LINCOLN CITY — Welcome to 1st Choice Fresh Market, 25,000 square feet of garden-to-store produce, locally-caught seafood and sushi, Oregon-grown beef, a bakery, a sit-down deli and the biggest, coldest walk-in beer cooler at the coast — aptly named the “Beer Cave!”

The football-field-size store opened June 26 in the fast-evolving Lighthouse Square at the north end of town. Eleven aisles deep on the inside and ringed by a hot deli, coffee shop, fresh dairy, meat, produce, and 20 banks of frozen food, there are maps available at checkstands to help guide new shoppers in danger of getting lost amid the dazzling selection and low prices.

More than a key new player on the grocery scene, 1st Choice is a destination shopping experience that showcases a rejuvenated Lighthouse Square under owner David Emami. A busy shopping hub with a major bank, diverse dining and retail action, an events center, a coin-op laundromat and now 1st Choice Fresh Market, the mall has been upgraded throughout, including newly-paved parking with EV-charging stations.

Managing the store is Ethan Jones, a graduate of the University of Northern Iowa who took his first job in the grocery business at age 14 and has watched 1st Choice grow rapidly in its first 120 days. He credits a lineup of farm-to-store names for much of the appeal: St. Helens beef, Carlton Farms pork, Sanderson Farms chicken and fresh fish from Newport’s Pacific Seafood. There’s a sense of fun in this operation, like the “Adult Lunchable,” a shrink-wrapped ribeye steak with two cans of beer and an Idaho spud suitable for an immediate picnic.

Other stand-out departments include the massive Bulk Foods section, 20 cases of frozen foods and desserts, rows of craft beer and wine and the Beer Cave, a Disneyesque experience for those 21-and-over. The full-service butcher shop produces rib-eye steaks every day for $9.99 pound.

After giving the exterior a beach-rock look and a metal roof, Emami was nominated for a chamber of commerce beautification award this month. Close enough to his main competition, Safeway, to draw admiring comparisons from shoppers, 1st Choice Fresh Market marks a new commitment by Emami to the community he first invested in 28 years ago. With an M.B.A. from Harvard and a Ph.D in statistical processing, Emami has skillfully ridden Lincoln City’s economic and political tides.

“WinCo and Fred Meyer were interested in coming here, but the big corporations looked at it and said Lincoln City is not a place to make money,” Emami reflected. “But I see it as a wonderful place to build a thriving business. You just don’t do it overnight, though.”

1st Choice Fresh Market is open seven days a week, 7 a.m.-10 p.m., at 4157 NW Hwy. 101. The week’s big sale can be found at www.1stchoicefreshmarket.com, and on FaceBook.