Whistle Stop opens

I wanted to do something that Pea Ridge could be proud of, too.

Passing through the doors of Whistle Stop Cellars in Pea Ridge, it is almost as if one has gone back in time as the ambience of a turn-of-the-century mercantile meets the eye.

Walls are lined with shelves of bottles of wine and other liquors, coolers are on another wall.

The building, originally designed to resemble a 19th century railroad station, sat half empty for years. It has been purchased and restored, a drive-through window added, and the western portion of the building now houses the liquor store.

Walls, shelves and trim in three shades of gray, accented by an antique brick wall sporting freefloating shelves of 100-year-old wood behind wide, 14-foot-long pecan-wood counters invite customers into the store.

A towering dumb waiter made of yellow pine and housing an antique counterweight and flywheel from the 1890s provides a means of transporting product from the ground level to the mezzanine.

“I like old things,” said store developer Shane Perry. “Everything I did was to try to make it like an old store.

“I like to incorporate the old and the new. I like simplicity,” he said.

Hay trolleys from various barns in the Midwest are hung from an I-beam above the wide pecan countertops. Silver-tipped light bulbs replicate old light bulbs.

A five-door cooler with craft beer, Miller and Coors products (premium brands), AnheuserBusch, singles, is on the east wall. There is a cooler built for a customer to walk into to shop for large cases. There is another cooler with chilled wine and cold, ready-to-drink products such as wine and wine coolers.

“I built the mezzanine above the cooler,” Perry said. A small office is also on that upper level.

The 14-foot pecan countertop and shorter tasting bar countertop were created from spalted pecan — wood colored by fungi. The pecan wood, heart and sap wood, was found in a mill in the White River bottoms river valley. The marks from the circular saws are visible as Perry asked that the marks not be planed out. Rick Whitaker, of Pea Ridge, did the wood work in the store. The countertops were oiled with six coats of oil and then topped with two coats of wax, Perry said.

Two 11-foot industrial rolling ladders by the Putnam Ladder Co. were found in an AT&T switching station in New York.

Perry said the store manager is Jason Giess.

Products available include “beer, wine and spirits,” Perry said, adding that he is attempting to mark prices as close as possible to nearby liquor stores. “Taxes are more in Arkansas,” he said, “but we offer service, convenience and keep your dollars in your own community.”

Perry also credited architect Dwight Callaway of Bentonville with much of the design.

“I wanted to do something that Pea Ridge could be proud of, too,” he said.

Shane Perry, developer

TIMES photographs by Annette Beard Designed to embrace the ambience of a 19th century mercantile, Whistle Stop Cellars has wide pecan-wood countertops, a century-old dumb waiter and two antique rolling ladders.

A wooden tower houses an antique pulley and dumb waiter mechanism providing an easy way to lift cases of bottles to the mezannine level. A wooden 1930s ladder provides access to back stock on the upper shelves. See additional photos of the Whistle Stop on page 4B.

Three antique hay pulleys hang from a 20-foot I-beam and adorn the space above the tasting bar. Bricks from the chimney of a house in Springfield, Mo., provided the perfect spot to hang floating shelves made of 100-year-old wood from a building in Bentonville.

Store developer Shane Perry accesses back stock via the tall ladders along the wall.

Store developer Perry visited with a representative from a wholesale supplier recently.