Bowery Bagels to Include CruMarket Retail Space

Old Town will soon get more than just boiled bagels with the forthcoming Bowery Bagels storefront on NW Broadway. Owner Michael Madigan — also the founder of culinary incubator KitchenCru — will open up an artisan market inside the Bowery space dubbed CruMarket, highlighting products made by KitchenCru clients. According the Madigan, the retail space will give clients a permanent outlet to sell their products outside seasonal farmers' markets and informal pick-up days at the community kitchen.

"It's stuff you can't get anywhere else that is made here in Portland," Madigan says. Thus far, about 22 to 24 of the Cru's clients are lending themselves to a retail setting, with products like spice blends (Portland Masala), pantry items (NW Elixirs hot sauce and Fat Dog mustard), salts (Jacobson's Sea Salt), chocolate (Roll Chocolate), pasta, and baked goods (like the gluten-free Petunia's Pies, and Pieku). "I look at it as a City Market kind of concept," Madigan says. "You can walk in there and grab some Stumptown coffee, Bowery Bagels, and buy some stuff that's very hyper-local, made here at KitchenCru."

According to Madigan, the market will fit inside Bowery's 800-square-foot space, with retail shelves along the north wall, a barista set-up (featuring Stumptown products), and a bakery and food service section along the south wall, which butts up against the neighboring Gilt Club. "There will be delineation — if someone wants to just come in and get coffee to-go, they can do that. We tried to design it as efficiently as possible." An eight- to 10-seat window counter will provide the only seating, as the market (like the Woodsman Market before it) will be mostly a grab-and-go concept.

The market and deli counter will feature few items not explicitly made across the street at KitchenCru (luckily for sandwich-eaters, Tails & Trotters has a home at the Cru, and will hopefully be featured in deli sandwiches). But Madigan says there's room for collaborative projects: Kimchi from SE Stark's Tanuki, for example, finds its way into Bowery Bagel's kimchi schmear.

Both CruMarket and Bowery Bagels have a projected June 2012 opening. Stay tuned.
· KitchenCru [Official site]
· All Previous KitchenCru Coverage [Eater PDX]
· All Previous Bowery Bagels Coverage [Eater PDX}