BRITISH SHOP TO RETURN TO QUAKE-DAMAGED SITE

PASO ROBLES, Calif.-Nearly a year after they had to abandon their previous British specialty food shop here because of damage caused by a 6.5 magnitude earthquake, Maureen and John Sewell, owners of Awfully Civilized, expect to be returning to a new shop rebuilt on the old site.

The Dec. 22, 2003, earthquake left their previous 2,000-square-foot shop, in which they had done business for five years, uninhabitable, said Maureen Sewell, co-owner.

Now a developer, who purchased the red-flagged building and demolished it, is constructing a 1,600-square-foot retail space that Sewell said they should be occupying by the end of this year or early 2005.

In the meantime, the Sewells moved Awfully Civilized into a 1,000-square-foot space at the back of an antiques mall, just a few doors down from where the shop once stood.

Sewell said the search for a temporary spot took about three months. They had looked at spaces away from the downtown area, but didn't want to stray too far from where customers had previously found them.

The space where the antiques mall is housed was a thrift store before the earthquake, Sewell explained. But that business closed and an antiques shop, which was also destroyed in the earthquake, moved in. Shortly thereafter, Sewell said they were approached by the antiques mall operator who offered them their own space within the mall.

With half the square footage they had before, Sewell said they've had to cut down on their selection of British foods, housewares and gifts. Gone is the freezer case that housed British-style meat items. "And we cut down on candies and sweets; we only have about a third of what we once carried," explained Sewell. Preserves were also scaled back, although Sewell said they are able to order cases of any product for customers who can't live without their British imports.

In the new shop, Sewell said they'll enlarge the food products category again as well as offer frozen items. "We're looking forward to it," she said of the move to a new space. "It would be lovely to be in for the holidays, but hopefully by the end of the year," she said.

Sewell said the rebuilt shop will feature many of the design elements of the previous historic building, such as wooden floors and a decorative ceiling. Out front, there will be a place to fly the British flag, she said.

Sewell said her husband, who was in the building during the earthquake, described the feeling as if they were under attack, especially when a nearby building collapsed. Two women in a nearby shop were killed in the earthquake.

The couple were able to salvage a few things, Sewell said, but lost the majority of their food items and many teapots. Yet, she said, a table laid with a dinner service was untouched. The couple wasn't insured against the earthquake, but did receive some local financial assistance, which Sewell said helped pay the initial rent on their temporary quarters.

On the third day after the earthquake, Sewell said firefighters offered to go into the building and remove some key items. "He said we could take one or two things, and the thing I said I wanted was the tea," Sewell said. The fireman was able to bring out about six or seven pounds. "I couldn't live without my tea," she conceded.

Copyright United Publications, Inc. Sep 2004
Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved