A year and a half after a fire destroyed the only grocery store in the small northern Minnesota city of Cook, a bigger and better replacement is reopening this spring.
Construction at the Zup's Food Market is zipping along, and while no firm date is set, the store is expected to open sometime in May.
For the 570-some residents of Cook, and for those heading to Lake Vermilion or other North Woods destinations, it's a long-awaited return of a community staple.
"They are excited — there's an end in sight," said Cook store manager Matt Zupancich, whose family has owned grocery stores across the Iron Range for more than a century. "When you need to travel for everything, that hurts a small town."
A fire destroyed the 20-year-old store in November 2018, leaving residents looking at a 25-mile drive to the nearest full-service grocery store in Tower or Virginia.
The cause of the fire has not yet been determined. The effects were immediate.
"First there was a lot of pain and feeling bad for employees there losing jobs," said Tom Ojanen, president of the Cook Chamber of Commerce. "The next thing is people had to drive to do their shopping — and as long as folks were in bigger towns, many local businesses did see a drop-off."
Business owners are optimistic that traffic will return now that there is an end in sight to Cook's tenure as a food desert, Ojanen said.