These businesses have recently opened to bring Shops on Main in NMB to its capacity
Shops on Main in North Myrtle Beach has hit its capacity of 31 businesses with a few recent openings and one more scheduled in January.
A mixture of retail stores, restaurants and service providers are housed in seven cottage-style buildings with more than 200 free parking spaces.
“We wanted a big variety,” said Brad Alexander, the property’s managing partner.
Shops On Main has sold out its available spaces a little more than two years after construction began. The openings this fall and winter include Main Street Taphouse, Naturally Healthy, Sarabella’s Italian Deli, MJ Menswear and Formals, and STAR Academy.
Services in Shops On Main include nails, chiropractic, stretching, real estate, accounting, law, investment and vacation rentals. Restaurants in addition to the new arrivals are Dirty Don’s Oyster Bar, Odori Japanese Steakhouse and Whit’s Frozen Custard.
Some businesses offer experiences such as Butter & Whisk, Board & Brush Creative Studio, Wine and Design, Wine Therapy Tasting Room & Shoppe, and the NMB School of Performing Arts.
“I like having some of the professional offices because they keep traffic coming through the offseason,” Alexander said. “A lot of these retail centers in the winter sort of become ghost towns if they don’t have some of that. There are constantly parents out here with their kids at North Myrtle Beach School of Performing Arts and that type of thing.”
Main Street Taphouse
The pub opened in September and features 24 taps of craft beer, which are all from breweries in the Southeast, including four Grand Strand breweries in New South, Crooked Hammock, Tidal Creek and Grand Strand Brewing Company.
Half-gallon growlers are sold for $10 and can be filled for between $15 and $18 in most cases. Bottled beer includes popular domestics and wine is also sold in two pricing tiers.
“The northern travelers that come down get to try these beers they haven’t had from up North, and it’s just to promote the Southern beer,” owner Nick Fusee said.
The menu features a large variety of paninis and flatbread pizzas, appetizers including quesadillas and a hot Bavarian pretzel, and four house-made dips: a beer cheese made from a seasonal craft brew, buffalo chicken, sausage, and Maryland-style crab dip with Old Bay seasoning. They are served with the pretzel or tortilla chips.
Main Street Taphouse is a Baltimore Ravens bar and has a stronger connection to the NFL team than most sports bars have to the team they support. Fusee is the former Ravens vice president of information technologies, spending about 20 years in the position until May. He said he remained a team consultant until November.
He brings his two Super Bowl rings from 2001 and 2013 to the bar on occasion, and has some Ravens decor and memorabilia, including a large wall decoration that was a retirement gift from the organization.
The bar is closed Tuesdays and winter hours are from noon to 9 p.m. Monday through Saturday and from noon to 7 p.m. Sunday. If the Ravens are playing, the bar remains open until the game is over.
Naturally Healthy
Naturally Healthy opened in late November. It is both an eatery and a retail store, offering acai bowls, smoothies, and natural and organic supplements.
“I decided to merge the two together and kind of make it a one-stop shop for eating healthy and staying healthy,” owner Bryan Farrar said.
Acai bowl toppings including several fruits, granola, coconut flakes, hemp seeds, chia seeds, honey, peanut butter and Nutella hazelnut. The retail section has natural health products, vitamin supplements and snack foods. “It’s all healthy and most of it is organic,” said Farrar, who added that everything he sells is from North America.
The store features pleasant aromas, and is playing light Christmas music for the holidays and will feature soft audio such as nature sounds and instrumental music in the future. The decor includes a fountain and mural that are designed to relax shoppers, and a lounge area features cushioned seating.
“We’re trying to create a real warm, relaxing environment you can come into and not want to leave,” Farrar said.
A teacher from a nearby church held a class at Naturally Healthy one day while treating her students to smoothies.
Farrar said he hopes to open more Naturally Healthy locations on the Grand Strand. “We’ll go through the first year and see how it goes and hopefully branch out and add some other locations,” he said.
MJ Menswear and Formals
Maria Casillas opened MJ Bridal Collection in Shops on Main last year. It has attire for a bride’s entire wedding party as well as special occasion dresses. The large majority are gowns though some shorter cocktail dresses are available.
Some menswear is also available, but Casillas found the demand warranted opening a store dedicated to men. So MJ Menswear and Formals opened this fall across from the bridal store.
“There was a need for it,” Casillas said. “In the other store I had just a couple mannequins, I didn’t have any inventory for people to try on. With the amount of business I’m doing on the bridal side, to have now the guys carry over to here, it was definitely worth doing it.”
MJ’s has tuxedos and suits for rent or sale. Tommy Bahama clothing is also featured, and golf clothing will be available early in 2022. “If you’re in Myrtle Beach you’ve got to have some golf wear,” Casillas said.
Casillas’ stores provide outfits for weddings, proms, Sweet 16 parties, bar mitzvahs, bat mitzvahs and other formal events. The name MJ represents Maria and her husband Jose. Casillas formerly owned Inlet Bridal in Murrells Inlet.
Sarabella’s Italian Deli
Nick Sarabella’s restaurant is tentatively set to open on Jan. 15 to complete Shops on Main’s first phase.
It will feature a variety of Boar’s Head cold cuts, Italian cold cuts like mortadella and prosciutto, and numerous imported cheeses.
The restaurant will bake its own fresh Italian breads and rolls for the sandwiches, and other types of breads will be available. It will have house-made salads, and Sarabella’s wife, Sherry, will be making cheesecakes including New York, ricotta and Italian, which is a lighter version.
Baked products brought in from New York and New Jersey will include a number of pastries including Italian cookies with jelly filling, cannolis, spuyadels and sfogliatella.
It’s also a coffee shop serving espressos and cappuccinos, will serve breakfast sandwiches, and will have some products available for retail sale, including imported pastas, sauces, olives and olive oils.
STAR Academy
STAR Academy opened in mid-November and the name is an acronym for Sensory Teaching And Recreation. The academy is meant to provide a space for kids to safely play, interact with each other and chill out.
Part indoor playground, part crafts corner and part programming, co-owner Joanne Epstein-Wolk said the goal is to address kids’ sensory needs along with their social emotional needs. A former teacher and administrator in New York City Public Schools, Epstein-Wolk said most schools could improve their understanding of misbehaving and children’s needs in the classroom.
The center includes slides and ladders, a foam pit and swings, along with tables for kids to craft and play with toys. Classes for kids and families are also planned, including self-care for mothers and tips on reading and math for young children.
“A place like STAR Academy, kids can explore, we have a lot of different sensory tools and toys and equipment,” said co-owner Sarah Rodriguez-Smith. “We have staff who can point them to the kinds of input they need.”
Shops on Main tenants
Retail/Classes and Experiences
Butter & Whisk
Board & Brush Creative Studio
Wine and Design
Wine Therapy Tasting Room & Shoppe
NMB School of Performing Arts
Stretch Zone
STAR Academy
Retail
Kelly’s K-9 Kitchen
Strand Olive Oil
Gallery on Main
Name Brand Shoes
M.J. Bridal Collection
MJ Menswear and Formals
Southern Threads
Legends Vape
Lovely Leaf Naturals
Luxxe Boutique
Services
Nails On Main
Move Mountains Chiropractic
Carolina Resort Vacations
Clear Accounting
Realty Rock
Edward Jones Investments
Peace Sotheby’s International Realty
Jebaily Law Firm
Food
Dirty Don’s Oyster Bar
Odori Japanese Steakhouse
Whit’s Frozen Custard
Main Street Taphouse
Sarabella’s Italian Deli
Naturally Healthy
