A drive that normally took Nick Bartolone more than a half hour seemed like it only took 10 minutes as he raced to his Cornerstone Market & Deli in Munroe Falls.
That was even though lightning seemed to be striking all around him as he sped from his home in Brecksville on May 27 of last year. A neighbor of the store had called him after store hours to tell him the place was on fire.
“I’ll never forget it. It was quite a thunderstorm. I felt like I was in an air attack,” the 32-year-old said.
When he arrived, flames were shooting through the roof of his then four-year-old store at 301 S. Main St. (state Route 91), at the corner of Northmoreland Avenue.
He called his wife, Stefanie, telling her, “Babe, it’s all gone.”
Fire officials have said lightning likely was to blame for the fire.
Less than a year after that spectacular fire gutted the building, Cornerstone has rebuilt, reopening on Mother’s Day.
The store is valued by customers for its selection and its relatively low prices.
“I was afraid it wasn’t going to reopen,” said customer George Schultz, 72, as he left the shop Sunday with salad fixings.
Schultz, a retired Goodyear race tire builder who lives in Tallmadge, said he likes that the store is family run and is something of a gathering spot for area residents. He recalled that before the fire, he’d see Bartolone working “with his child strapped across his chest.”
Bartolone smiled knowingly when told of Schultz’s memory. That child was Bartolone’s now 2½-year old-son, Geo. The couple also has a 1-year-old girl, Stella.
Bartolone said the only option was to reopen the store.
“This is our lives,” he said while standing next to a line at the new, expanded deli area, which Stefanie Bartolone oversees. “This is what I grew up with.”
Bartolone noted that his father, Larry, co-owns two produce stores, one in Alliance and the other in East Canton. Larry Bartolone owns them with his brother, Paul. Another of Larry’s brothers owns a produce store in Wickliffe. Their father — Nick’s grandfather — started a wholesale produce enterprise in 1948 that is still in operation.
The new 10,000 square-foot building in Munroe Falls is bigger and Nick Bartolone figures he carries about 1,000 more items. Bartolone is planning to add more items, including more prepared food.
The ceiling is decorated with panels — made from barn siding — that Nick Bartolone made with his father.
Outside is the same plastic greenhouse, home to flowering annuals and other plants, that remained intact after the fire. The greenhouse served as a temporary store until the end of October.
The one-story building — clad in white, gray and brown vinyl siding — boasts five archways at the front. A portion of the old brick building — a corner — remains, a reminder of the old store.
The official grand opening will be May 27, one year to the day of the fire. Coincidentally, that is also the store’s anniversary date.
Katie Byard can be reached at 330-996-3781 or kbyard@thebeaconjournal.com. Follow her @KatieByardABJ on Twitter or www.facebook.com/KatieByardABJ.