Park reopens store, wine market after a year recovery from fire

EMERALD ISLE — Nance Allen is looking forward to a 22nd summer with Holiday Trav-L-Park and being back in her comfort zone.

Allen is the park’s store manager and wine buyer, but for a year she was without her home base at the corner on N.C. 58 and Coast Guard Road.

The building that houses the store and companion Emerald Isle Wine Market was significantly damaged in an electrical fire on Jan. 18, 2009, and had to be rebuilt.

They were back open 365 days later and a grand reopening was held Feb. 13. With a few weeks now to work out the kinks and get back on track, the business is gearing up for the season. The campground, which continued operations after the fire, opened for the season March 5.

“I’ve spent a lot of hours on this corner,” Allen laughed as she greeted customers stopping by for a lunch-time snack.

Like the building she works in, she’s renewed and ready for a new season.

“It just puts you in a different mindset; you feel fresh and recharged,” Allen said.

It’s a refreshing feeling for the long-time Emerald Isle business after overcoming a challenge that impacted Holiday Trav-L-Park in more ways than one.

Not only was the store and wine market, including the gas station, out of business for the year, the construction of the building took place as other operations continued.

“The biggest challenge, I think, was during the peak of the season (last year) we were still getting the building up and completed so we could reopen and we had the campground, thank goodness, but we still had everyday life to continue,” said park owner/general manager Tammy Collins.

But there was never any question they would rebuild.

Collins said her father, Ronnie Watson, owns and started the business in 1976. Now they are putting the fire behind them and focusing on the season ahead.

“We’ve had very positive feedback about the wine market and store,” she said. “We’re very pleased.”

For those heading to Emerald Isle, the store and wine market have been improved and upgraded with the opening of the new building.

They’ve partnered with Beaufort Grocery of Beaufort, which is providing pastries, salads, salads and other food items for the store as part of an “East Meets West” effort to bring a taste of the popular restaurant to the west end of the county.

In addition to the food items for sale daily, there will also be food and wine tastings.

The wine market side of the business now has a tasting bar; and the store has upgrades, including expanded coffee offerings.

Collins said the opportunity to upgrade and modernize was a silver lining after the fire experience.

And now that the rebuilding work is done and the staff has moved back to permanent quarters after a year of working from a single-wide trailer, work is back to what it used to be.

“It’s fun to come to work again,” Collins said with a smile.

Contact Jannette Pippin at 910-382-2557 or jpippin@freedomenc.com.