By MATT LINDSEY

CANTON -- A Canton Central grad has purchased Riverside Liquor Store, 33 Riverside Dr. and has plans to add new inventory.

Denis Walsh bough the store in late August from Brad-Chad Inc., who had owned the business since 1985, Walsh said.

The store closed for about a day and half Aug. 22-23 while liquor licenses were changing hands through legal avenues through the state.

Walsh said the store has operated from the same location since 1959, possibly under a couple different names along the way.

Walsh said he read the business was for sale in North Country This Week and after a couple weeks of negotiations, his proposal was accepted.

No major changes are expected but customers can expect to see some hard cider on shelves soon, and possibly additional wine selections down the road.

“Some may be local … like Kaneb out in Massena, and there are some in the Syracuse and Albany areas and even a Spanish one I am considering,” he said.

Walsh says liquor stores are limited to what they can sell. Beer is not allowed.

“One of the rules since prohibition,” he said.

Walsh says grocery stores would love to sell wines.

“I don’t want that to happen,” he said.

Walsh said legislation for grocery stores to sell wines hits Albany every few years, but so far nothing appears to be changing.

“It would put a lot of liquor stores out of business or hurt them,” Walsh said.

Walsh plans to keep the same staff, offering to chip in for shifts when needed, but did not want to take away hours from his employees.

“They know more about things than I do,” he said.

This is his fourth venture into the beverage business.

In the 1970s and 80s Walsh ran a retail soda and beer center in Syracuse. He distributed craft beer in Central New York during the ’90s.

After his father became ill in 1999, Walsh moved back to the North Country to care for him. His father passed away shortly thereafter.

From 2000 until 2014, Walsh ran Mulligan’s at the Partridge Run Golf and Country Club in Canton

Hours of operation are 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays and noon to 5 p.m. on Sundays.

The store phone number is 386-2721.