Well, we finally have done it. Brick Street Market was awarded it's Class B Reserve License last week! It's been a year and a half long conversation with the City of Delavan and many committee meetings trying to figure a way to add this program. It's a tale of the determination of a small business, and how the entrepreneur must be ever steadfastly loyal to their dream.
We opened in July 2008, received our Class A retailer license in October 2008. By January 2009, I knew what we really needed was the license that allowed us to not only sell the bottle for off-premise consumption, but also serve our customers a glass to enjoy with our wonderful cheeses. Preliminary investigation - $10,000 for the initial year, $625 every year after. Whew! That's a lot of wine, and not just a little bit of cheese as well. As you no doubt recall, we were in the height of recession woes at that time, and I decided I'd have to wait until we were better established. Still, that year when I renewed my 'little' Class A license (I use quotes because any entrepreneur will know that a $625 fee is hefty in the budget of a fledgling business), it just bugged me that TIF districts in our community's industrial parks and big box shopping centers had received financial support to get up and running, but downtown businesses were failing for lack of any support, past or present. For the better part of 2010, I had the ongoing support of one alderman, Dave Kilkenny, in my search for a solution. Dave has been a great champion of downtown business, and I so appreciated his being in my corner. While I continued to lose customers who just wanted to have a glass of wine, I started doing some 'light' reading.
Wisconsin Statute 125 is all about how to put someone in a deep trance, from which there is little hope of recovery. Fortunately for me, I also have one of Southeast Wisconsin's most helpful wine distributor reps around - Beth from Purple Feet. She helped break down the details, and give me examples of nearby communities and how they creatively encouraged the small business through development grants. At about this time, I was invited to participate in the Revitalize Downtown Taskforce, and talk eventually came around to how development grants could also help downtown businesses. Lo and behold, 9 months later, the City hired a new Adminstrator, Denise Pieroni, who came on board with new ideas and energies and the dialogue turned in a more positive direction.
Over the summer, a plan was proposed to provide an economic development grant for small businesses within the historic business district. I was the recipient of the first grant approved at the October Common Council meeting, and received the license last Friday! Woo Hoo! We are thrilled at the prospect of our customers coming to our store and sitting down with a glass of wine and a cheese board, featuring our great lineup of cheeses. Thank you to all our customers who continue to appreciate what we are trying to accomplish here in Delavan, and to friends and family who put up with my, at times, complete focus on Brick Street Market. As I said at the top, one hurdle cleared - on to the next!
