Eclectic store to remain one of a kind

PORT ANGELES — An eclectic corner store in Port Angeles has new owners, and Nick and Taylor Burnette intend to keep McPhee’s Grocery one of a kind.

The Burnettes, who purchased the iconic shop from longtime owner and former city Mayor Frank McPhee this month, will continue to offer a variety of international fare and expand on McPhee’s business model.

McPhee, 83, acquired the store in a former building at the corner of Eighth and Race streets in 1977. He is known for telling jokes and stocking the cozy shelves with random ethnic foods like chocolate-covered Polish plums and Ethiopian beer.

“Taylor and I are both really into food adventures, and we love exploring the different international foods that are out there, so this was a dream come true,” said Nick Burnette, a 42-year-old Port Angeles native and former Safeway assistant manager.

“We get to learn more about foods we never would have found by talking to people that cook with them, or ask for them, so it helps our exploration of food and cultures that are connected to it.”

The Burnettes will introduce grab-and-go hot foods themed around seasons or holidays — think German currywurst on Octoberfest — and plan to open a produce section supplied by local farmers.

“We’re also planning to have some picnic tables with a seating area,” said Taylor Burnette, a 28-year-old artist who will paint murals on the interior walls and ice machine.

“I think the building gets to stay green, just because it’s very iconic,” she added in a Wednesday interview.

The sale became official June 7.

McPhee, who served as Port Angeles mayor in 1988 and 1989, said he had been “really burned out” in the last few years and decided it was a “good time for me to sell.”

“I think Nick’s going to come up with some good changes,” McPhee said in a telephone interview last week.

Nick Burnette remembers shopping for Russian candies at McPhee’s Parkway as a youth. He has a sister-in-law who worked for McPhee.

“You’ll find something you’ve never seen,” Nick Burnette said after selling a birthday cake pinata to a customer Wednesday.

“When I was a customer, that was my favorite thing. It was like a little exploration to check out all the different items.”

The Burnettes will stock local salmon and salsa and continue to sell the popular Bedford Sodas made in Port Angeles.

“I just want to stress how much we love what Frank has done,” Taylor Burnette said, “and the history that’s here that we want to preserve.”

Parkway Grocery opened in 1937 when Olympic National Park was established, McPhee said.

It still serves customers traveling up Race Street toward the park’s visitor center, Heart O’ the Hills campground and Hurricane Ridge.

“We used to get more tourists when I had a sign that was visible from a couple of blocks back,” McPhee said.

Nick Burnette said he had applied for a city facade grant and planned to put a sign at the corner of Eighth and Race streets.

The timing of the sale was ideal for Nick Burnette, who had moved with his family to Shoreline to pursue a cooperate career with Safeway. He decided he missed the “small town, the ocean, the mountains and my family” in Port Angeles.

“We decided to move back, and the timing worked out perfect because that’s about when Frank wanted to sell,” Nick Burnette said.

McPhee’s store moved into its present building after a fire damaged a larger store building on the same lot in the 1990s.

Taylor Burnette said the original store had a meat department and was “much bigger.”

“It was a like a full grocery store, so I think when they rebuilt it, it turned into a convenience store,” she said.

McPhee said the idea for his ethnic food selection was born one Sunday after mass when a Filipina woman asked if he had any food from the Philippines.

“I didn’t have a clue about it, and I asked her what would I look for,” he said.

The woman provided a list of about a half-dozen items, which McPhee found at a Seattle-area Asian market and sold in his store.

A Japanese woman then brought McPhee a box of Japanese goods from her pantry, which McPhee procured and sold to his Port Angeles customers.

“It grew like topsy,” McPhee said.

“Some Chinese people came in and said ‘Hey, can you get this?’ And then some Russians asked for their (foods), and Mexicans, Thai. Vietnamese was one of the last ones.”

McPhee said he did not have enough shelf space to sell foods from Western Europe, “so we stuck on Eastern Europe and Asian.”

The Burnettes already have expanded the hours of the store, which is now open Sundays. The store closes one hour later — 7 p.m. — during the week and at 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays.

Nick and Taylor Burnette are busy raising a family when they aren’t running the store. They each had three children before they were married about three years ago.

“Together we’re like a Brady Bunch,” said Taylor Burnette, who hails from South Carolina.

Head Associate Clerk Tonya Gear is often working behind the register in the mornings.

McPhee said the unique beer selection he left for the Burnettes pales in comparison to the selection he had in his original store.

“In the late ’70s, I and a truck stop in Wenatchee that had the best selection of beers in the state of Washington,” McPhee said.

“Seattle didn’t touch us. I had one whole wall in the old store. I think there were nine doors. We had around 200 labels. We had them literally from around the world.

“That was really fun selling that stuff,” he added.

McPhee thanked his longtime customers, saying he will miss his interactions with patrons at the counter.

“They’ve been supportive, not just in the store with the things we’ve sold, but they tolerated my jokes,” McPhee said.

“They’ve been a good bunch. I’ve been very fortunate to be in this neighborhood.”

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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at rollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.