 pieces on the walls. Coffee or lunch are welcome to bring in and enjoy while viewing the art. The gallery will rotate with new art every so often and be announced through their social media channels.
Whether you’re stopping in to ponder the products available for purchase or gazing at the art gallery, stop by Gold City Hemp and welcome them to the community. Gold City Hemp is located at 123 N Main in El Dorado. Temporary business hours are 10am-3pm every day until permanent hours are announced.
