Standard Deluxe grows organically by design in small town Waverly, Alabama
Standard Deluxe is a screen printing business but is also home to a bakery and a bar and has spaces for concerts and events. (Michael Tomberlin / Alabama News Center)
Standard Deluxe is getting more, well, deluxe.
The screen-printing shop in the small town of Waverly that added unique concert venues that attract big names has now opened a bakery and a new bar, joining the outdoor stage, the Little House, the Feed Shak and a new mural that will “moove” you to take a selfie.
Leading the growth is Scott Peek, Standard Deluxe’s owner and president and one of the original founders.
“Come see us,” Peek said. “We’ve got a lot of things in the works.”
Standard Deluxe grows with bakery, bar and more in small Alabama town of Waverly from Alabama News Center on Vimeo.
In May, Sarah and Howard Jones opened Wild Flour Bakery in a portion of the renovated house that anchors the Standard Deluxe property. The house is also home to Standard Deluxe’s T-shirt and poster shop, providing a physical location to a business that is done mostly online.
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During COVID, Standard Deluxe got its alcohol license. Peek has just put the finishing touches on a new bar. The Bar at Standard Deluxe is now open Fridays and Saturdays from 4 p.m. to 9 p.m. and during events.
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Upgrades have also been made to the Feed Shak, a 100-year-old fish camp from Lake Martin that was reconstructed on the property in 2016 using the original log trusses and timbers. A hearth, barbecue pit and wood-fired oven have been added and the shack has been connected to the house. The rustic setup has attracted chefs from around the state to cook food during concerts and events.
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An Alabama chef with multiple James Beard Award nominations helped design the Feed Shak.
“Rob McDaniel from Helen is a buddy of ours and helped us figure out what we needed,” Peek said. “It’s been great to have different chefs come through.”
The main stage stands out back and has played host to artists like the Alabama Shakes, The Civil Wars, Drive-By Truckers and many more. Earlier this year, St. Paul & the Broken Bones played there to almost 900 people, and on Aug. 27, legendary Americana band Son Volt will perform.
“Standard Deluxe is unique in the touring world. It feels like it’s completely out in the sticks, so it’s got this peaceful country vibe, and then hundreds of people materialize for the events,” said Jesse Phillips, bassist for St. Paul & the Broken Bones. “Playing the venue, or shack behind a print shop, more accurately, is like a rite of passage for many Southern bands. Almost everyone plays it at some point, on the way up or down or across or whatever. It just feels like a backyard family gathering or revival, something less formal than a proper show and often more loose, and potentially more wild.”
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The outdoor stage can host hundreds while the neighboring Little House and its Pea Ridge Listening Room can hold about 60 for more intimate, indoor shows.
The venues have literally put Waverly on the map.
It can be jarring combing through touring artists’ schedules and see cities like Atlanta, Birmingham, Nashville and New Orleans and then see “Waverly, Alabama,” seemingly out of place.
“All this in a backwoods hamlet of 150 people? Scott and the folks who book SD have their finger on the pulse of something increasingly rare,” Phillips said. “Proof that cultural institutions don’t have to be clinical, well-funded PACs in metropolitan hubs … long live the Boogie.”
Amy Miller, co-producer at Standard Deluxe, said it might seem out of place on a touring calendar, but it feels perfect for those who visit and hopefully for those who perform there.
“It’s unlike anywhere else,” she said. “I’ve been to other venues in the South and still, Standard Deluxe has its own Standard Deluxe aesthetic.”
What is that aesthetic?
“I like to describe Standard Deluxe as a space where design visual arts meets music and presenting of music,” Miller said. “Standard Deluxe is a proper print shop, silk-screen print shop and design space and a creative place in terms of creative placemaking with spaces. But then, it’s an incredible welcomer and host to musicians of all different genres, with a particular lean towards Americana, singer-songwriter, rock, folk – many styles and genres that have come out of the South and have come out of Alabama. It’s a venue that truly lifts up that artistic joy that has been created in the state of Alabama and in the South.”
While some refer to the growth outside of Auburn along Highway 280 as “Waverly,” Peek said Waverly proper remains about three square miles with around 150 residents. And, apart from some housing renovations and some other redevelopments, not much has changed since Peek moved there 30 years ago.
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“It’s been fun and interesting,” he said. “It’s great seeing all levels of talent come through. We aren’t able to host as much as people would like us to because there are other parts of the business that are critical to keep things going, like the T-shirt business.”
The design and printing business remains the heart of Standard Deluxe. That’s where it all started. The growth of Standard Deluxe and the revitalization within the town of Waverly have been organic but it has also been literally by design.
“In the early ‘90s, we would have T-shirt sales and so we had buddies that were in bands,” Peek said. “So we would have band parties and a bonfire, T-shirt sale, potluck, and over the years it sort of expanded from that.”
Peek visited a friend in Waverly who was moving out of one of the buildings in town. He ended up leasing the space and he and a couple of partners renovated a former cotton warehouse behind the building to become the Standard Deluxe design and print shop.
Another building in downtown Waverly – really just a block of old buildings – became a storefront for Standard Deluxe merchandise.
“I was in three different buildings in the downtown area for 17 years and then I moved over here – a block down the street,” Peek said.
“Here” is the old house that is now home to the bakery, bar and shop with the attached Feed Shak and the event spaces in the back.
It’s one of 10 properties Peek has renovated in Waverly. It was completed in 2008, just as the recession and the collapse of the housing marketing took its grip on Waverly, and everywhere else.
Peek would end up buying out his partner and moving his office into the renovated house. The rest is history.
The Standard Deluxe property creates synergy with the Waverly Local restaurant and the Fig & Wasp shop in Waverly.
A new mural of two cows facing each other provide the perfect backdrop for selfies while keeping with that Standard Deluxe aesthetic Miller refers to.
Miller said she loves the reciprocal nature of art and sees Standard Deluxe as a standard bearer to that truth.
“The idea is that everyone who is in this space together ideally should be benefitting from that event, from that exchange,” she said. “It just resonates along with the notion of ‘come away, take a breath, take a minute.’ Come out and be aware it’s very green – Mama Nature is all around us here in this space, which is something I adore about Standard Deluxe and living in Waverly. And really being able to focus on the art, the experience, the interaction with the artists, with your colleagues or neighbors or friends that are next to you.”
