By Danielle Letenyei | Photography By Hillary Schave
Carmell Jackson, owner of Melly Mell’s Soul Food, has waited a one of the first vendors accepted to the project back in 2017.
After several delays over the years, the Madison Public Market soft opened its doors in July and another grand opening celebration is slated for November.
“I’m excited. I’ve been here since the beginning,” Jackson says.
Melly Mell’s is one of 10 women-owned businesses with a permanent location in the Madison Public Market.
Fifteen businesses are open (with three forthcoming in October as of press time). The rest should be open by the end of the year, says Keisha Harrison, chief executive officer of the Madison Public Market Foundation.
In addition to the 28 permanent businesses, the Market has 10 kiosks and space for 32 pop-up vendors.
The goal is to create a communal business atmosphere, Harrison says.
“Although there are many separate businesses like a shopping mall, this is not a shopping mall,” she says. “We have a common purpose.”
Over half of the anchor businesses already set to open are owned by women. Half of those are food-related businesses, while the other half are retail shops.
Here are the women-owned food vendors in the Madison Public Market:
MELLY MELL’S
This popular soul food restaurant has been serving the Madison area for about 18 years. Jackson operated a restaurant on the West Beltline Highway from 2010 until 2015. After she closed the restaurant, she pivoted to catering and does pop-up events such as Taste of Madison and the Madison Night Markets.
The menu at her public market location includes dishes such as fried chicken, catfish, ribs, mac and cheese, collard greens and several desserts.
CERVATO WINE + TAPAS
This wine bar and pizza kitchen is the latest venture from Amanda Stefl, owner of Timber Hill Winery in Milton.
When Stefl opened her winery in 2016, she was perhaps the youngest winemaker in Wisconsin.
She was contemplating opening a second location in Madison when she heard about the public market.
“I wanted to be part of something like that,” she recalls.
Cervato, the Spanish word for “fawn,” ties into Timber Hill’s stag logo.
Stefl chose the name because it represents the brand’s next chapter.
“The name reflects that it’s a young, fresh version of Timber Hill,” she says.
The business occupies two vendor spaces in the market: one that houses the wine bar and a slightly separate space that serves as the pizza kitchen. (The wine and tapas bar is already open, and the pizza kitchen will be open soon.)
“That way a child could come up and order a pizza or cheese bread without coming up to a wine bar,” Stefl says.
Stefl has created an exclusive line of Cervato wines for the wine bar, along with a few Timber Hill wines that will rotate with the seasons.
THE CHOWPATI
Authentic Indian street food is on the menu at The Chowpati, whose tagline is “a place for chai, chaat and chow.”
Owner Shraddha Tilloo has been offering her Indian food at various pop-up events around Madison, including the Middleton Night Market. This is her first restaurant location.
LITTLE TIBET KITCHENETTE
Little Tibet Kitchenette will bring the bold flavors of the Himalayas to the Madison Public Market with a menu of quick, comforting Tibetan food. It’s a smaller version of the Little Tibet Restaurant on East Johnson Street, owned by Namgyal Ponsar, Thinley Tenzing and Tharten Ponsar. The family team also operates a food cart in the UW-Madison Library Mall and Little Tibet Market & Cafe on North Sherman Avenue. Their public market location will be open soon.
CAED CONFECTIONS
Stevens Point chocolatier Presley Rhode owns Caed Confections, which features gourmet bonbons in flavors such as whiskey caramel, blueberry mojito, IPA caramel and lemon lavender.
