Below is an article that appeared in yesterday's St. Albans Messenger written by Leon Thompson. If you have a business you would like featured by Leon, just contact him at The St. Albans Messenger.
IT'S YOUR BUSINESS.
• A St. Albans Messenger Feature by Leon Thompson
Steeple Market evolves with changing Fairfax community Menard offers a little bit of everything at Main Street store 
FAlRFAX- Pierre Menard believes his busy grocery store, Steeple Market, is a reflection of how its hometown, Fairfax, has grown and changed over the years.
As Menard's clientele has diversified in Fairfax - which, during the last decade, was named the fastest-growing town in Vermont - so have his store shelves.
Steeple Market has evolved to offer a full line of products for serious foodies, while still geared toward mainstream, meat-and-potatoes pallets - the crux of the business when it opened in an historic church. As the
banner says outside, Steeple Market is "The Area's Best Kept Secret."
"We do know one thing: no one else does what we do," said Pierre, 47, of Essex, while seated in his office with his office manager, Shelly White.
Steeple Market is "hard to define," Pierre said, but the focal point is the deli, which offers a variety of fresh salads, and affordable lunch and dinner meals (all homemade) - from hot turkey dinners and sandwiches to
burritos and prime rib.
"People call ahead and reserve," Pierre said. "We usually run out."
There is a big focus on the "butcher block," featuring high quality cuts of meat and seafood, including local beef from Boyden Farm and poultry from Adam's Turkey Farm, and a wide offering specialty cheeses.
Steeple Market also carries: gas, propane, greeting cards, an eclectic selection of wines and an extensive beer cave featuring domestic and craft brews. Customers can' also buy locally brewed beer on tap from the growler station - a unique offering, compared to other area stores. Steeple Market also holds beer-and-wine tastings.
"People really seem to like them," Shelly said.
Steeple Market originally opened as Berardinelli's in the St. Luke's Catholic Church building, erected in the late 1800s. Pierre bought the store with a partner in 1999. They added gas pumps in 2004.
Shelly started working at Steeple Market in July 2008, during the height of the recession. A few months later, on Christmas Eve, a raging blaze destroyed the store' and historic structure.
Pierre rebuilt to preserve the integrity of the building, including a replica of the former steeple. He reopened Steeple Market in November 2009. Friends that work in his field advised him to reopen quickly; he's
glad he did.
"It was quite overwhelming and a shock, because everything happened so Pierre recalled. "The moral support from the town was fantastic, and people were happy when we rebuilt. They said they missed us. That felt good. We're busy, so they're happy we're back."
A Northeast Kingdom native, Pierre had initial designs on building trades but worked in a popular Newport restaurant during high school. He graduated from the New England Culinary Institute in 1989 and taught there from 1990 to 1994.
After working as a chef in Stowe from 1994 to 1999, Pierre felt burned out on every night, weekend and holiday in a resrestaurant. "I was intrigued with starting my own business," he said.
Content and grounded in the present, Pierre has no short-term plans for Steeple Market. "We're just still happy to be here," he said.
