Streeter Flynn Vodka Recipe a ‘Rip-off’ of Denver-Based Rival’s Formula Say an Increasing Number of Colorado Liquor Industry Professionals
According to the Streeter Flynn vodka website, the founder of Streeter Flynn Vodka, Streeter McClure writes, “My idea was to make the best-tasting vodka that would be perfect with any cocktail, to make that PERFECT cocktail.”
The first problem with that statement is that it was not Streeter McClure’s idea. McClure’s idea for Streeter Flynn vodka was to steal another Denver-based company’s idea and try to pass it off as his own. But like his public comments that he has “formed a committee” to explore a run for Denver Mayoral Office, McClure comes across as glib. He has no such committee as far as we could determine and has no “distilling team” or distillery. McClure has no history of working in the spirits business until January 2021.
Similarly, McClure writes in his Linkedin bio that he is president of another company, DigitalSafe Online. He writes that DigitalSafe Online provides “engineering” services, although he himself is not an engineer and the company is not registered with the Colorado Department of State in any capacity, let alone engineering. This congers images of the Seinfeld character George Costanza and his architect delusions.
However, McClure appears to have mastered the art of the media con, but does not seem to be able measure up to his his own inflated self-image. It turns out that McClure has a penchant for exaggeration that borders on delusional. A simple Google search of McClure’s statements to the press in the past year alone makes Alice In Wonderland look like a serious documentary. McClure exhibits a lot of signs of a pathological liar.
Streeter McClure Companies Not Found in Colorado Department of State Registry
A check of his company, Streeter Flynn Liquors shows no such entity registered in the State of Colorado. Streeter Flynn Liquors appears to be a fictional entity that McClure repeatedly refers to in media interviews. However, Streeter Flynn LLC was registered on January 11, 2021, just a short time before he launched the brand.
The listed address for the Streeter Flynn LLC is a residential address at 290 S. Forest Street in Denver. Public records show James Parker McClure age 47 and Streeter Flynn McClure age 49 as residents. The Colorado State business registration record for the LLC also has a history of filing delinquencies. There does not appear to be any physical business location associated with Streeter Flynn vodka or Streeter McClure, other than a home address and dubious filing status with the Department of State.
McClure writes on his linkedin page that he is also the President of DigitalSafe and DigitalSafe Alarms, but oddly there are no business registrations for either company in the State of Colorado. However, the addresses given for the two [DigitalSafe] companies on their respective web sites are McClure’s home address also at 290 S. Forest Street, Denver.
There may be a perfectly legitimate explanation (although it’s a stretch) for all of this but our “con artist alarm” is blaring code-red about now.
Why McClure is Being Called “CHEATER FLYNN”
But back to the McClure vodka business scam. Not only was it not McClure’s idea, he has nothing to do with making it. According to insiders, “McClure would not know the difference between distilling and dysentery,” joked a Denver-area bar patron who claims to know McClure. “The only thing Streeter knows about vodka, is how to drink it,” said a fellow bar patron.
That seemed to be a familiar refrain as we interviewed people familiar with the situation. McClure did not stop at just copying a competitor’s product, the marketing copy on the Streeter Flynn web site describing the Streeter Flynn Vodka is very similar to the Felene Vodka website. It’s not a stretch to say that it’s technically identical.
McClure is quickly earning the nickname, “Cheater Flynn” as a result of his attempt to knock-off a favorite local distillery. A cursory look at McClure’s business practices and it’s not hard to understand that the “Cheater” moniker goes beyond pillaging intellectual property built by others.
Denver Distillery Tarver’s Desperate Attempt to Stay Alive
Streeter Flynn vodka is officially made by the Denver Distillery. The Denver Distillery and its owners, Ron Tarver and Chris Anderson-Tarver clearly copied their client’s product and tried to pass it off as their own under the Streeter Flynn brand. The Tarvers unequivocally copied the sugarcane vodka formula from their former client, an account corroborated by multiple sources; including a former Denver Distillery worker. Denver Distillery’s involvement here is not in dispute, it is confirmed by the presence of legal documents signed by Ron Tarver.
“McClure claiming, he came up with this formula for Streeter Flynn Vodka is verifiably false,” says a spokesperson for Felene Inc, the distillery that claims it came up with the original process and recipe. “It won’t take a legal scholar to conclude that McClure and Tarver knowingly copied our formula. They launched this product a month after our contract ended. It’s an exact knockoff our our product by two less-than-honest businessmen.”
In an interview with Denverite.com Ron Tarver speaks about his Denver Distillery being a creative venture versus a profit-seeking endeavor. “As you get near the end of your life you want to be more creative. This is a creative enterprise,” Tarver said.
Copying a client’s product exactly does not exactly scream “creativity”, so we would suggest that Tarver’s claim about the altruism of creativity is a bit of a con-job and is simply covering for the colossal miscalculation of his investment versus market acceptance of his own products. According to Tarver, he spent $1.5 Million building the Denver Distillery and based on estimates, Denver Distillery only generates between $5,000-$7,500 a month in gross retail sales revenue. At that rate it would take 50 years to just break even. What is more believable is that Tarver saw the success of his client, Felene Vodka and thought he could exploit it. What Tarver failed to recognize was that the effort behind Felene to support its retailers was unprecedented, an oversight most knock-off artists and quick-buck hucksters don’t take into consideration.
Stealing intellectual property from American companies has become the not-so-secret and not-so-honest strategy of the Chinese government, but there is something especially distasteful when a company steals ideas from other Americans, let alone a neighbor.
“The Colorado distilling community is a close-knit group that has a lot of pride about being original. Copy-cat distilleries like the Denver Distillery seem to be rare and tend to stand-out,” said a distillery industry spokesperson.
According to the legal documents, Felene’s statements corroborate that Tarver had access to the proprietary information related to Felene’s formulas and processes. In 2019, Felene contracted with the Denver Distillery and Ron Tarver to bottle its organic sugar cane vodka formula while it was building its own distillery. The Denver Distillery began making Streeter Flynn vodka in 2021, one month after its contract with Felene ended. It’s becoming very evident, Denver Distillery copied the Felene process after seeing the success of Felene in the national market.
“The lesson here? These three guys have no integrity and are not trust-worthy business partners,” said the Felene spokesperson. “Looking back, the Denver Distillery was failing and they were at less than 5% capacity, but we never thought they would resort to this kind of behavior after we helped them.”
We were able to speak with a former Denver Distillery worker that asked not to be identified. “In 2019 the Denver Distillery was failing. The shop was arguably one of the worst performing distilleries in Colorado. They were only operating at 5%-10% capacity,” said a former Denver Distillery worker. “Leasing-out their capacity to Felene kept them in business during the pandemic. It’s kinda lame that Ron copied Felene’s formula after they helped him.”
According to others familiar with the situation, Tarver jumped at the opportunity to lease capacity to Felene in an attempt to save the failing distillery, located on Broadway in Denver. The original contract with Denver Distillery and Felene was originally supposed to cover January 2020 through September 2020.
In September of 2020, Denver Distillery was under extreme financial distress due to the pandemic shutdown. According to parties familiar with the contract, Tarver asked Felene management to extend their contract into 2021. This second arrangement was also verified through legal documents obtained by ForexTV.
“In September of 2021, Tarver asked us to extend our contract with him so he might save his distillery; and we did that, despite our facilities being online, “said a Felene Spokesperson. “We did that as a gesture of goodwill and as good industry neighbor. We kept the Denver Distillery alive at a considerable cost to our own company. Little did we know, Tarver used that time to copy our successful formula and would claim it as his own.”
Felene has not said if it has considered filing legal action against McClure or Tarver, however the ethics of these two men claiming the formula as their own does not sit well with many in the industry. Not only did McClure and Tarver claim it was their idea, they entered the Felene formula into competitions as their own and unfairly accepted the acclaim. “This is the definition of sleaze. It’s the civilian equivalent of stolen valor,” said a Denver bar owner.
One Denver Liquor Store owner said, “once we found out about Streeter Flynn vodka, we stopped selling it. This is not the way we do business and I think most people will do the same when they learn what’s going on.”
“My employees now call him ‘Cheater Flynn’,” said the store owner.
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