The savory aroma of home-made soup, old-time wooden shelves filled with a selection of wines and bright displays of fresh, colorful sandwiches and sushi to grace the Nevada City Marketplace on the corner of South Pine and Spring Streets.
A year after first opening despite a difficult economy and delays, the Nevada City Marketplace continues to offer a variety of healthful beverages, fine wines, gourmet cheeses, soups, sandwiches, sweet treats, vegan items and fruit, honey, local pottery and artisan soaps.
Although the market does offer nonorganic and nonlocal food items, owners Caroline and Rick Szekely aim to provide customers with an array of local, environmentally friendly and healthy food choices.
"We're pretty unique, and we like it that way," said Caroline Szekely.
The Szekelys opened just before the 2011 Wild and Scenic Environmental Film Festival. "We got slammed that weekend," Caroline Szekely recalled.
But they learned a lot from that experience. Since then, they've had a year to refine their offerings.
"Now that we are more familiar with running the business and knowing what customers tend to purchase, we'll be a little bit more prepared," said Szekely. "We'll provide a lot of food to go, and we'll direct people to other local businesses" if the market doesn't carry what a customer wants.
Szekely credits the success of the unique market to local shoppers and business owners, and she thanked them for their support throughout the year.
"It's never an easy or good time to open," said Szekely. "We've made it because of customers who keep coming back."
Szekely won the "Expect the Best" award for customer service from the One-Stop Business and Career Center in Grass Valley. For 2012, she plans to continue her focus on customer needs.
Gabrielle Irvin is an intern from the University of Nevada, Reno. To contact her, e-mail girvin@theunion.com or call (530) 477-4811.
Nevada City Marketplace owner Caroline Szekely recently completes a transaction with customer Sam Ward at her new business at 115 South Pine in downtown Nevada City which now offers fresh sushi every day, made-to-order sandwiches, locally grown foods, specialty beer, wine and gourmet foods as well as picnic fare for river-goers. A grand opening will be held although a date has not been set yet. For information and store hours call 265-2124.
Caroline Szekely was resting Monday morning after a whirlwind opening weekend for her downtown grocery store, the long-awaited Nevada City Marketplace.
She and her husband Rick weren’t planning on opening so soon, but with the Wild and Scenic Environmental Film Festival crowds in town, “we sort of had to open this weekend,” she said.
The couple was renovating the site, located at 115 South Pine St., last year.
Szekely describes the store as an “eco convenience store” with a little bit of everything. This weekend, a variety of healthy beverages, wines, gourmet cheeses and sushi to-go were on hand.
There’s still quite a bit of stocking to do, she said: “We want to promote local food and it’s not the season.”
But customers were eager to visit the shop and its reinvigorated corner of downtown Nevada City, where Fantastic Finds and Consignments opened last week and Clavey Vineyards tasting room opened in December.
“I think it went really well,” Szekely said. “We’re very thankful for the support.”
The store’s hours are 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. To reach Nevada City Marketplace, call (530) 265-2124.
