Makin' bacon: Lucky's Market reopens

PANAMA CITY — Lucky's Market brings home the bacon — honey orange, peppered, paleo and original.

The Panama City store, 2329 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., reopens at 7 a.m. Wednesday, Nov. 14, in advance of the Grand Reopening Shindig from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. with holiday food, live music from Anthony Peebles, vendor demos, Noli South Kombucha and a tap takeover by Grayton Beer Company.

So, what have customers been missing?

"Just about every other customer who comes to the door mentions not having bacon," Lucky's Store Director Mareon McCrary said Monday. "We're trying to put bacon back in their lives. For pre-opening we've already smoked about 600 pounds of bacon. A gentleman just came in to repair the smoker; we broke it smoking so much bacon."

Lucky's bacon is cured and smoked fresh in-house.

"We've sliced about 200 pounds of it," said Lucky's Meat Manager Josh Mantecon, who added they had "another 800 to 1,000 pounds ready to go."

Lucky's fans also are looking forward to the return of the in-house ramen and sushi, as well as "sip and stroll."

"People want to get back in the apothecary department for melatonin helping people sleep and stress relief," McCrary added. "We had minimal roof damage and water. One of the main reasons it took so long to reopen (is) we wanted to make sure of the integrity of the product. Over 60 employees were not able to return to work."

In the interim, Lucky's grilled hot dogs, burgers, water, ice, snacks and more to serve the community free of charge, while also conducting employment interviews.

"Obviously it took a lot of work just isolating the product to make sure it wasn't compromised, but one of the main focuses has been giving back to the community," said McCrary, who now has more than 60 new employees. "We wanted to open up before Thanksgiving. Food is comforting."

For Wednesday's celebration, the Lucky's team again will be grilling, as well as offering samples of holiday favorites.

"For the holidays, we're going to go all out. We're going to have turkeys, we're going to have hams — all the staples — green beans, sweet potatoes, all kinds of potatoes. Turkeys are fresh, organic free-range turkeys and antibiotic-free," said Liz Ruefly, Regional Marketing Specialist for Lucky's. "On Wednesday, we will have a holiday table set up that will have a team member taking orders in the store for a bird, ham, or roast with sides and desserts — with pick up through Thanksgiving Day."

Customers can pick up anything from turkeys to pies — or the full Thanksgiving meal — ready to eat, or buy ingredients to cook a little or everything at home.

"We have vegan and gluten-free items (including stuffing) as well," McCrary said.

The store is resuming regular hours, 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily, and will be open till 4 p.m. Thanksgiving Day, the day I plan to enjoy my mom's recipe for apple pie. Lucky's has the McIntosh apples I need — in addition to 14 other varieties.

"Pineapples have become part of our grand opening welcome," said Ruefly, as we stood by roughly 600 cases of pineapples on Monday with more to come. "Part of the grand opening will be coring pineapple and pairing it with holiday ham. All the hot sides will be on the hot bar for sampling — Thanksgiving stuffing, green beans, mashed potatoes and gravy, macaroni and cheese. And we'll have some special items, such as an Italian holiday cake, fun little displays and candies and other kinds of ingredients and beer and wine, of course."

Displays within the store are set up to highlight baking items, and ingredients for brining turkeys and whipping up your own instant mashed potatoes — one of Lucky's private label items with the words "taters gonna tate" on the box.

"We like to keep it funny — can't take grocery shopping too seriously," Ruefly said. "Food brings us all together. We'll have holiday platters for Thanksgiving if you've already got your Thanksgiving meal planned with your grandmother's recipes but want to get a charcuterie board for holiday entertaining."

But there is some serious business going on. Lucky's private label products reinvest 10 percent back into the local community. 

"As part of the celebration on Wednesday, I've also invited all the nonprofit partners from Bags for Change," Ruefly said. "We are partnering with Family Service Agency for Impact Day on Tuesday, Nov. 20, with 10 percent of sales going to Family Service Agency. Normally we have three partners for every quarter, but they're going to Family Service Agency now from when we open to Feb. 2, the end of quarter, and Lucky's doubles that at the end."

The donations received from Impact Day and Bags for Change will go toward helping Family Service Agency feed Panama City residents during the holidays. For every $24 the agency receives, they can provide meals to feed about three people up to four days.

Other Lucky's Market Florida locations held an Impact Day on Oct. 30 to raise money for those in need after Hurricane Michael, resulting in $44,454 to be donated to Feeding the Gulf Coast and Second Harvest of the Big Bend.

After the hurricane, Lucky's team members also had donated products that were were salvageable from the Panama City store's aisles, hundreds of pounds of food and paper products to Feeding the Gulf Coast. Lucky’s worked with partners at Kroger in the Southeast Division to donate a truckload of product to Feeding the Gulf Coast in Panama City with produce, canned goods, and paper cleaning products.

On Thursday, Lucky's is launching a partnership with Shipt Grocery Delivery.

What: Holiday food, live music from Anthony Peebles, vendor demos, Noli South Kombucha, tap takeover by Grayton Beer Company

When: 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 14

Where: Lucky's Market, 2329 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., Panama City

Details: Facebook.com/luckysmarketpanamacity/

See Lucky's slicing bacon at NewsHerald.com.

Grand Reopening Shindig