Dana Valery often wished she could pick up organic fruit, milk and eggs every few days from her neighborhood corner grocer the way Europeans do, rather than make the massive trip to the supermarket every couple of weeks. So she and her husband Ernst Valery are making that wish a reality with the opening of
Milk and Honey Market. The Mount Vernon shop at 816 S. Cathedral Street will open Oct. 1.
The 1,700-square-foot store is an offshoot of West Philadelphia's Milk and Honey Market, owned by friends of the Baltimore husband-and-wife team. Philly owners Annie Baum-Stein and Mauro Daigle consulted on the design and concept of the Baltimore store.
The store will sell a mix of fresh produce, meats, breads and honey and feature a caf� serving espresso, lattes and fresh-fruit smoothies. Breads will come from Stone Mill Bakery in Lutherville. The couple is talking with a number of local farmers who will supply the produce and cheeses. Valery declined to name them because they are still in the discussion stage.
"We're shooting for high quality products that are fresh and local," Valery says.
The couple chose the
neighborhood because it has a nice mix of businesses, residents and students who will hopefully want to shop at a store like theirs. It also lacks a Whole Foods Market or other competing store and is easy to walk around.
Valery says she's catering to folks like herself who often go away on the weekends and can't make it to the local farmers' market on the weekends.
Nancy Hooff and Jim Campbell, a Washington, D.C., couple who own a development company, are also part-owners in the business.
Read more about what's happening in
Mt. Vernon.
Source: Dana Valery, Milk and Honey Market
Writer: Julekha Dash