Valerie Gonzalez and Skip Jones had a desire to change courses in their careers and wanted to incorporate their love of food into their next step.
Open for a week, their upscale convenience store, Charcuterie, brings back the salty meats and hard-to-get items residents missed when longtime specialty store DeRosa’s left downtown Griffith last year. But rather than just take over that space, Jones, a carpenter by trade, and Gonzalez envisioned a bigger operation.
“I’m a foodie, and I’ve always been. It’s my hobby,” Jones said. His work in construction wasn’t making him happy, but turning his hobby into a career was not an easy call.
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Gonzalez, a writer, found herself equally disenchanted with the freelance writing world, so bringing their love of good, different food back to downtown Griffith seemed like as good of an idea as any.
Their plan, they decided, centered on combining higher-end food with convenience when they grabbed the bigger storefront at 128 N. Broad St. and gutted it, then rebuilt it.
“The American Artisan scene is exploding right now, and it covers all the stuff we love: Wisconsin cheeses and minimally processed meats,” Gonzalez said. “We want to be an outlet for artisans because it’s hard to focus on making the food and retailing it at the same, but we also have a general pantry in here for convenience.”
The fact that Griffith is the town to watch these days sealed the deal for the location.
“Griffith is having its renaissance. We looked at Highland, Schererville, St. John and other places, but we both live here,” Gonzalez said.
“When DeRosa’s left, if left a void, so let’s fill this spot, except instead of cans of stuff, let’s have fresh vanilla beans and handmade cheese from Vemont,” Jones said.
Because Jones loves to cook, there will also be hot food offerings every day, and the two plan on hosting wine and cheese pairing events and other cooking series. They are hesitant to call themselves a cafe or restaurant, however, because they want to focus on providing artisan offerings at competitive prices.
And with a two-way liquor license, they also sell their own label wine and local craft beers.
“We may sell some regular beer, too, just because, but we’ll focus on craft beers with as many local beers as we can get. And we may not sell (alcohol) cold, but we do have ice,” Jones said.
Michelle L. Quinn is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.