AGNEW — Chris Frankfurth is taking the historic Agnew Grocery and Feed store back to a time he remembers well as a boy growing up in rural Sequim.
“You can’t have a kid on a hay bale eating an ice cream with a farm field in the background” anymore, said Frankfurth, the store’s owner for the past two years.
But Frankfurth knows that’s exactly what’s happening today at his establishment.
In that respect, time has pretty much stood still for Agnew Grocery and Feed, founded in 1926 — farmland is preserved in perpetuity as trust land across Old Olympic Highway — and there are hay bales and picnic benches to sit and munch a snack on and relax in the shade.
Nearby Olympic Discovery Trail frequently routes cyclists to the store for goodies and a drink.
Mocha, Frankfurth’s sleepy 11-year-old chocolate Labrador retriever, is the store’s greeter at the entrance, and she sweetly accepts gentle pats on the head.
Frankfurth, 38, is returning the store to its agricultural roots, a community draw and being all about producing and selling local farm products.
Certainly, “buy local” is nothing new, but it is a business concept that is getting plenty of attention during uncertain economic times and unstable gas prices.
Frankfurth takes it seriously.
“People are thinking about buying local now, and this is a great spot to market products locally,” Frankfurth said of the red barnyard store at 2862 Old Olympic Highway, his funky, rusting, faded red 1941 Chevy pickup nearby with the store’s logo stenciled on its side.
For sale out on the entrance deck are pots of red geraniums grown at a flower garden down the road.
Inside, the store’s Agnew Wine Cellar features vintages produced by local wineries. Beyond that is a wall of vintages, seemingly from everywhere else, even organic brands from Chile.
Frankfurth’s father, Garland, a retired Sequim schoolteacher and wine-making hobbyist, helps his son select wines.
Port Townsend Brewing Co. ales are chilling in the cooler alongside other microbrews and domestic brands.
Also refrigerated is Jose’s Famous Salsa from Sequim, Papa Murphy’s pizza from the store in Port Angeles and sandwiches from Sunny Farms Country Store in Carlsborg.
Rainshadow Coffee from Sequim is sold along with fresh greens from Johnston Farms, across the highway, plus Clark Farm organic beef from Dungeness.
Then there’s cold Bedford’s root beer brewed in Port Angeles, locally produced honey, grass-fed lamb from Kol Simcha Farm on Happy Valley Road and fresh-baked bread from downtown Sequim’s Bell Street Bakery.
Out back in the feed warehouse that Frankfurth recently restored is grass and alfalfa hay that local farmers grew.
The warehouse’s exterior was finished with siding borrowed from the old meat locker that sat decaying next to the store and that Frankfurth reluctantly tore down because it was beyond restoration.
Frankfurth said he has sold feed orders to customers as far away as Joyce and Poulsbo, and he believes competitive prices are the reason.
The former owner of Frankfurth Auto Body & Towing in Sequim, Frankfurth said he got tired of dealing with insurance companies and angry people, so he sold his shop three years ago.
“Throwing bales is a lot more fun than painting cars,” he said.
He bought the house behind the grocery store, and one morning while walking out toward the store, he said he noticed all the traffic, stopped to look it over and decided to buy it from former owners Pete and Portia Watkins.
“I thought this was a project I could tackle,” he said, and the store attracts between 250 and 300 customers a day.
Frankfurth next plans to add playground equipment behind the store, as well as picnic benches and even a chicken coop.
He said he and his staff of four love to do eye-catching promotions out front, such as selling baby chickens with the sign “Hot Chicks for Sale.”
“Sometime, I’d like to have a deli and espresso,” he said.
On the building’s front is a do-it-yourself classified ad and community announcement chalkboard with all kinds of notices scrawled on it.
Inside at the back of the store, just about any holistic pet food can be found, with the store’s rental movie DVDs shoehorned in between.
Agricultural antiques and other relics crowd the store inside and out.
Famous North Olympic Peninsula photographer Ross Hamilton’s old rusting bicycle, which he gave to friend Frankfurth, sits out by the steps into the store.
A cigarette machine dating back to a decade when smokes were 30 cents a pack was loaned to the store for display.
“A lot of the old and rusting relics are things people bring by and leave,” he said.
It’s the kind of store that boggles the minds of some visitors, he added.
“A visitor from California told me, ‘I didn’t know a place like this could be existing. I just want to watch for awhile,’” he remembered with a chuckle.
“I want to make it kind of farmy and not commercialized. It’s not going to make a bunch of money, but it’s saving a piece of history.”
Joanna Calloway is one of four who works the cash register behind the counter, a retired Safeway employee who misses using a digital scanner but has fun working at the store.
She said that though she retired after 18 years, she was happy to take the more laid-back job two years ago at the Agnew store.
“He was desperate for people, and here I are,” she joked with a smile.
“We stock and sweep and try to make it cute.”
A frequent customer to the store and a Blue Mountain Road resident, Allyson Braunberger said she appreciates the store for its handy location and thoughtful selection.
Plus, she said she’d rather avoid the supermarket.
“This is the best place on the planet Earth,” she proclaimed after walking out the front door to head home.
________
Sequim-Dungeness Valley Editor Jeff Chew can be reached at 360-681-2391 or at jeff.chew@peninsuladailynews.com.
