When you walk in to Nitro 2 Go, liquor, wine and beer may be what you’re shopping for but your attention will drift upward toward the airplanes hanging from the ceiling and drag racers displayed at different ends of the store.
That’s fitting for the building itself, as owners Freddy and Patricia Neely are operating the Covington’s newest liquor store, but have their sights set on the rest of the 211 acres of their farm it sits on.
“We just decided to build a store here to try and enhance the growth here and sell other lots for retail shopping,” Freddy Neely said. “We’re trying to promote high-end retail stores and restaurants here.”
To lure in those other stores, the Neelys wanted to put something in place to serve as a model of success. Friends of the couple who own were in the liquor business, suggested a liquor store would be the way to go, and guided them from ground-breaking in April to the opening of the doors on May 2.
“We wanted a nice store that the people of Covington would be proud to come to,” Patricia Neely said. “We wanted to have a nice big store with good variety, good prices and be a nice, clean store.”
Once the Neelys decided on the type of store, Patricia came up with the name. Freddy used to race drag cars that ran off nitromethane fuel, so Patricia suggested the name Nitro 2 Go.
With that in mind, Freddy thought it would be good to display some antique cars and dragsters inside, and he brought some over from his farm near Mansfield, including a dragster built driven by former NHRA driver and Motorsports Hall of Fame of America driver Kenny Bernstien.
Freddie Neely also decided to take some of his airplanes out of storage, such as his Starduster biplane, Pietenpol and Merlin Gt, which now hang from the rafters of Nitro 2 Go.
Just below the airplanes are thousands of bottles of alcohol, which are available to customers from 8 a.m. through the store’s drive through and 9 a.m.-10 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 9 a.m.-11 p.m. on Friday and Saturday and 12:30 p.m.-6:30 p.m. on Sundays.
“We encourage people from newton and surrounding counties to come and check us out,” Patricia Neely said. “They won’t be disappointed when they come.”
