Today we’d like to introduce you to Jeannie Conneen
Hi Jeannie , we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
Jeannie Conneen, the owner of Nourish ETX, was born and raised in Tyler. Jeannie moved to Alaska after attending college and lived there for 20 years. Upon returning to Tyler in 2013, Jeannie obtained her Bachelors of Nursing from UT Tyler and worked for two years in hospice nursing. While health and wellness have always been a passion, the two years she spent in nursing happened to fall during the COVID pandemic. Jeannie decided pandemic nursing was not her calling and left nursing for a position at Kiepersol Winery. During her time at Kiepersol she assisted in developing their food and wine pairing program and worked in the winery during harvest season. Jeannie has dreamt for many years of opening a gourmet food store and the wine business fell in line with the gourmet shop idea. The Kitchen component developed out of necessity for TABC requirement of food service with sales of wine.
In January of 2022, Jeannie, out of a passion for supporting local farmers and producers, developed and built the website www.nourishetx.com. This site helps connect consumers in the East Texas region with farmers. In March of 2022, she started the first REKO Ring in East Texas. A REKO Ring is an online farmers market providing easy/convenient sales for farmers and shopping for consumers. The Nourish ETX REKO Ring (now named Tyler Farm to Table REKO Ring) has more than 7,600 members There are now six REKO Rings in our region helping farmers and other producers expand. Some of these producers are the foundation for the Kitchen and Market offerings thereby keeping East Texas dollars circulating in East Texas.
The Nourish ETX Gourmet Market, Tasting Room & Kitchen opened in November of 2023. It provides the Tyler area with difficult to find gourmet food items including imported and domestic wines, cheeses, spices, grains, cured meats, and drygood items. In addition to imported products, the store highlights, promotes and encourages consumption of products produced locally by food producers in East Texas.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Tyler and the surrounding areas has been so welcoming and supportive of Nourish ETX. Beyond learning how to operate a market & cafe the opening and first year has been very successful. The staff, friends and family have all gone above and beyond to ensure the business success. As any small business owner knows, the most difficult part is finding a work/life balance. Work is always on your mind and the hours put into planning, organizing and ensuring both your staff and customers are happy never ends.
Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
Nourish ETX is the only bottle shop (other than grocery stores) in Tyler. Our focus is to provide excellent wines from around the globe that cannot be sourced in our region. We also aim to make wines accessible to everyone in both taste and budget. We offer in excess of 400 wines, unique beers, spices, meats and cheeses.
Our Kitchen’s goal is to provide five star dining at a reasonable price. In addition to our daily menu we offer great daily specials ranging from Bahn Mi to Sweet Potato Pierogis to Tamales – no cuisine is off limits! We love taking our guests on culinary adventures and hope to make them feel as though they’ve taken a mini vacation each time they visit the store.
Pricing:
- Menu items average $18
- Wines by the glass average $13
- 50% of wines on the shelf are under $30
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.nourishetx.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nourishetx/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100076239758309
Image Credits
Mark Tanner Photography
