Joan Roberts is reinventing her business again, this time in response to new visa requirements at the border that severely limited her ability to staff.

“We’re busy painting and tearing down walls and resetting it as a store with an open format,” Roberts said. Brewsters Restaurant closed June 20. Brewsters Fine Food will open July 2. “Before I was a restaurant with a small store. Now I’m a store with a small food service,” Roberts said.

The change will let Roberts continue to make the specialties she is famous for without being stuck in the kitchen. “My only staffing issue was cooks,” she said, and she had one apprentice cook and herself when she needed four cooks to run the restaurant for lunch and dinner.

The deli and to-go section of the store will be expanding, with paninis and salads ready to grab. “We’re offering the convenience of a homemade salad or sandwich you can take home or take to the beach,” she said. Espresso and baked goods to go or to enjoy on the back deck will also be available.

Roberts said many of her customers’ favorite menu items will be available to go or in a kit to make up at home, such as her crab and artichoke dip, barbecue sauce, goat cheese salad. “It’s the homemade goodness people associate with the restaurant,” she said. “All the things people have come to love they can take home now.”

An expanded selection of Avenue Breads baked goods; fish from Barlean’s Seafood; artisan cheese from Pleasant Valley Farms; domestic, natural meats and poultry products; fresh berries, fruits and vegetables; these will all be part of Roberts’ efforts to bring the best in local, organic, farm-fresh, sustainably produced “slow food.”

“I have realized how strong the movement in the county is to be local, fresh. This is an effort to connect with that network,” she said. “As it gets more and more difficult to get these fresh foods across the border, people can come get it here.”

The grocery, giftware and beer and wine sections are also expanding. “We already have the largest selection of craft beers in Point Roberts and it’s getting larger,” she said. In the grocery section she will be working United Natural Foods, the leading independent national distributor of natural, organic and specialty foods. She will be adding a section of gluten-free products for people with gluten intolerance and celiac disease.

During the summer Roberts said she will continue to have table service in the back and on the deck during lunch, and after 3 p.m. people are welcome to take advantage of the self-serve options. “Grab a cheese platter from the grab’n go section, grab a bottle of wine and sit and enjoy on the deck with no additional cost,” she said. In winter lunch will become self-serve as well.

Roberts said she had already scheduled musical guests throughout the summer and she will host special events to showcase them. The first will be Gil and Ellen, who will play on July 3. “It’ll be a front yard event, rather than a back yard event,” Roberts said, with a barbecue set up and people will be invited in to the store to buy their beverages.

The store will be open from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. starting July 2.