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Stevie Gene’s North Street Market offers eclectic mix of items in Marquette

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Stevie Gene’s North Street Market recently opened in downtown Marquette, offering an eclectic mix of merchandise, including cigars, incense, meats, purses and tribal masks. Pictured is owner Steve Eagle with Gay Hallberg and Sherrie Hallberg, who with two other employees, Josie and Kathy, will help out at the shop. (Photo by Audrey Posten)

Stevie Gene’s North Street Market is open every day but Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Hours are from noon to 5:30 p.m. until New Year’s Day. The winter hours of 2 to 5:30 p.m. will then begin.

The shop offers 30 to 40 different brands or types of cigars and vaporizers, Eagle said. They’re stored in a controlled environment at 70 degrees and 70 percent humidity.

Another cigar shop Eagle frequented in Hayward, Wis., also featured incense, so he felt it was a good addition, as well.

Another interesting feature at Stevie Gene’s North Street Market is the over one dozen colorful masks covering one wall. “I find people from different cultures intriguing,” Eagle said, particularly Mexico, Central America, South America and Jamaica. The masks are in relation to that as well as the shop’s close proximity to Effigy Mounds.

Bling-bling purses are one item women will enjoy checking out at Stevie Gene's North Street Market in Marquette.

By Audrey Posten, North Iowa Times Editor

Cigars, vaporizers, incense, candles, meats, cheese, condiments, candies, purses, tribal mask wall art and peacock feathers. Those are just a few of the items sold at Stevie Gene’s North Street Market, which recently opened in downtown Marquette.

“I just wanted to have a shop that’s different, and this is different,” said owner Steve Eagle. “It’s eclectic, and it’s going to become more different and diversified.”

Eagle earned a business degree from the University of Northern Iowa when he was younger and always hoped to work with people, especially through marketing. He spent 38 years with the U.S. Postal Service, retiring as the postmaster at Cedar Falls. He also owned a gun shop in Denver, Iowa, at one point.

He runs a bed and breakfast in Marquette, but Eagle said he wanted to do something more, so the idea for the shop came about.

Several different interests and life stories influenced Eagle’s selection of the shop’s merchandise.

Offering cigars was the brainchild of his friend Denny. Eagle said the two grew up together and enjoyed hunting, fishing and smoking cigars before Denny moved away.

“He told me, ‘When I come back, we’re going to hunt ducks together and smoke cigars together again,” Eagle recalled.

When Denny moved back to the area after retiring and heard Eagle was opening a shop, he suggested selling top-end cigars. An item many people travel over 70 miles to buy, Eagle said he felt it was a good idea.

The shop offers 30 to 40 different brands or types of cigars and vaporizers, Eagle said. They’re tobacco-wrapped, with many coming from the Dominican Republic. 

“They’re stored in a controlled environment at 70 degrees and 70 percent humidity,” Eagle explained.

He said the addition of incense ties into the cigars because the shop he visited with Denny and another friend, Goody, when the group went fishing in Hayward, Wis., always sold the items together.

 Another interesting feature at Stevie Gene’s North Street Market is the over one dozen colorful masks covering one wall.

“I find people from different cultures intriguing,” Eagle said, particularly Mexico, Central America, South America and Jamaica. The masks are in relation to that as well as the shop’s close proximity to Effigy Mounds.

“They’re handmade and handpainted,” Eagle said of the masks. “They all come from Indonesia.”

While those items have a worldly flair, Eagle said many items sold at the shop are made nearby, including meat from Polashek’s Locker in Protivin, cheese from Waukon’s W.W. Homestead Dairy and chocolates from Sjolinds Chocolate House in Mount Horeb, Wis.

Constructing the shop and bringing in merchandise took time, Eagle said, but he didn’t want to open before he was ready.

“He wanted the right ‘this,’” said Gay Hallberg, one of the shop’s employees. “It had to be what he was looking for.”

Eagle is pleased with the results. 

“I hope, a year from now, when we’ve become established, that when people come in and look around and leave, they won’t be able to wait to tell others what they’ve experienced,” he said.

Stevie Gene’s North Street Market is open every day but Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Hours are from noon to 5:30 p.m. until New Year’s Day. The winter hours of 2 to 5:30 p.m. will then begin. 

The shop is also a Wi-Fi hotspot and Eagle said people can look forward to live music and outdoor barbecues in the summer.

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