Taurus gifts The American hand painted, specialty gun

Published 4:21 pm Tuesday, November 24, 2020

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Owners of The American, Heather and Tyler Thomas got the surprise of a lifetime on Veteran’s Day, when they were gifted with a hand painted, specialty crafted gun by Taurus.

“Camilo (Velasquez) and Brett (Vorhees) called me and told me they had something special they wanted to deliver in person,” Tyler said.

While Tyler figured it must be a gun, he and Heather were both surprised when they were gifted a 45 ACP 1911, hand painted by artist Joe Everson.

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“We have a really good partnership with Taurus; we’ve had the opportunity to serve their crew multiple times and it was especially key during the summer with the shutdown, and I think they just wanted to honor that friendship and partnership by gifting us this,” Tyler said.

Taurus brought Everson into town to work on a special project they were rolling out, but while he was here they took him to dine at The American.

While dining, Everson was inspired by the American themed décor and doodled the flag being planted in Iowa Jima on D-Day. That doodle went on to be hand drawn and etched onto the grip of the custom made gun.

“We met him while he was eating, but when we met him we had no idea he was doing a gun for us,” Tyler said.

Everson even painted the gun olive drab, which matches The American’s Jeep and military vehicle they use for caterings. The olive drab coloring was used as the base color to not only match, but to also mimic the P40 Warhawk that first flew in 1938.

“It has the tiger’s teeth on it and everything,” Tyler said. “We feel really special having this.”

Heather agreed, saying it is a true piece of art.

Since being given the hand crafted work, The American has it on display, along with original sketch made by Everson. The gun is mounted in a glass encasement in the lounge area of the restaurant, so customers can see both sides, instead of it hanging on the wall.

The gun is a working gun, although Tyler said they have no plans to ever remove it from its encasing due to fear of damaging the integrity of the artwork.

Heather and Tyler are so thankful to Taurus for honoring their special friendship and partnership in this way and invite all their customers to come see this one-of-a-kind piece on display.