Downtown Belleville may soon have a grocery

Owners hope to be open by February

Mayor Mark Eckert remembers the small, neighborhood food stores on corners throughout the city when he was a child.

In the 1960s, he recalls, larger grocery chains took over and most of the neighborhood stores disappeared. With renewed business and residential interest in downtown in recent months, Eckert thinks a neighborhood grocer might just work downtown, and he's heard some residents asking for one.

The trio of owners of Greek restaurant Acropolis hope to fill that void by opening Downtown Import & Grocer at 132 W. Main St., the old Curves building that is right next to their restaurant.

Besides offering a variety of imported specialty foods and gift items, co-owner Stephanie Dahm hopes her shop, which could open by February, can be the last-minute stop for people working downtown before they go home to make dinner.

As food staples go, the shop will offer bread, milk from Oberweis Dairy, eggs, butter, deli meat, and a selection of produce, some of which the owners hope will come from local, organic growers. The store also will sell whole rotisserie chickens. Customers also will be able to buy deli sandwiches to go.

Dahm, who owns the restaurant and store with her sister, Heather Noblitt and their mother, Sharon Noblitt, thinks the business will fare well with busy professionals working downtown.

"I think it's worth a try," Dahm said. "If you never try you don't know."

Eckert said he'd like to see a small grocery chain store open downtown eventually. He also said downtown still is missing things such as more retail shops and restaurants.

"We're going to continue to do what we can to draw some or all of those entities to downtown," he said.

Heather Noblitt said her family for years wanted to open an import grocer inside Acropolis, but just never had the space to do it.

Oregon Trail Roasting Co., a coffeehouse, will open by spring across the street from Acropolis and Downtown Import & Grocer.

"This is going to be like the Bermuda Triangle," Dahm said. "We're just going to trap people here."

Contact reporter Laura Girresch at lgirresch@bnd.com or 239-2507.