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| Jul 29, 2010 - 06:42 PM |
Queen City News - Helena's FREE Weekly Newspaper |
Helena, Montana |
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The StrawHouse Market natural food store isn’t the first such business in Helena, but it’s safe to say the design and construction of the building are unique to Queen City retail establishments.
The baled-straw insulation, passive solar windows, photovoltaic arrays for electricity, ground source heat pump technology, and even the parking lot use state-of-the-art methods designed to conserve energy and cut overhead.
“I got ideas from a lot of people and just put them together,” said owner Dirk Ellis, who has a background in mechanical engineering and aerospace. “All of our systems will pay themselves back in 10 years.”
Ellis involved the community this past fall with a special “store-raising workshop” where volunteers learned about baled-straw construction through actually taking part. The technology is increasingly found in energy-conserving residences and businesses and is featured in the Strawhouse Organic Coffee Roaster’s business Ellis’s brother owns in Junction City, Calif.
(Ellis has compiled an extensive list of consultants and suppliers on the store’s website at www.strawhousemarket.com, where you can also find all the technical specifications for the 8,500-square-foot store.)
After a “soft opening” this past Saturday to work out any operational kinks, the StrawHouse Market, Deli and Organic Coffee Roaster is now open Monday through Saturday from 6 a.m. until 9 pm. and Sunday from 8 a.m. until 7 p.m.
The address is 1050 Road Runner Drive, just behind the Goodwill Store. The phone number is 457-1050. (You can park on the grass because of the store’s rainwater collection and irrigation system that filters and reinjects it back into the groundwater.)
“People park perfect. They probably park better on this grass than they do in a regular striped parking lot,” Ellis noted, adding the cost was about the same as paving with asphalt.
The store has about 30 employees working cash registers, making and serving food in the deli, stocking shelves, and maintaining the organic produce and meat inventory.
There are some familiar faces. Smoothies and coffee drinks are courtesy of former Green Iguana owner Craig Stevenson, while Colleen Ross, formerly of the Park Avenue Bakery, is turning out bread and desserts, and Kurt Anderson, previously with the Montana Club, is the chef.
The deli offers lunch, starting with wraps, and plans to serve breakfast in the near future. On-site coffee roasting is waiting on the roaster to arrive from Sandpoint, Idaho, Ellis said.
The StrawHouse Market will not serve alcohol but will carry organic wine and beer and Montana wine if available, Ellis said. (The Real Food Store does not sell alcohol.)
Other differences between his new venture and Helena’s longtime health food store? “We’re trying to be an entry-level market and a little more family-oriented,” Ellis said.
An entry-level market, he explained, means offering a health food store for those who perhaps aren’t used to shopping at one.
Health foods have taken an ever-increasing share of the retail food market in the U.S.
Organic food did $10.4 billion in business in the U.S. in 2003, and while its slice of the entire U.S. food-sales pie is only about 2 percent, its rate of growth is between 17-21 percent per year since 1997, compared to 2-4 percent per year for non-organic food.
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The Queen City News is published every Wednesday in Helena, MT, by Mossback Media, LLC.
Contents are copyrighted and cannot be used in any form without prior permission from the QCN.
Copyright © Queen City News, 2002
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