The Roasted Rail Coffee House and Butcher Block Meats are expected to open in a few weeks in the Rail District mall. (Photo/Russ Hanson.)
Nancy Edmonds Hanson
Deb Halvorson calls her new shop “an eclectic mixture of new and vintage” – bright ideas for the home and cabin that walk the line between vintage farmhouse and fresh, clean contemporary style, spiced up with a touch of the unexpected.
Mix Picks and Mix Decor is the first shop on the F-M metro area’s far-eastern rim. It’s located in a brand-new five-unit strip mall at 208 15th Street Northeast, north of Highway 10 and across from the eastern edge of the BNSF Railway yards. Christened The Rail District, the 7,500-square-foot development is the second in what’s expected to become a burgeoning commercial area. Mix Picks was the first of the mall’s shops to get going in the mall itself.
Two other businesses that flank Deb’s quarters are close to launching. To the south, the Roasted Rail Coffee House will serve up caffeinated brews at tables inside and through its drive-up window. On the other side, Butcher Block Meats will offer fresh and locally smoked meats. The final storefront in the 7,500-square-foot mall is still available.
Builders Rick Halvorson and Steve Opatril were already making plans for The Rail District when Deb began thinking about her new shop. “There’s nothing like this in Dilworth or Moorhead or this whole side of town,” she says. “You have to go to 45th Street or maybe University Drive to find this kind of thing.”
She and cousin Rhonda Rice of Moorhead put their heads together. Rhonda managed Pier One for ten years and, more recently, has sold vintage farmhouse items from her booth in, first, the Moorhead Antiques Mall and FM Antiques at the Center Mall. She became Mix Picks’ manager.
“I love the old farmhouse look,” she confesses. “We’ve blended it with the modern Bohemian trend and natural materials – cotton, wood, wicker.”
The shop has a large selection of faux floral arrangements as well as flower pots, signs, gnomes and statuary to brighten up the garden outside. Simple, well-built kitchen and dining sets, chairs and patio furniture can be taken home on the same day they’re sold. Piles of pillows and throws might be the finishing touch for home or cabin, along with candles, baskets, signs and wall hangings.
The kitchen gets its share of attention, including towels and placemats, dinnerware, mugs and glassware. And just so those plates aren’t left bare, Mix Picks stocks a variety of edibles: dressings and sauces, bread mixes, taffy and other candy, and popcorn.
Mix Picks and Decor is open Wednesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and, on Sunday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
