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WAUSAU EAST: Downtown grocery puts local first
By Mark Multer
Wausau Daily Herald
April 17, 2006, Progress Section
Last year, a local architect and an area farmer embarked upon an enterprise intended to feed a need in the Wausau area and, in its own way, change the way local goods are bought and sold.
Kevin Korpela had a design for an old-time downtown grocery store, and Blaine Tornow, the owner of Moonshadow Farm west of Wausau, helped that vision grow into DowntownGrocery.com. The idea was to fill a niche in the growing market for organic produce, and at the same time help support those who grow and produce foods locally.
“The primary reason for my involvement is so I can supply local produce right to the store,” said Tornow, 52, who began farming in 1990 and has been a certified organic grower for 11 years. “The store has its own farm, and the farm has its own retail store.
“We’ve got dozens of vendors that we work with, growers and farmers that we work with, and we try to source as much local in everything as much as we possibly can to support the local ag economy.”
The co-owners opened the downtown grocery at 607 Third St. last July, forging a symbiotic relationship that extends to the farmers and bakers who supply the store, and to customers, who have a say in the products sold.
Korpela, 40, who works days at Becher-Hoppe Associates on Fourth Street downtown, refurbished the store front and restored its original wood floors and tin ceilings to recreate the look of days gone by. He sees great potential for the store and its role in helping revitalize the downtown, alongside neighboring bookstores, coffee shops, eateries and boutiques.
“In the big picture, having a grocery store downtown adds one level of viability to Wausau,” he said. “We’re nine months into this grocery store, and we’re super excited to be located in Wausau and in downtown and on the 600 block with all our unique neighbors that are on the 600 block.”
Tornow, meanwhile, is leading the effort to educate consumers on the benefits of organic foods and supporting local farmers by purchasing fruits, vegetables and meats raised in the area. This winter he raised 20 varieties of salad greens in his 3,000-square-foot greenhouse at Moonshadow and made them available at the store the day they were picked. The result is fresher vegetables that require less fuel to transport, and which keep local dollars in the local economy.
“You can’t go to another grocery store anywhere in this part of the state and get fresh-cut salad greens,” he said. “They fly off the shelf the day they’re picked, and you don’t get them any fresher than that, anywhere.”
In the near future, Tornow said, the staff at the store plans to hold cooking classes and show movies on organics and eco-friendly practices on a drop-down projection screen at the store.
“We want to get involved with not only selling food but providing information on organic and healthy foods, recipes and have cooking classes down the road,” he said. “We want people to come in and enjoy shopping and share thoughts and ideas. We want to get on the education bandwagon and let people know about organics and healthy foods and how to cook them.”
In addition to local vegetables, the store offers pasture-raised beef, pork and chicken from a farm near Stevens Point, bread and muffins baked by local bakeries and in its own kitchen, and a deli menu of staff-prepared salads, sandwiches and soups. If that’s not enough, it offers 20 varieties of beer and a selection of frozen foods found at larger chain stores.
“We try and have a sprinkling of a little bit of everything,” Tornow said. “We’re only 1,500 square feet, so we can’t compete with the variety of a Pick ’n Save.
“We try and offer a fairly decent selection, and for downtown people I think it is definitely a convenience.”
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