The small shop is cool and dimly lit. The ceiling is corrugated tin, and the dark walls are rough lumber hung with burlap. Theres a wooden barrel full of roasted peanuts, and an open-top ice cream freezer with eight different flavors, ready to be dipped by hand. Tending the counter is a young boy with sandy brown hair who looks like he could have stepped from a Norman Rockwell painting…except for his Tommy Hilfiger sports jersey and Nike running shoes.
“Im Chandler Drake, 11 years old, and I go to Clay-Chalkville Middle School. I get to run the cash register.”
The Magic City Market is a contradiction in terms…part museum and part corner grocery, an old-time country store at the center of the states biggest city. How it got that way is a tale in itself. Up until last summer, this space was occupied by JoeJoes, a lunch counter serving hamburgers and hotdogs to the noontime crowd. But as the competition for downtown fast-food became intense, their business took a nose-dive, and co-owner Joe Drake Jr., Chandlers dad, decided to reincarnate the place as a grocery store. But, what kind? Joe had always had a soft spot in his heart for the Chicago-style markets seen in the old TV gangster show, The Untouchables…
“I used to love to see the guy out there with the hat on, sweeping, and all the fruit out front. And I thought, This would be different… “
But Joes oldest son, Christopher, had a better idea.
“He goes, Dad, lets go back even further. Lets go back to the 1800s. And I started thinking of Pop Waltons little store on The Waltons, how it had all that wood, and it was dark. So we just started gathering up as much old stuff as we could…the tin ceilings off of barns, in the Clay-Chalkville area; the tongue-and-groove wooden walls came out of some old buildings downtown.”
In the search for old-time building materials, the Drakes kept coming across memorabilia from Birminghams past, which is now on display in the store…among the keepsakes are window frames and sashes from the old Peerless Saloon, which opened in the late 1800s and closed during Prohibition. And theres an antique parking meter. No date on it, but heres a hint: it doesnt take quarters, it takes pennies.
“And it seemed like the list got bigger and bigger and bigger. Thats why we have many, many items, just not a lot of each one.”
Joes parents…Joe Sr., and Jane…are also co-owners and they keep a guest book for visitors. Lately, a growing number of out-of-towners are finding their way to the market. The hometowns scribbled in the guest book are surprisingly wide-ranging…from Columbus, Ohio, to Huron, South Dakota, and from New York City to Singapore. Jane Drake…
“We had a lady come through from Belfast, Northern Ireland. She caught the bus and rode to Southside, then she walked up to Vulcan and came back down and stopped by our shop on the way back. She loved it.”
But some of the Markets most loyal customers are office workers from the surrounding buildings…
“Faye Huey. Ive worked on the corner next to Magic City Market ever since it opened. Most of all, I love their hospitality. And its a great thrill to go over in the afternoon and get the vanilla milkshake they make, too…”
As for the future, Joe Jr. says he hopes word-of-mouth about the Market will keep spreading and keep the cash register ringing. One way to do that is to offer old-time services that modern supermarkets dont. Customers can e-mail or phone their orders in, and pick them up via curb service without getting out of their cars. Plus, Joe delivers. As for his delivery area, lets just say its…flexible.
“I have a saying…Ill go to the moon, if theyve got the money.”
~Dale Short, with photography assistance from David Knight, July 26, 2004