For the owners of the Tilghman Island Country Store, Patricia and John McGlannan, taking the helm of this Tilghman Island institution has been a joy since reopening it in January. A big reason, they claim, has been community appreciation.
“They’re the only place in the area that provides the basics, milk, eggs, cheese,” said Buddy Harrison Jr. “It’s essential to have a store on Tilghman. It’s a hardship for locals to have to run to St. Michaels for bread.” Harrison is one of the proprietors of Harrison’s Chesapeake House, a hotel/restaurant that also organizes chartered fishing trips out of Tilghman.
Built in 1895, the building where the store is located has always been a commercial space, and although it has undergone a few name changes. John McGlannan said “The Tilghman Island Country Store” was its original name.
As such, short of a series of minor renovations which took place while the store went on hiatus from April of 2010 until January 2011, very little has changed structurally. With red siding, an inviting front porch, and a high gabled roof, the building invokes the elegant carpentry of a bygone era on the Eastern Shore. Inside, pleasantly low slung ceilings and the warm glow of the deli case, chock full of savory salads, salted meats, and rib-eye steaks contribute further to this sense of being transported backward in time.
In many ways, the store feels like a nexus to a different kind of America, one that may have been much more common fifty years ago, but still exists in little pockets depending on where you look in the tidewater region. Around the corner from the deli counter are walls of simple canned goods, corned beef hash, pickled onions, Worcestershire sauce.
“Planning what to stock the store with was easy for us,” said Patricia. “We just thought, ‘well, what are the kinds of things we like to eat?'”
Since reopening at the beginning of this year, The Tilghman Island Country Store obtained a class E liquor license, allowing the sale of beer, wine, and liquor.
The McGlannans are particularly pleased to feature wines from local vintners, including The St. Michaels Winery, and a wine from Dorchester County’s Lingan Ore Vineyards. They also carry Sloop Betty vodka out of Blackwater Distillery in Kent Island, where Patricia McGlannan is from.
“We’ve put a big focus on getting local products in our store,” says John.
In addition to local wines, the McGlannans have made a point to feature the work of local decoy carvers, Oxford-based Highland Creamery ice cream, and seafood, a local favorite being their crab cake. They also offer fresh baked goods such as Tilghman Island Apple Walnut Muffins, fresh maple syrup, a full carryout menu, and of course the various sundries that you might find in any store that dares to call itself convenient.
What’s perhaps an even greater source of contentment for the McGlannans, who have owned the store since 2003, is that their store made it through hurricane Irene with nary a scratch.
“Just a couple pools of water,” said John, “We stayed open throughout the storm with a generator, sold a lot of ice and grilled outside.”
The Tilghman Island Country Store is located on the Tilghman Island Road just beyond the firehouse, and is open seven days a week, rain or shine.
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