Long-awaited restaurant-market combo opening soon in downtown Columbia
A highly anticipated restaurant-market combo is nearly ready to open on Columbia’s Main Street.
Market on Main will be serving up breakfast, lunch and dinner and everything in between when it opens this month.
In addition to a menu prepared by chef Howard Stephens, formerly of Village Gourmet Cafe and the Oak Table, Market on Main will have a bar, a selection of prepared grab-and-go foods, and a retail area emphasizing upscale provisions such as craft sodas and ice creams, along with beer, wine, cheeses, chocolates, eggs, produce, meats and more.
Outside, a seating and events space will be accompanied by a self-pour beer wall.
“I think it’s going to resonate with a lot of different people and bring people together in one common space,” said co-founder Josh Willoughby. “It’ll kind of be like a community gathering space, something everyone can enjoy and appreciate.”
WIlloughby’s family runs a farm in the eastern part of the state, and he said he hopes Market on Main eventually will become an outlet of sorts for the farm’s products. Starting off, chef Stephens already has incorporated the farm’s peanuts into a Korean-inspired boiled peanut dish, Willoughby said.
While Main Street’s restaurant scene has been strong for several years, the booming downtown district has lacked a place for nearby residents and daytime workers to pop in and pick up a few quick items to take home to cook or to tide them over during a long afternoon. The bodega-like Local Yocal had a brief run in the lower-energy 1700 block of Main Street; it closed earlier this year after only a few months in business. An arcade bar now plans to open in that space.
Market on Main now has a chance to fill that downtown shop-around-the-corner void.
“Main Street is one of those areas that’s really starting to grow and develop,” Willoughby said. “There’s not really another concept quite like (Market on Main), so it’s going to be super unique.”
Market on Main is located in the Meridian building at the corner of Main and Lady streets, across from Cantina 76. Willoughby said he expects the market will have a soft opening next week, likely inviting fellow Meridian tenants to sample the restaurant first before opening it up to the wider public sometime before Christmas. Willoughby said the place should be in full swing by the holiday.
The business plans to be open Mondays through Saturdays from around 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., with later hours likely on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights, Willoughby said.
BEHIND THE STORY
MOREWhy we report on business openings and closings
The restaurants, stores and other businesses that come and go in our communities have a direct effect on our everyday lives. Where you’ll take your family for dinner tonight or why your neighbor closed down the family shop — these are conversations you have all the time with one another, and The State newspaper strives to cover the things you talk about and care about.
Reporters at The State regularly drive and walk through local neighborhoods and retail centers to notice openings and closings, check public documents for hints about business moves and — most importantly — talk to our friends and neighbors about what they see, hear and wonder about in the community. Feel free to reach out to our reporters anytime to tell us what you know or ask us what you want to know about local businesses.
