Thomas Gounley

TGOUNLEY@NEWS-LEADER.COM

After a two-year wait, Springfield finally knows what is replacing the former Dillons on East Sunshine Street.

The location will reopen as Ruby's Market, and focus on "fresh, local and quality foods," Rogersville-based Pyramid Foods announced Thursday. The company said the store will open in the next 60 days.

"Ruby’s Market will be like no other grocery store in Springfield," Pyramid said in a news release.

Pyramid Foods has owned the 2843 E. Sunshine St. property since it acquired four closed Dillons stores about two years ago.

Pyramid operates a variety of area grocery store brands, including Price Cutter, Cash Saver, Save A Lot and the Bistro Market in downtown Springfield. Three of the former Dillons locations have opened under one of those brands, but Pyramid has long hinted that the East Sunshine location would reopen as something unique.

In September 2015, Pyramid CEO Erick Taylor said the new store would have a focus on natural foods and be open by the end of that year. That didn't happen. In January 2016, a company spokesperson said the location would open by summer — a time frame that also came and went.

The project never appeared to be abandoned; in recent months, tens of thousands of passing drivers have seen the building gradually undergo an exterior renovation.

On Thursday, Pyramid spokesman Charlie Dunn told the News-Leader the opening date was pushed back to give the company more time to research the concept, as well as the products that will be offered in the store. Additionally, he said, the timetable was affected by the fact that the company has been expanding through other acquisitions, which have required the attention of company officials. Just this week, Pyramid closed on the purchase of three additional grocery stores in Kansas.

Ruby's Market is named after CEO Taylor's late grandmother, a Fair Grove resident known for her pies, Dunn said.

Among the store’s planned offering that Pyramid touted in the Thursday release are:

• A produce section with a “chop shop” that will allow shoppers to, for a certain charge per pound, have their produce cut to their specifications.

• Brick-oven-fired pizza with made-in-house dough

• A bakery featuring gourmet chocolates made each day from single-origin fair trade chocolate

• Local products “with seasonal flair”

• 140 feet of refrigerated craft and domestic beers. Dunn said that's about double the space a typical Price Cutter might have.

• A bar with beer, wine and kombucha on tap

• Indoor seating, as well as an outdoor patio

The store will have a Starbucks inside, as well as a juice bar. Ruby Jean’s Juicery, started by former Missouri State University football player Chris Goode, currently has one location in Kansas City. Its name has no relation to Ruby's Market — although Goode, like Taylor, also happened to name it after his grandmother.

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