Aces of Trades: Derek Mullin lives in the moment, believes 'you make your own luck'
He’s an entrepreneur who likes to have fun.
“As a kid I always just wanted to have fun,” Derek Mullins recalled. “As long as I was laughing, I was happy. I never really knew what I wanted to do, but if it was fun, then count me in. I played outside, explored, went hunting and fishing with my family − stuff like that. I did a lot of reading. I was always learning. I was very curious about how stuff worked and why. I enjoyed figuring out stuff.”
He has "lots of great memories" going to horse races every weekend with his parents and brother.
“My family had harness horses, the ones with the sulky cart, so I spent a lot of time at horse tracks all over Ohio going to races and exploring various fairgrounds with my brother," Mullins said. "As our horse was getting ready to race, we would just walk around, climb lofts and go places we probably shouldn't, something you wouldn't see nowadays − a 7- and 10-year-old on their own for hours unsupervised, but those were different times. As long as we made it back in time to watch our horse race and pose for the win pictures if our horse won, we were allowed to do whatever we wanted."
Mullins said when he was younger he never really had goals − just lived in the moment.
“As long as my bills were paid and I had money in the bank, then I was content," he noted. "Sometimes things just fall into place. Some call it luck, but I truly believe you make your own luck.”
Today, Mullins is co-owner of Shovel City Drinkery with his wife, Andrea.
“I make cocktails,” he said, “but I also clean the bathrooms and take out the trash. I’m an owner, but I’m also an employee. I’ve never been one for titles, so I just tell everybody I work here.”
Marion County has always been home
Mullins grew up on 3 acres in New Bloomington just outside of LaRue.
“We had large gardens where we planted a lot of vegetables that we canned and ate. Goats and cattle, chickens, horses, pigs − you name it, we had it. It was a lot of fun.”
He graduated from Harding High School in 2001 then briefly attended Marion Technical College.
“I studied to be a radiologist but soon realized it really wasn’t for me,” Mullins said. “I dropped out and started Genova’s Pizza with my family where we became Marion’s most award-winning pizzeria, being named best pizza in Marion in 2008 and 2017 while placing second in 2009.
“Eventually we sold enough pizzas to purchase the drive-thru next to us,” he added. “When it came time for Mom and Dad to retire, it was either take over the family business or start one of my own, so naturally I wanted to start my own.”
Mullins purchased the building that now houses Shovel City Drinkery in June 2019.
“After selling the pizza shop and drive-thru, we purchased a building in downtown Marion that’s been a bar off and on since 1948 − The Wonder Bar," he said. "The rest, as some would say, is history.”
They opened Shovel City Drinkery on Sept. 21, 2020.
“Derek has a complete knowledge of the business,” said patron Jon Thomas, “and anecdotes about anything and everything.”
“I do it for the fun of it, the feeling of accomplishment that comes from it all,” Mullins said. “Nothing is better than seeing a line 20-plus deep and it’s just you and a few co-workers cranking out cocktail after cocktail with measured precision.”
Shovel City Drinkery is located at 181 N. Main S., Marion. For more information, visit Facebook.
Aces of Trades is a weekly series focusing on people and their jobs — whether they’re unusual jobs, fun jobs or people who take ordinary jobs and make them extraordinary. If you have a suggestion for a future profile, let us know at news@marionstar.com.
This article originally appeared on Marion Star: Derek Mullins wears many hats at Marion's Shovel City Drinkery
