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Upscale Fiddlehead’s market buying McGrath’s in Alton
ALTON — The McGrath family has been doing business in Alton since 1933, when Frank McGrath and his family moved up from Massachusetts and opened a food and general provisions shop in Alton Bay. Peter took over his father’s business, who in turn passed the family trade on to his son, Clifford. With that kind of family history, it is with a heavy heart that Clifford McGrath prepares to close the family business for good. He expects that Saturday will be the final day that Lakeside Variety will be open for business. However, if everything works out as hoped, the McGraths will sell their property on Main Street to another family-operated New Hampshire business, Fiddlehead Farms Marketplace. The McGraths have been operating on Main Street since 1972, after an explosion leveled the store in Alton Bay. McGrath’s was the neighborhood grocery store for decades until the Hannaford supermarket opened in town in June of 2006. McGrath attempted to survive in the shadow of the behemoth competitor, but quickly realized a change in his business strategy was necessary. Later that year the McGrath family closed its grocery store and opened a “five and dime” type store in the same building. “It didn’t work, it’s been a rough three years,” said McGrath. He has liquidated about 95-percent of his inventory and will remain open, from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., for the rest of this week, ending on Saturday. McGrath said, “The five and dime format just doesn’t work anymore, now that you have a Wal- Mart on every corner now... I tried, but it didn’t work out for me.” Tony D’Orazio, one of the owners of Fiddlehead Farms Market, said he hoped to open a business in Alton and was in the process of negotiating a real estate purchase. McGrath confirmed that D’Orazio was a prospective buyer of his property. “I’m excited about the idea of opening a business in Alton,” said D’Orazio, declining to comment further until the real estate purchase is finalized. The website for Fiddlehead Farms Marketplace describes the business as a “European style marketplace” that features produce, cheeses, meats, wines and other foods, featuring both New England made products as well as specialty items from around the world. Fiddlehead Farms Marketplace, located on Central Avenue in Dover, was founded by D’Orazio’s parents in 1973 as The Broken Pushcart. In the business was renovated and given its current name. By focusing on specialty goods, D’Orazio has succeeded where McGrath didn’t. Fiddlehead Farms has remained in business despite being located within a mile of not only a Hannaford Supermarket but also a Shaw’s and Market Basket. For McGrath, closing the business is a time of crisis. “The store was a person on it’s own, it was a family member,” he said. At the dinner table, the store was discussed as if it were an absent relative. McGrath, who started working in the family store in 1972 and has run the operation since 1992 said he would have to “go through a grieving process” before he would decide the next phase of his professional life. “I’ve lived in retail business all my life, I don’t know any other kind,” he said.
— Adam Drapcho
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