Exceeding expectations: Meyers Specialty Market's eatery growing in popularity
McCONNELSVILLE — When Sarah Griesmeyer purchased Jo-Ads Bulk Foods in 2019, her plans reached beyond selling the Amish products that had been part of the store for generations.
Specifically, she wanted to use her knack for cooking to make one of Morgan County's most tenured businesses even better.
They've done precisely that.
The store was renamed to Meyers Specialty Market, and added an eatery and bake shop to the bulk foods operation. All items are scratch made daily, with many recipes derived from Sarah herself.
It is located on the corner of Main and Seventh streets in McConnelsville, on the site of the former Central Market.
"A lot of people were afraid we would make it a completely different store and that wasn't my intent," Sarah said. "I intended to expand and improve on it. I felt it had a lot of potential."
The market still has the Amish culinary mainstays, ranging egg noodles and chicken and beef stock to seasonings, jellies and candy. The change came in the attached room, where hot sandwiches, soups, bread and baked goods are made daily.
"I don't use any mixes, which is the difference between myself and like an Amish bakery," Sarah said. "They use a lot of the mixes from our distributors and I don't."
The menu offers five paninis and wraps, including the widely popular Hot Italian, which includes ham, pepperoni, salami, muenster cheese, hot pepper mustard and pesto spread. The paninis are grilled on house-made wheat, multigrain or artisan bread and can be ordered in a box meal, which includes house made cookies and chips.
There are also three salads, including the newly added Strawberry Salad, which includes strawberries, onion, pecan and strawberry vinaigrette dressing on a bed of lettuce.
Daily hot dish specials have also been highly popular — June's included macaroni and cheese, loaded potato soup, spaghetti and meat sauce, bacon cheeseburger casserole and a lemon chicken basil pasta.
Patrons order food at the counter, but there is seating available inside and out. Sarah said they wanted the eatery and bakery to differentiate itself from the Jo-Ads Cafe that existed previously.
Most come away surprised, she said. That includes locals who only remember the store as Jo-Ads.
"A lot of people come to see it as a destination," she said. "We've been very active on Facebook and have a website under construction. We are getting a lot of more new people in. ... The people who sought it out were coming to find an Amish bulk food store and realized there is a lot more."
Sarah grew up the ninth among 14 children in Pensacola, Florida, and southeast Alabama, where she watched as her mother prepared large meals from scratch. It laid the groundwork for a passion for cooking that is a primary reason she wanted to purchase the store and open the eatery.
She elected for hot sandwiches over cold ones because she admittedly prefers a hot meal. She and her husband Will proceeded to transform the adjoining south side of the store into her kitchen, bakery and eatery. They bought used equipment and reburnished it themselves.
That's where Will comes into the fray. His ability to fix and rebuild equipment — he has a background in mechanical engineering and is a certified HVAC technician — has saved the business substantial amounts of money in repairs.
"He's doing a little bit of everything," Sarah said. "He repairs everything in the store. He's crucial. In the past 365 days, every piece of major refrigeration we've had is used and needed major repairs or replacement, and he has done it all. We're paying 10 percent of our costs because of him doing repairs. When you have 20-plus pieces of major refrigeration, between storage refrigerators and freezers, and retail refrigerators and freezers, and display cases, it's overwhelming."
Sarah learned to bake bread from her mother, but she is a mostly self-taught baker who has sought out others to learn more tricks of the trade. Many of those items now sit in her showcase in the eatery for customers to purchase.
The store has exceeded her expectations. It currently has a 4.8 rating on Google reviews, with almost all being five stars.
"There have been times when I've had to step back and say, 'I did this,'" Sarah said. "I would say most of the credit I give to my husband. He custom made my kitchen. I am very simplistic by nature, and he is the dreamer. His philosophy is 'do the most you can when you can.' His whole plan was to build for growth. If we did something small and simple, then we'd have to do it all over again. He built for potential."
The store and eatery are open daily from 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., with lunch being served from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.
sblackbu@gannett.com; Twitter: @SamBlackburnTR
This article originally appeared on Zanesville Times Recorder: Meyers Specialty Market serving scratch-made food in McConnelsville
