New owners to take over Clearwater Natural Foods

[media-credit id=3 align=”aligncenter” width=”300″][/media-credit]LENOX – Things are changing at Clearwater Natural Foods at 11 Housatonic St.

Maggie Sadoway and Ruth Wheeler, two sisters who have owned and run the specialty store since 1980, have sold it to a brother and sister, Danielle and Jason Dragonetti of Pittsfield.

The Dragonetti siblings own Spoon, a restaurant across the street from Clearwater.

They will continue running the restaurant in addition to the natural foods store operation.

“We are both going to be in both places,” Ms. Dragonetti told The Beacon.

“We’re going to do it.”

The last day of business for Ms. Wheeler and Mrs. Sadoway will be Feb. 3. The store could re-open as soon as March under the new ownership.

Ms. Dragonetti has been a regular and loyal customer of Clearwater Natural Foods for quite awhile now, since natural foods have always been a big interest of hers, she said.

Even before Spoon opened in spring 2011, Mrs. Sadoway approached her about buying the business. However, they were remodeling in anticipation of opening the restaurant. The timing was off.

Ms. Dragonetti said she always loved the idea of having a natural foods store. When a prospective purchase by another potential buyer of Clearwater fell through, she went over to talk with the sisters.

She and her brother asked themselves the question, “Can we feasibly do it?” After much discussion and a bit of soul searching, they determined they could, she said.

The new owners, who serve a lot of natural foods in the restaurant, already have great relationships with local farmers. In the summertime, they work with five different farms.

“The relationships and knowledge are already there,” Ms. Dragonetti said. Consequently, the business will continue to be maintained as a natural foods store.

There will be some exciting additions such as fresh produce.

“We’ll start slow,” Ms. Dragonetti said, since people are not used to having fresh produce available in the store. There will be seasonal selections.

She and her brother are still running possible new names for the store through their minds but have not yet come up with a suitable one. There will, however, be a name change.

Asked how she felt about the sale of the store which has been her second home all these years, Ms. Wheeler said, “It’s just great. I think the new owners have young, creative energy.”

Mrs. Sadoway said she and her sister are just thrilled to sell the store to two siblings.

“We didn’t want to leave Lenox without this type of store,” Mrs. Sadoway said. They actually started looking for a buyer two and a half years ago.

“It’s definitely going to be a good change,” she said, adding she and her sister will inevitably miss the contact they have had with so many customers.

However, they will still see the local people since neither of them plan to move out of Lenox.

“We’ve had some good times,” she said, looking around the store.

The current inventory is all being discounted since the new owners will start operations with their own items. Consequently, there are a lot of sale items to be found at Clearwater Natural Foods.

The sisters also have several tag sale items on sale, including some artifacts from Greece.

Mrs. Sadoway and her artist husband, Jack, lived in Greece for 13 years. Ms. Wheeler, too, lived there.

“She came for a visit and ended up staying two years,” Mrs. Sadoway chuckled.

By Feb. 3, when the sisters close the doors to Clearwater for the very last time, hopefully the inventory will be pretty well thinned out, she said.

Mr. Sadoway has sold art work at a gallery in the store. Many of his detailed black and white drawings are of objects from nature.

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He will probably have to look for another outlet for his art when the sisters end their association with the natural foods store.

Mrs. Sadoway said she’s unsure how she will spend her time once the store closes. Ms. Wheeler said she’ll take a break for a week or two and then may look for a job.

It will be a “big change,” she said.

Another big change at Clearwater has been the absence of the store’s beloved mascot, Guzzy the dog. He greeted customers for a long, long time.

He died on Jan. 4.

Posted by Susan M. Wicker Guerrero on January 24, 2013. Filed under Community News,Featured,News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry