The homemade peanut butter is already a big hit at the now open Farms on Main at 1207 Main in downtown Newberry. The Long family sells meat from area farms, fresh produce, dairy products, homemade bread and offers other neat ideas at their unique store. It’s an exciting addition to downtown.
Next door, inside Munson Music, the Bawdy Boutique “sells 50% vintage, 50% new clothing,” said owner Kira Summer and “unlike some thrift stores, we carefully select and curate our line” to give a certain vibe, with much of that 1970’s and 1990’s. “It’s going so well,” said Kira. The Bawdy Boutique is open Wednesday—Saturday.
Na’cho Margarita opened Friday at 2064 Wilson Road. The popular Mexican restaurant at Lake Murray, in Lexington and now in Newberry offers traditional Mexican food, new takes on traditional dishes, seafood and margaritas (their slogan: “it’s in our name”).
Wilson’s Nursery opened at 2114 Wilson Rd. with a wide selection of plants and is attracting gardeners, from beginners to green-thumbs, from around the region. The Wilson’s have a long history in Rock Hill, in business since 1952 and considered Rock Hill’s best nursery, and they have a store at the State Farmer’s Market in Columbia.
TJ Maxx plans to open beside Tractor Supply and has submitted plans that have been approved by the city building staff. They’ve indicated they’ll start building renovations this summer. TJ Maxx is one of the hottest chains in the country, and this will make a lot of shoppers happy.
Cracker Barrel is not coming to Newberry. Despite buying land in Newberry in 2005 beside what is now 7-Eleven and indicating they would start construction soon, Cracker Barrel never built. We’ve stayed in contact over the years, such as making sure they knew about Samsung, new hotels, etc. Last month, I wrote their leadership team in Tennessee and told them we really want them to build in Newberry—but if not, to please sell their land. They wrote a nice letter back, and said they were putting the land up for sale. Cracker Barrel plans to open two new restaurants nationwide this year. Our recruiter, Retail Strategies, is contacting sit-down type restaurants to let them know about this opportunity, including the I-26 traffic count of 41,000 vehicles per day.
In a contrast of a chain’s slow growth to a chain in rapid growth, Dutch Bros, which is building beside KFC, plans to open 185 coffee shops this year.
In city government news, four NFD firefighters received lifesaving ribbons for recent life saving actions: Captain RJ Dowd, Lt. Jake Longshore, and Firefighters Luke Bird and Remington Cox. And the city utility received a national award again for electric reliability.
The city PRT department has a wide range of camps and activities this summer, to include art camps at the Newberry Arts Center, tennis camps, skateboard camps, summer movies, and the RecMobile. The expansion of the Gully Washer Splash Park will be complete later in the summer, and new pickleball courts will debut as well. Our annual Juneteenth Celebration will be June 20.
America’s 250th celebration has geared up, and that includes locally. The Newberry Museum just opened a new Revolutionary War exhibit. Preparations are underway for an unveiling of a new American Revolutionary marker at Memorial Park, and that marker will include the 11 skirmishes fought between Patriots and Tories in Newberry County. The ceremony will be July 3 at noon.
The Newberry Opera House has a full summer of entertainment, numerous movies and the 246th Army Band on July 3 at 6:30 p.m. Kudos to Anne Smith and the Opera House for offering a full slate of summer activities.
Someone asked me last week what could they do to help get more businesses to downtown and to Newberry? I asked them to shop and eat locally. That helps our current businesses and shows potential new businesses they can be successful in Newberry.
I hope you have a nice early summer.
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