11/04/2022
What an honor to have this feature article published in the Canton Herald (issue date 10-27-22)
Here's the transcription:
As a local entrepreneur, serving both the community of Canton and her many clients from across the south/southwest United States, Kelly Chastain has seen many changes in Canton over the last decade. Through it all, her entrepreneurial spirit continues to grow and evolve.
In 2013 she opened Quintessentially Quaint & Quirky, at First Monday Trade Days, to sell custom lamps and then added vintage home products. Those operations continued until a major fire in 2015.
During that period, in 2014, she purchased a building in Canton to operate as a Bed & Breakfast and continued to expand to 15 guest rooms, known as The Dockside Cottages. Chastain is very experienced in the hospitality business, having worked in the hotel industry for major chains for many years starting prior to 2000.
She continued to expand in Canton by opening Boot Hill in 2016, a restaurant and live music venue. As she explains it, her goal was to make it “the place to be” during the Trade Days evenings, by offering a family-oriented venue with game night, live country music and Prayer & Worship gatherings.” She adds that their motto was “we don’t compete, we create”. Serving generous portions of great food in a friendly environment was just one aspect of the restaurant’s creative accomplishments.
Since opening, Chastain organized countless live performance acts at Boot Hill, including annual shows by Curtis Lovejoy and The Brazos Valley Boys. Chastain has also played host to numerous up-and-coming local artists.
In 2018, Kelly and her team established Boot Hill’s annual “Fill The Boot” fundraiser, benefitting the Van Zandt County Veteran’s Memorial & Museum in Canton. Thanks to help from people such as Lynn and Dan Maucieri, Phil Smith, Troy Watson, and Lou Ann Everett, the annual events proved to be a success which accomplished the team’s campaign goals.
While The Dockside Cottages and Boot Hill are temporarily closed during relocation, they plan to reopen by mid-year 2023 in a beautiful location just a few miles north of Canton.
Chastain also owns and operates a residential project management company called Dwellings, which she founded in 2006. Dwellings offers services such as residential design, construction remodeling oversight, move management, and more.
Currently, Kelly is expanding Dwellings’ services to encompass full scope estate management. She adds that the company is ‘moving toward’ this change, which will combine her experience in management, hospitality, design, construction, event planning and production, residential projects management, staff training, and a variety of aspects relating to the efficient and smooth operation of an estate.
Kelly says anyone interested can find out more at dwellings.us.com She also notes you can contact her and her team at 214-463-8463 or [email protected]
