A new place downtown is serving fresh deli, unique beverages and a place to come hang out for a while. A hanging canoe and unique decorations greets you at the doorway. They glow from black-light bars beaming throughout the room by night, but show their vintage style by day. If the thought of a gooey grilled cheese haunts your mind at midnight, you can stop by on Friday and Saturday at 2 a.m. This is The Preserve.

“Some people have a hard time understanding what we are,” said the owner of The Preserve, Devin Mahoney. “We’re a couple
different things that you don’t normally see together.”

The grab-and-go healthy deli offers late-night grilled cheese and a unique beverage selection. There’s also local kombucha and nitro coffee on tap, said cook Ivy Bastian. She added that alcohol currently cannot be consumed on premises yet as permits are still in the process of being
completed. However, once
approved, there may be alcohol
offered from around the country people can’t find anywhere else in Marquette.

“A big part of our vision here is that you’ll be able to buy a
six-pack, drink it and hang out,” Mahoney said. “It’s a refuge from the bar life; it’s not quite so loud and chaotic but still fun late at night. We want it to be comforting and welcoming.”

There are 24 black-light bars beaming throughout the room in attempt to illuminate the
decorative glasses that border the
ceiling’s perimeter.

“We have a lot of fun lights,” Mahoney said. “It’s that old-timey vintage feel during the day, then at night the atmosphere goes to late-night party mode.”

If people pay close attention, they’ll see the preciseness that
details the shop, like the ground-up neon chalk dust that’s embedded between the floor cracks,
illuminating the floor under the black light, Mahoney said.

There’s a rustic feeling during the day and the things that go unnoticed become “hit with the lights,” highlighting it at night,
he added.

Weighing 14 pounds, a
14-foot glowing canoe greets the eye upon entrance, displaying its light on the ceiling. Through a bit of backstory in Mahoney’s
family, he explained, it “didn’t have the durability to be a canoe but makes for a great light.”

Word magnets dance on the walls as the public is able to move pieces around, including their own touch.
“It’s a great way to kill 10
minutes when you’re waiting for a sandwich, or spend an hour trying to craft the perfect poem,” Mahoney said.

Board games and checkers are displayed on tables in the back. The owners hope to decorate the back seating area as a “hopps garden,” with draping plants and trees lining the poles and a
painted mural reminiscent of a forest.

“I want to bring the forest in and not only have it on the walls,” Mahoney said. “It’ll feel like you’re immersed in it rather than just looking at it.”

Though some decorations and furniture are left over from the previous store The Flying Moose, like rustic farm-like furniture and wood slabs, the floors have been redone, new lights have been hung and a new personality has been born in Marquette.

For more information, call (906)273-2170 or visit their
Facebook page called “The
Preserve MQT.” Business hours are Tuesday to Thursday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Friday to
Saturday 11 a.m. to 2 a.m.