PH Country Style Marketplace, a downtown Port Huron boutique grocery store, has opened a new beer and wine cellar, and basement event space that reflects the history of bootlegging in the area.

Owners Steve Fernandez and Michele Jones admit some details are still coming together at their second market in the area.

PH Country Style Marketplace, 310 Huron Ave., opened this spring and slowly, the couple said, they’ve added features to the business. They’re collaborating more with other downtown businesses, they now accept EBT cards from shoppers, and the cellar with limited beer and wine selections opened July 1.

The wait for the state liquor license approval took longer than expected, they said. Now, they have plans to continue to expand what’s available on the store’s lowest level.

“The difference between this particular location and (the couple's other) location in Fort Gratiot, we have about three times the surface area to work with,” Fernandez said, referencing the market they own in the neighboring township.

From the foot of the main stairs at the downtown market, Fernandez motioned across two adjoining rooms where a refrigerator wall held shelves of beer and racks had wine. Nearby was a largely empty bulk storage room.

“This will eventually be full of wine. We’ll just backstop from here,” Fernandez said.

“We will eventually put more stuff downstairs; it just takes time,” he added. “... We want to put cool stuff down here, so people are looking for wine glasses or cutting boards, just all the different stuff that you’d expect from a boutique grocery store or wine store.”

Other details still falling in place include the basement’s aesthetic.

Purple velvet covers some areas of the walls, and framed posters dot the generations of different exposed brick, including some advertising movies starring silent film star and Port Huron native Colleen Moore, but Fernandez and Jones said they were mulling over other additions.

A one-time coal chute in the century-old building, now beneath the Grand River Avenue sidewalk, is decorated to showcase a historic bootlegging scene, including a donated hoist assembly and small barrels on a cart found with the property.

A landscape painted behind it by muralist David Stoneberg shows Canada across the St. Clair River.

“That’s supposed to be like Sarnia, and they’re bringing the liquor over at night, and then we’re taking it off onto the dock,” Jones said of the display.

“This just gives the sense like we’re bootlegging at night,” Fernandez said. “This is the whole basis of the theme down there.”

PH Country Style Marketplace is carrying the bootlegging theme over to its newly available banquet space next to the beer and wine cellar.

Earlier this month, they celebrated its opening, Fernandez said, with about 50 guests from the business community.

Jones said the area was set up like a speakeasy with a dance area, card table and bar.

“We made it a fun thing,” Fernandez said. “… We just wanted to break it out and show everybody.”

The area is decorated with historic clothing displays and other items on loan from the Port Huron Museums. On Monday, Jones showed off an Edison record player, dropping the needle for a few moments on “Seven or Eleven: My Dixie Pair O’ Dice.”

Since a private unveiling, they said, they hadn’t many inquiries on the space because they haven't advertised its availability.

Moving forward, they will open for small gatherings, such as birthday or anniversary celebrations, and hope to reach out to local associations and groups interested in a space to conduct meetings.

Until a webpage is built, they said, interested people can call the downtown market’s number at 810-432-8431.  Jones said they’ll be able to accommodate outside caterers for events, but Fernandez added they will only be able to serve beer and wine they purchase.

“This is so new. We haven’t sat down and really crushed out what this is going to be,” Fernandez said. “It’s not going to be expensive. We just feel like we want to share what we have with the community.”

Contact Jackie Smith at (810) 989-6270 or jssmith@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter @Jackie20Smith.