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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Moose Market a unique new attraction


Dave Pulis has opened Moose Market, a wine and gourmet foods shop at Fourth Street and Sherman Avenue in downtown Coeur d'Alene. 
 (Jesse Tinsley / The Spokesman-Review)
Jacob Livingston Correspondent

When Dave Pulis first bounced ideas for a new business off some friends over drinks and some candid conversation at the downtown bar The Beacon last year, the whats, whys and wheres were readily apparent. The heavy foot-traffic district along Sherman Avenue lacked one vital piece to the neighborhood puzzle, a retail market. A year and a remodeled store later, and across the street from where the plan gathered steam, Pulis and company rolled up the garage door entrance of his new Moose Market shop and opened for business.

“I really started talking about it a little over a year ago, kind of knocking ideas off friends,” he said. “I just started looking at things the downtown didn’t really have. Immediately when I started talking about the market, they were like ‘Oh yeah, that’s what we need.’ “

But long before Pulis’ turn into proprietorship, the Montana native recalled a time when, as a wide-eyed youth, North Idaho served as a favorite stopover while on family vacations crossing the Panhandle. “I drove through here as a kid – the lake has always had some kind of pull for me. It’s got everything,” he said.

It wasn’t until four years ago that Pulis, 46, made the move from Moses Lake to the Lake City. Once here, his thoughts on opening a restaurant or a bar kicked into high gear. “With the training as an appraiser, you’re looking at what works and what doesn’t work all the time,” he recalled. “I spent all last fall developing the idea. That’s when this really kind of kicked in.”

With a nascent plan in mind, once the Sherman Avenue shop went on the market the former commercial appraiser-turned-entrepreneur recognized the sought-after space for what it is. “It’s just a prime spot,” he said.

Several months ago, Pulis had the interior of the 4,000-square-foot corner building – once Wilson’s variety and more recently Crossley’s Fine Interiors – transformed into a spacious marketplace. The $70,000 renovation made room for a full-service deli, a premium ice cream corner, and aisles stocked with gourmet sauces, snacks and beverages. Moose Market also offers 350 different varieties of regionally produced and limited-availability wines that range in price from about $6 to $125 a bottle, an assortment of 130 different beers, and 16 flavors of premium Cascade Glacier ice cream. To help customers with the Moose Market’s extensive wine collection, Pulis hired local connoisseur Sam Lange, who for 18 years had been the wine steward at Beverly’s in the Coeur d’Alene Resort.

“He wanted to do a first-class wine department. For me, it just seemed like the logical next step,” Lange recalled about his initial conversations with Pulis about the business. “There’s nothing really like it. It just seemed like such a great idea, and something Coeur d’Alene needed, that I just couldn’t help myself.”

Lange’s addition was the capstone to the market’s 12-person staff, offering customers unmatched vineyard knowledge with his 25 years of experience, Pulis said. “He’s probably the most, how do you say it, respected wine person in the area. He’s got a real following.”

Since their June 30 opening, the market has sold nearly 1,000 bottles of wine, 9,000 scoops of ice cream and recently held a grand opening and ribbon cutting with the city’s Chamber of Commerce. “For just being open, the wine sales are just astounding,” Lange offered. “It’s very encouraging.”

As for future plans, a 1,000-square-foot basement will someday be converted into a wine cellar and a currently-cordoned-off corner of the main floor is in the midst of another renovation for this fall’s unveiling of the Moose Market Lounge. The “cozy little spot,” as Pulis described it, will offer a relaxed wing for patrons to drink in the market’s savory beverage assortment. Though they only have a beer and wine license now, he hopes to acquire a liquor license to add martinis to the lounge’s offerings.

On a recent Second Friday Art Walk, crowds of curious bystanders, gourmand shoppers and wine enthusiasts mingled in the market’s open aisles and out on the street just beyond the garage door entrance. Inside, Ron Adams and a few others inspected several bottles as they sipped on wine samples.

“It’s very nice, it’s a great place for downtown,” Adams said. “I like the openness in the front; they did a nice job with remodeling. It’s a nice new idea.”

A few feet away, Chuck Orr was on his third visit to the store as he pored over the wine-racked walls of the department. “I like that you can roam around a lot, and everybody’s friendly,” he said. “I think it’s a great place, especially when they open the bar.”

While the summer months have shown no signs of business slowing down, Pulis knows that the real challenge is in keeping customers coming back for their daily needs throughout the year. But, he adds that he’s surrounded by a tremendous group of people who are helping to make it successful.

“I love downtown. It’s getting better all the time,” he said. “This (the Moose Market) is just one of the things that makes the area more user-friendly.”