PORT ANGELES — Sometimes what you see isn’t what you get.
From the outside, McPhee’s Parkway Grocery at 717 S. Race St. in Port Angeles is a plain blue-green building that could be a garage, a warehouse or a storage facility.
Inside, the store is a fantastical international bazaar in the style of a neighborhood grocery, where piñatas hang side by side with Chinese lanterns and giant Japanese fans.
Under them, ordinary Heinz mustard sits on the shelf with mustards from Mexico and Russia.
“Partly, it’s in response to requests from customers,” owner Frank McPhee said.
“The majority is what I would like to see as a tourist or just bored with shopping.
“I want to see things that are not in many other places.”
It’s difficult to get bored in the store. Each aisle is filled with unexpected and fascinating products from Asia and Eastern Europe.
A stack of stainless-steel pans sit on a counter. When asked what they were for, McPhee just shrugged.
“They look like gold pans,” he said.
“To them, it’s a pan; to me, it’s atmosphere.”
For rice aficionados, McPhee’s carries a wide variety of types, including some most Americans have never heard of.
“I can only get this kind from Asia,” he said, pointing to a stack of gourmet basmati rice bags.
But on a visit to Asia, don’t look for it growing in the fields. It takes an out-of-the-way trip to Port Angeles.
“It’s grown in Canada,” he said.
The shopkeeper makes regular trips to Seattle wholesalers to find products for his store.
On a typical day, he can visit 10 suppliers in a day; fewer if he gets caught up in looking at new products.
The store and visits to Seattle are a labor of love. McPhee left the banking industry to run the store in 1977.
McPhee also served on the Port Angeles City Council in 1986-1987 and as mayor from 1988-1989.
He said he finds being behind the counter talking to people is preferable to his former high-stakes job.
With every sale, he offers a serving of humor.
“If I haven’t given the customer change yet, they don’t get it until they get the punch line,” he said with mock seriousness.
His sense of humor translates to his chosen method of advertising for the store.
McPhee doesn’t like to read ads with a lot of words.
“Something has to grab my eye,” he said.
McPhee’s grocery carries too many items to list, and long lists are boring.
So — like the store he stocked to keep his own eye happy — he wanted ads that he would want to read.
What he came up with is a series of David Letterman-style top 10 reasons to shop at McPhee’s.
Reasons have included;
■ Our green tea is greener than their green tea.
■ We sell a lot of Asian and Hispanic drinks, but Frank still prefers Russian beer.
■ He sells “C” cells in McPhee’s store.
■ Frank needs new tires.
The store serves locals, as a neighborhood store children can walk to it, as well as customers who are looking for hard-to-find specialty items.
As the last grocery store on the road to Hurricane Ridge, McPhee’s is often a final stop for visitors heading to Olympic National Park, but many who drive by remain unaware of the treasures within the plain blue building.
They don’t know what they’re missing.