The Butterbean Market & Cafe Coming to Manchester’s Hull Street! News by Michael C. Hild - August 27, 2017August 27, 201756 We are happy to announce that Manchester’s food desert on Hull Street will soon be a thing of the past! The Butterbean Market & Cafe is slated to open its doors in the first quarter of 2018 at 1204 Hull Street. The Butterbean will be a casual neighborhood hangout offering craft beer, wine, & kombucha on tap, coffee/espresso, and delicious soups, salads, and sandwiches-all made from scratch. The Butterbean will also offer grocery staples as a specialty urban market for Manchester’s burgeoning residential neighborhood and Hull Street business corridor. The market and cafe will take up the combined space of what was formerly 1200, 1202, 1204 & 1206 Hull Street. 1200/1202 Hull St will become outdoor patio space offering seating for eating, drinking, and live music along with an off-street parking lot at the rear. 1204 Hull will be the cafe side of the business with indoor seating and a bar. The adjoining 1206 Hull St opening into the combined space will feature grocery items, coolers stocked with craft beer, wine, dairy, & fresh vegetables. Why Are We Opening The Butterbean? Three Reasons… Neighborhood Building: We have seen firsthand the incredibly transformative impact a local, homegrown market can have for a neighborhood. Whether it’s Union Market in Church Hill, Saison Market in Jackson Ward, Shield’s Market in the Fan, or the granddaddy of them all-Elwood Thompson’s, these markets have done great things for the local community. These places not only offer fresh, local, and sustainable food options in what was otherwise a food desert, but they become safe third places that allow a diverse set of neighbors to interact and get to know one another. Less Words & More Action: We have grown frustrated with business people constantly talking, but with no real action related to opening a grocery store in Manchester, or reviving the dormant Hull Street business corridor for that matter. The talk has been going on for at least 20 years…and simply put, we are tired of waiting. And while The Butterbean will admittedly be far from a full scale grocery store, it will be a start. We will try to offer as many local food and dry goods as we can in the space we have available and that the community will ultimately support. We Love Food: We are hoping The Butterbean can be a place for folks to get healthy and affordable food, made from scratch, and prepared on site. In fact, to that end we have hired an expert as our Culinary Director-Chef Daniel Scherotter from San Francisco. Dan is the former Executive Chef & Owner/CEO of the acclaimed 25+ year old Palio d’Asti Italian restaurant in San Francisco’s financial district. But probably just as important, Dan is a teacher at heart. Dan recently developed from scratch a culinary entrepreneurial program at San Francisco’s John O’Connell High School, which he then led for the past five years. As the Culinary Arts & Economics Manager for the school, Dan learned firsthand how to help the younger generation learn the necessary skills in order to successfully enter the restaurant business. We think that will be a great skill to have as we look to hire and train new staff. We couldn’t be more excited to have Dan as part of the team as we look to roll out several food and drink concepts we are developing for Hull Street. We hope you will like what we have in store as we try to put the building blocks in place to help Manchester’s potential turn into reality. You can check out The Butterbean’s website, Facebook, & Instagram pages to follow the progress for the venture. SaveSave SaveSave SaveSave SaveSave SaveSave SaveSave SaveSave SaveSave SaveSave SaveSave SaveSave SaveSave SaveSave SaveSave SaveSave SaveSave SaveSave SaveSave SaveSave SaveSave SaveSave SaveSave SaveSave SaveSave SaveSave
We love Butterbeans as a local, homegrown Southern ingredient. We thought it would fit perfectly with the concept for a southern community market that serves local produce. Reply
Love this! Hope you don’t mind I share this article on my FB page. So great that you’re coming to Manchester! Welcome!! <3 Reply
I am baffled when I read articles such as this that refers to Hull street as a “dormant business corridor.” There are several African Amercican businesses along Hull street including a Richmond favorite “The Croaker Spot.” It is soul food at in its best form. Yet , as I perused with different realtors in my apartment search this tid bit of info was left out by all. There is nothing about Hull street business that is dormant. Perhaps it is bustling with life that those of a different demographic see as undesirable. Reply
Hello Kat, I think we can all agree that Croaker’s Spot is awesome. In fact, we have it listed as an attraction on our attractions page. We love it! The brand new Soul Ice is also awesome-great contribution to the neighborhood (see our post on this). Island Yoga Fitness (we featured with several articles: see here, here, and here) is also incredible-Ravi is a blessing for Hull St. There are others as well but let’s get to the main point… IMHO, it is a stretch to call Hull Street bustling when nearly 75% of the buildings are boarded up or vacant. Most of the remaining business owners are simply trying to hang on (Croaker’s Spot being the one exception). More businesses, healthy food options, people from all kinds of backgrounds, foot traffic, jobs, etc will hopefully help solve that problem. That is our hope/goal. Reply
I thought that was odd as well,many of these people who are posting are new to this area. I’ve been living in this area on and off for 40yrs ,so I actually already know the boundaries of the “wider” community, but may of the newcomers have yet to venture further than their block or so!. Reply
