Flurry’s Lakeside adds value and community

Lakeside Urban Grocery became Flurry’s Lakeside on February 29, when Katie & Clayton Flurry purchased the assets from the community’s beloved Wilma Cheshier. Many know the Flurrys as the owners of Flurry’s Market + Provisions, the butcher shop with a quick service bistro, seafood counter, and gift shop located at 2608 Long Prairie. While details of the purchase were worked out during the first two months of 2024, the seed of the purchase can be traced back almost two years ago.

“Something about this place spoke to me,” Flurry recalled recently of his visit to the store in the summer of 2022, when delivering prepared meals for sale at Lakeside Urban Grocery. “Wilma,” he blurted out without thinking, “if you ever decide to sell, I would love to know about it.” It would be a while before Cheshier considered the proposal seriously.

“Running Lakeside Urban Grocery was very rewarding,” said Cheshier, “knowing that I was helping the neighborhood. And, of course, getting to know the residents and merchants made it very special. I’ve made so many wonderful friends during my time owning Lakeside Urban Grocery!” But by late 2023, Cheshier had begun to yearn for more time with family and the freedom to travel.

Amidst discussions with the Flurrys about bringing their “meats and more grab n go meal options [to Lakeside], I realized that Clayton and Katie could take the store to the next level and I could feel comfortable leaving it in their hands to take care of the neighborhood. 

“It was very important to me,” added Cheshier, “to sell to the right people.”

Since opening Flurry’s Market + Provisions in December 2021, Katie and Clayton Flurry have earned impressive marks from their customers (4.8 stars in 156 Google reviews and 4.7 stars in 66 Yelp reviews). And sales volume has grown steadily. 

“We’re excited to bring to Lakeside what we’re doing three miles up the road,” explained Clayton Flurry. “Our focus is to serve this community with convenience, freshness, and value. 

“The goal is not to eliminate the convenience store items (e.g., AA batteries, sugar, and laundry soap) at Flurry’s Lakeside, but our focus really is on bringing fresh, quality prepared foods to the community.  

“We’ve built a team at Flurry’s Market & Provisions to operate as kind of a commissary kitchen to provide food for Flurry’s Market Lakeside. All the protein in the meals will be sourced and prepared by us, just a few miles from here.”

Look for sandwiches/wraps at Flurry’s Lakeside to include their popular house-made chicken salad and smoked beef and cheddar. You’ll also enjoy Flurry specialties like gumbo (the Claytons are Louisiana natives), soups, salads, dips, and charcuterie. “Quality and value,” said Flurry, “it has to have those two things or we’re not doing it.” 

Without a kitchen, Flurry’s Lakeside store can’t serve all the delicious foods offered up the street (e.g., PoBoys, wings, or hamburgers). But it can offer something all its own.

On the first Friday night after purchasing the Lakeside Urban Grocery, Clayton Flurry sat out front. “Mena’s patio was packed. Ours was empty. It occurred to me, ‘We need to create a draw.’” Well aware of the foot traffic generated by the Lakeside Music Series on Friday nights (“it’s just electric here on Fridays,” he said), Flurry’s hosted a crawfish boil on Friday, April 5. 

The turnout exceeded his expectations. “It was humbling,” he said. Each of the next Fridays, Flurry’s Lakeside hosted a similar event, switching to a fish fry after customers experienced crawfish burnout. A draw was being created. 

The spaces inside and out had already been re-shaped to create attractive places to relax. Inside, a TV and WIFI were added and space was cleared for tables and comfortable seating. Outside, 16-20 seats were arranged around tables on the reconfigured patio that also features a big screen TV.

Then they doubled down on the wine and beer that have traditionally been big sellers at the store. 

“Katie and I see lots of upside in focusing attention on craft beer,” said Flurry, “to capitalize on Lakeside’s walkability and the outdoor seating. We could have added some beer taps, but we decided to bring in a partner to do it right.” 

Their partner, Anna Borland-Sage, owner of Local Pint, brings an intimate knowledge of the Flower Mound market through her thriving six-year-old business (she recently doubled the size of her establishment).   

“Anna has already restructured and restocked our packaged beer program,” Flurry said, “and doubled the craft beer offerings (from 6 to 12). Her secret sauce: Anna has so much volume at Local Pint with 50 taps on the wall that she has access to allocations that most merchants can’t touch.  

“We’re bringing a true allocated craft beer element to Flurry’s Lakeside. The Local Pint logo is featured on our blade sign so everyone out on Lakeside Parkway knows this is a craft beer establishment.”

On the wine front, the Flurrys plan to employ a lesson learned at their “mother ship.” Even in the face of rising wholesale costs, reduce prices to create value and increase sales volume. 

“We’ve cut prices across the board on our wine inventory.” He now believes Flurry’s wine prices compete favorably with big box stores.

Finally, you’ll find Flurry’s Frozen Factory Daiquiris, a big-seller at the Flurry’s Market & Provisions. Flavors like High Octane (think Screwdriver), Jack & Coke, and Flurricane (their version of a NO Hurricane) are rotated weekly. Like the draft beer, they’re available to consume on or off the premises. 

The Flurrys met in high school in Shreveport and attended Louisiana Tech together. After Clayton’s stint in the military, the couple followed the oil & gas business, first to Oklahoma, and then to Flower Mound in 2015. They walked through an American Legend model home in Lakeside but opted for one of the homebuilder’s larger homes in Whisper Creek.

A self-confessed “deal junkie,” Flurry and two of his colleagues raised the capital to buy the company that employed them. Then COVID struck. Shortly thereafter, on April 20, 2020, Flurry saw the price of oil sinking on his computer … until it went negative. The company soon folded and the 42-year-old Flurry began to ponder his future. 

“OK God,” he prayed in November 2020 at Valley Creek Church, “What do you have planned for me?”

He began to think back on the days after he got out of the army working in a meat market, and on his college days at Louisiana Tech working in a restaurant as a bartender, washing dishes, and serving food for four years.

“I didn’t know how to run a restaurant,” he recalled, “but I thought a meat market would be pretty cool.” Just over a year later, on December 13, 2021, Katie and Clayton Flurry along with 10 employees (half high school students working part-time) opened Flurry’s Market + Provisions. (Today, they employ 35.)

“I took learnings from the corporate world and applied them to our mom and pop,” Flurry smiled. “I wrote down our core values (you can find them here) and crafted the mission.”

Some of those lessons include compensating employees fairly and “providing excellent service to every customer, in every walk of life. We feel in this day and age that service has been left behind.

“We want to be a light for the community and our employees. I truly believe my purpose in life is to serve.”

“Serving means being willing to change and to refine, refine, refine,” Flurry said. “I want everyone in and around Lakeside to know we are here to serve. Just tell us what you want and help us make this your store.”

See you at Flurry’s Lakeside!