Open for Business: Seafood Express

Seafood Express
A couple years in the works on the city’s northwest side, Seafood Express had a soft launch Sept. 18 in advance of a multiday grand opening beginning Sept. 25 at 2805 W. Chestnut Expressway. It’s the newest business from longtime food distributor and catering company owner Chris Perkins. The venture, registered with the Missouri secretary of state’s office as Seafood Express I LLC, is the first brick-and-mortar retail shop from Perkins, who has operated Express Foods LLC for 20 years. His catering company shares a name with the new seafood market. He said the 1,800-square-foot shop, which employs seven, is seafood and Cajun focused, adding it sells live, fresh and frozen seafood, Cajun specialty meats such as andouille sausage and boudins and assorted seasonings and sauces. Specialty meats, including wagyu beef, Berkshire pork, bison, duck and quail, also are among available products. Perkins said startup costs were roughly $200,000, and he signed a two-year lease with Wehr Properties for an undisclosed rate.
Phone: 417-766-4628
Web: ExpressFoods.net

Seed of Life Farms
Hemporium, a south-side Springfield store that has been selling hemp and CBD products since 2018, officially rebranded to Seed of Life Farms on Aug. 22, said co-founder Greg Lee. Rebranding of the shop, called SoL Farms for short, at 4139 S. National Ave. in the Twin Oaks Shopping Center, includes an expansion of its offerings. Lee estimated rebranding expenses not including marketing at roughly $40,000. Officials with SoL Farms say the store specializes in plant medicines such as adaptogenic mushrooms, psychedelic mushroom spores and grow kits, cannabis, kava, cacao, blue lotus and hape, an herbal snuff. Psilocybin mushrooms, hallucinogenic mushrooms that are commonly known as magic mushrooms or shrooms, are not legal under federal law and are not sold at the store. The spores themselves, which allow customers to grow psilocybin mushrooms, are not illegal. Lee said the store has the box to grow them in, the substrate to grow them on and a selection of a dozen spore strains. An Oct. 11 grand opening is planned, officials say.
Phone: 417-324-7724
Web: SoLFarms.org

Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel: The Exhibition
A new Branson attraction, Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel: The Exhibition, debuted Sept. 13 at The Shoppes at Branson Meadows, 4562 N. Gretna Road. The exhibit by See Global Entertainment Inc. fills 8,000 square feet in space formerly occupied by discount home goods and decor retailer Tuesday Morning, which shuttered. Pamela Critchfield with The Critchfield Agency, on behalf of See Global Entertainment Inc., declined to disclose the company’s investment to open the attraction in Branson. Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel features 34 of the artist’s frescoes, such as “The Creation of Adam” and “The Last Judgment” reproduced from the ceiling of the famous sanctuary in the Vatican. The exhibit is scheduled to run through March 16 but may be extended based on demand, officials say. Tickets range $25-$28 for adults and $14-$16 for children.
Email: info@chapelsistine.com
Web: ChapelSistine.com/exhibits/branson