Forest Hills Connection || News and Life in Our DC Neighborhood

Covering Forest Hills, Van Ness, North Cleveland Park and Wakefield

Updated: Uptown Market plans August opening

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Update: See below for more on Uptown Market’s planned offerings.

by Marlene Berlin

The people bringing Uptown Market to 4465 Connecticut Avenue introduced themselves to the crowd at the April 26th Van Ness Main Street annual meeting with the announcement that they intend to open the store in August. Santi Zabaleta (owner) and Lauren Durkee (marketing) said they recognized the neighborhood’s impatience to fill the void left by Soapstone Market’s end-of-2018 closure.

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The exact product mix is still to be determined, but they said Uptown Market will be a mashup of Zabaleta’s other properties, Butchers Alley and Pescadeli in Bethesda. They are thinking of a marketplace with stalls featuring different types of food, such as fresh fish and meats, cheeses, and prepared foods to take home or eat there. They hope to establish ties with local farmers markets. There will be a bar serving wine and beer.

Mary Beth Ray, former president of Van Ness Main Street, said Soapstone Market’s evening specials were a draw for the neighbors. She suggested that a paella special (a Pescadeli specialty) on occasion would be very welcomed. Many in the audience nodded in agreement.

Update: Lauren Durkee sent FHC a more detailed description and list of items to be sold at Uptown Market:

Uptown Market will feature several stalls, each with different offerings – for example our full service butcher counter, fresh seafood counter and catering counter.

You can expect to find the following at Uptown Market:

Full service butcher offering locally sourced poultry, beef and pork, house made sausages, local bacon, locally made sausages
Fresh seafood including fish and shellfish, house made crab cakes
Artisan and locally produced charcuterie, house made pates
Artisan and imported cheeses
Artisan and imported olive oils, vinegars, unique and hard-to-find gourmet foods, and house made bottled sauces
Coffee bar
Donuts
Prepared foods to go
Breakfast, lunch and dinner to go and dine in
Beer and wine (available for purchase and at the bar)
Catering

I hope this helps clarify what the neighborhood can expect from Uptown Market.

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Comments

  1. I’m looking forward to Uptown’s opening. Soapstone Market immediately became a keystone of the neighborhood, and its presence is much missed.

  2. Not sure why there keeps being a focus on artisan foods and grocery items, particularly with Giant, Calvert Woodley liquors, and Bread Furst nearby. There was clearly more demand for the cafe/dining/third space aspect of Soapstone. That should be the focus. Not totally convinced this will succeed where Soapstone didn’t…

    • Hello Sam!

      This is Lauren, I work with Uptown Market. At the annual Van Ness Main Street meeting, we shared exactly what folks could expect from Uptown Market. When this article was published, I wanted to make sure Forest Hills Connection readers knew we had a determined product list – so I shared that list with Marlene. We will have plenty of indoor and outdoor seating – and we’ll be serving breakfast lunch and dinner! Rest assured there will be lots of room for the community to gather, to share coffee, to share a meal, to enjoy a glass of wine. We are really looking forward to being a place the community can gather.

      • Thanks Lauren, the engagement you are showing with the community is appreciated. We all want Uptown Market to succeed! I am looking forward to spending time there and enjoying everything you guys will be offering.

        Also, can you bring back the Southwest Turkey Club?! Pretty please?

  3. I agree with Sam. Really loved having a space to hang out and sit. I was a big fan of soapstone’s bar/coffee/tea, daily meal specials, and grab and go food- hope the new market focuses on these things. I really dont need someplace to pick up overpriced grocery items/food.

  4. I still don’t know whether Uptown Market has signed its lease with the landlord. There is virtually no evidence of active demolition work inside the storefront that is visible from the street. The new posters on the windows point us to the website, which says this and only this on the home page (there are no tabs or internal links for the DC location):

    “Uptown Market is bringing our neighborhood market concept to Van Ness in summer 2019. We’ll be offering locally sourced and thoughtfully curated items in our market stalls – like artisan cheeses, charcuterie, fresh seafood, butcher cut meats, and house baked goods. We’ll also be serving up breakfast, lunch, dinner and coffee in house or to go. We hope Uptown Market will be a place to find the food you love, either in our market to take home, or enjoyed here. Grab a coffee, a glass of wine, or a bite to eat and stay awhile.”

    On the home page, the words “our neighborhood market” are a link to the website for butchersalley dot com and the word “concept” is a link to the website for pescadelli dot com, but there is no link for additional information about the new DC location.

    I think it is obvious from comments on this posting and earlier posts what information the neighborhood wants. This new posting about the meeting on April 26th does tell us the possible menu and that catering will be available, and tells us that the idea of “evening specials” is popular. But this new posting does not tell us whether the “evening specials” will in fact be provided. There are statements on the home page at uptownmarketdc dot com that the replacement for Soapstone Market will have inside seating where we can “stay awhile” and that it will have a bar. Other than that, we are not getting useful information such as seating capacity or hours of operation. I personally still want to know why they delayed the opening until August, leaving the storefront vacant for eight full months.

    • Keep in mind that we didn’t know most of this about Soapstone Market until shortly before it opened. The owners announced they were coming in a December, planned a spring/summer opening, then finally opened their doors in October. These are small businesses without a small army of support staff getting them through the DC permitting process. There will be delays. And there will definitely be more information as we get closer to opening day.

    • Hi There Green Eyeshades!

      My name is Lauren, I work with Uptown Market. I did reply to your comments on a previous post on April 11th, where I answered lots of your questions and explained why we are delayed from our original timeline of a late spring opening. Yes, of course we have signed our lease – we would not be renovating the space, or have approved plans and submitted permit applications if we had not signed a lease.

      Lots of the information you are asking for will be available closer to our open date. We are working hard fine-tuning our menus. We will be offering breakfast, lunch and dinner available to enjoy in our dining area or to-go. Do we know exactly what specials we will be offering aside from our regular menu? No, not right now – our team develops our specials based on what is seasonally fresh and available and we will list that information on our website and in store as it is available. You can see examples on Pescadeli’s website – Pescadeli is our sister store. The Van Ness location of Uptown Market will be the first location for Uptown Market, we do however have sister stores in Bethesda, Pescadeli and Butchers Alley.

      As far as answers to your questions about hours of operation and capacity – I am going to share those below.

      We have previously not shared this information because we still have several permits pending and we do not want to share inaccurate information, so please keep in mind that capacity and hours of operation are subject to change.

      I hope you understand that we are so looking forward to opening in Van Ness and being a part of the community. If you have further questions, I would be happy to answer them, I can be reached at lauren@laurenaileen.com.

      Hours:
      Monday – Thursday 7 am – 10 pm
      Friday – Saturday 7 am – 11 pm
      Sunday 7am – 7 pm

      Seating Capacity:
      12 at bar
      Inside seating for 40 people
      Patio seating for 50 people pending permit approval

      Thanks again!

  5. I’m hoping to see a regular rotation of “interesting” beers — such as local brews from Port City (Optimal Wit), and craft beers like Dogfish Head’s Namaste White and Carton’s Eden (a terrific saison).

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