Kowalski's will add its first wine and liquor outlet at a new Eagan store opening shortly before Thanksgiving.
If all goes well, the nine-store local grocery chain expects to renovate seven other existing Twin Cities stores to add wine and liquor sales, said Kris Kowalski Christiansen, the firm's chief operating officer.
Eden Prairie liquor stores are operated by the city, so the Kowalski's there won't get one, she said. The Eagan store is going up near Diffley Road and Interstate 35E.
Brian Mallie has been hired as Kowalski's wine director. He formerly worked at Sam's Wine Shop in Minneapolis' North Loop.
In keeping with Minnesota law, all the wine and liquor stores will have separate entrances next to the adjacent supermarkets. Kowalski's and other supermarket firms have tried for years to convince state legislators to change the law and allow wine to be sold in grocery stores, without success.
"The stores will offer predominantly wine, with a small sampling of hard liquor and beer," Christiansen said. A test-marketing phase will last about three months.
"If there's a good response, then it's just a matter of which store will be next," she said. "We could have a couple more opened in 2009, but not all of them."
STEVE ALEXANDER
