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BISBEE — Mimosa Market was the place to be on Sunday afternoon, as locals celebrated its third annual 100th birthday party in style.
The event at the much-loved community grocery at 215 Brewery Ave. featured a pot luck, music by Buzz and the Soul Senders, and plenty of socializing.
Owners Barbara Johnson and Ralph Rattelmueller, who have had the market for three years, said when they found out in 2004 that their store was part of a 100-year-old tradition, “it was a good excuse to throw a party.”
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That year also marked their 25th wedding anniversary. Now, they’re “stuck” throwing one, but are very happy to do so.
“We were looking for a place we could live and work, and we found it,” Johnson said. “It’s been a wonderful experience.”
“We’re a team,” she added. “He cooks. I eat.”
“My favorite definition of a community is a group of people that care more about each other than they have to,” added Rattelmueller — who is also the reigning Miz Ol’ Biz known as “Momma Storandelli.”
Early into the party, folks sat on couches set up in an area — decorated with Japanese lanterns and Tibetan prayer flags — outside the market and chatted as the band set up under an overcast sky.
Richard Byrd, a photographer, said the market offers high-quality products “you can’t get anywhere else.”
“It’s a very personal store,” he said. “(Employees) come and ask you what you’re looking for.”
Last year, he added, some 300 people attended the party.
The store is a full-service grocery, offering everyday foodstuffs, a butcher shop, deli, toiletries, household cleaning items, bulk herbs and grains, videos, and fine wines and beer.
Jay Hubler, a Bisbeeite who lives right above the market — named for the Mimosa tree out back — said it’s definitely the nicest store in town.
City Mayor Ron Oertle said Mimosa is an alternative to the corporate grocery store, and “creates a wholesome sense of community.”
Damion, who goes by a single moniker and patronizes the market, said its owners are a great addition to Bisbee.
“They sure know how to put a meal together,” he said.
Johnson and Rattelmueller said they believed the store was built by a baker named Ralph, and now it’s owned by a baker named Ralph.
The store has had a colorful history. Over a century ago, it was founded by the Aira family, and called Aira’s, a “cash and carry” market. Some 70 years later, it became Cranberry Mercantile, run by James and Mary Hollenstein.
Its current owners, who once ran a restaurant in Hawaii, came from Denver three years ago. They were out visiting Rattelmueller’s brother, David Nichols, who lives in Sierra Vista. While touring Bisbee, saw the vacant building they would transform into Mimosa Market. The very next day, the couple made an offer.
Johnson said the couple had been looking for a “mom and pop”-type operation.
This one was calling to them, said Rattelmueller, who added the store’s clientele is “the whole rainbow of the human race.”
Johnson said they’re always trying to meet customers’ needs and tastes. “We have tofu and chorizo,” she said.
“Margaret Aira once said (in a newspaper article), ‘We don’t have any money, but we’re never out of work and we eat well,’ ” Johnson said.
Herald/Review Lifestyle Editor Karen Weil can be reached at 515-4620 or by e-mail at karen.weil@svherald.com.
Ezai I. Martinez wrote on Jun 24, 2009 7:58 PM: