David Mugar will display his continued interest and committment to St. John with the opening of a new gourmet and liquor store and further expand the exsisting Starfish Market grocery selection.
Starfish Gourmet and Wines, a gourmet food and liquor store is scheduled to open in just five months across from Starfish Market on the first floor of The Marketplace, announced Mugar. “Starfish Gourmet and Wines will be much more of a specialty store,” Mugar said. “We will move Starfish’s entire wine and liquor department across the mall to the new store, which frees up additional space in the existing Starfish Market, allowing it to expand its more normal grocery items.”
The products that will be featured in the new gourmet store are still being decided, Mugar explained.
Products from Around Country
“We can’t be specific,” he said. “We’ve assembled catalogues from all sorts of places — around the country, and from France and other countries. We will be choosing the product mix soon.”
Mugar, a self-proclaimed “foodie,” hopes the new gourmet store will cater to everybody, he explained.
“I recognize some people probably subsist on just peanut butter and jelly, which I really love too,” said Mugar. “We’re going to do a lot of sampling at the new store, so we hope to win over a lot of people with our cheese, spreads and other things that they might want to have around when friends drop by for cocktails. It could appeal to everybody in different ways.”
The abundance of high-end villas on St. John attracts customers whom Mugar expects will enjoy Starfish Gourmet and Wines, he explained.
“I think St. John is ready for a store like this,” said Mugar. “With the turnover every week of all those people in the villas, they want to live it up and enjoy their vacation. They are much more inclined to want to have patés, specialty foods and products — we’re going to cater to that.”
The store will feature a world-class interior design, crafted by Fort Lauderdale-based Pavlik Design Team, according to Mugar.
“It’s going to be terrific,” he said. “It’s a dramatic departure from what we have at Starfish now. We’ve worked on the design for quite some time.”
Starfish Market, which is starting to show some wear and tear, may also be in for a makeover, Mugar explained.
Possible Starfish Market Facelift
“Starfish has done tremendous amounts of volume every week, and it takes a real pounding,” he said. “I think we’ll have Pavlik take a look at the main store after they’ve locked up Starfish Gourmet and Wines, and we’ll be making changes to Starfish to upgrade it as well. There are a lot of nice things we could do for the existing Starfish Market.”
The opening of the new gourmet store is scheduled to coincide with the anniversary of the opening of Starfish Market, Mugar explained
“We are shooting for opening in June, which is exactly when we opened Starfish,” he said. “It’s a good time, because it’s getting to be a slower time of year, so we can have a soft opening. It’s a good, safe way to open a new store.”
Starfish Gourmet and Wines will be ready for the tourist season, according to Mugar.
“Everything can be much more flexible over the summer, and we’ll be ready for when business starts to increase on the island during the winter,” he said.