35 years on Broad Street
John Krudy
Issue date: 10/25/07 Section: Arts
Behind Broad Street Market, a corner doorway opens to a long storeroom.
The room smells musty, but that's the smell of any old building in Hillsdale - the walls are free of cobwebs, and the floors are swept clean. To the right are pallets and cardboard boxes of champagne, liquor and soft drinks; to the left is a long freezer that feeds the glass cases of beer and wine at the back of the store.
On the freezer door is a list of 22 beers the store offers in half, quarter and sixth size kegs. Hand-sized scraps of ripped paper are taped to the right of it, holding orders for parties and gatherings during the upcoming weekend. "JUSTIN," one says, "HALF KEG / COORS." The one underneath it is on a ripped beer case front: "SHANNNON, QUARTER KEG KILLIANS."
Whether students or residents, most of the customers have been coming here for a long time.
"I went there the second or third week of school, when someone said 'Hey, that's the local liquor store,'" Chris Garcia '05, said.
Garcia said he purchased alcohol at Broad Street as a student, and still does now as a resident.
"It's on the way back from pretty much anything downtown," he said.
Ed Vajda, the owner of Broad Street Market, left the Merchant Marine to take over the store from his father Nandoor in Nov. 1972.
"I was the only son not married and settled," Vajda said while lighting a cigarette and leaning back in an old leather chair at his desk. His office is in a narrow corridor behind the checkout. He manages the stock without a computer.
Vajda said the building was constructed in 1838, and before his father Nandoor opened the store in 1956, it had been a car dealership.
John Smith '76, said that most students went to Broad Street during his time as a Hillsdale College student.
"Michigan was an under-18 drinking age state then," he said. (Congress mandated a national drinking age of 21 in 1984.) "It was one stop shopping - you could get your vodka and orange juice, and walk out with screwdrivers."
The room smells musty, but that's the smell of any old building in Hillsdale - the walls are free of cobwebs, and the floors are swept clean. To the right are pallets and cardboard boxes of champagne, liquor and soft drinks; to the left is a long freezer that feeds the glass cases of beer and wine at the back of the store.
On the freezer door is a list of 22 beers the store offers in half, quarter and sixth size kegs. Hand-sized scraps of ripped paper are taped to the right of it, holding orders for parties and gatherings during the upcoming weekend. "JUSTIN," one says, "HALF KEG / COORS." The one underneath it is on a ripped beer case front: "SHANNNON, QUARTER KEG KILLIANS."
Whether students or residents, most of the customers have been coming here for a long time.
"I went there the second or third week of school, when someone said 'Hey, that's the local liquor store,'" Chris Garcia '05, said.
Garcia said he purchased alcohol at Broad Street as a student, and still does now as a resident.
"It's on the way back from pretty much anything downtown," he said.
Ed Vajda, the owner of Broad Street Market, left the Merchant Marine to take over the store from his father Nandoor in Nov. 1972.
"I was the only son not married and settled," Vajda said while lighting a cigarette and leaning back in an old leather chair at his desk. His office is in a narrow corridor behind the checkout. He manages the stock without a computer.
Vajda said the building was constructed in 1838, and before his father Nandoor opened the store in 1956, it had been a car dealership.
John Smith '76, said that most students went to Broad Street during his time as a Hillsdale College student.
"Michigan was an under-18 drinking age state then," he said. (Congress mandated a national drinking age of 21 in 1984.) "It was one stop shopping - you could get your vodka and orange juice, and walk out with screwdrivers."
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