This Saturday, 13 months after its debut, the Chamblee Farmers Market will relocate to 1441 Dresden Drive and become the Brookhaven Farmers Market.
The change will allow for more vendors, later operating hours (9 a.m. to 1 p.m.) and greater synergy with two restaurants at the new location, Haven and Valenza, says market director Alan Moise.
“We feel excited about being able to integrate the market with the restaurants, and we feel that Brookhaven is going to offer a really good base of customers,” he says. “And it’s not so far away from Chamblee that any of our current customers should have to drive out of their way to get to it.”
The restaurants get something out of it too. The Saturday morning crowd is a perfect test market for the chefs’ merchandising ideas, such as dressings, sauces, pickles and the like.
Valenza chef Matt Swickerath and Haven chef Stephen Herman are already known to market regulars through chef demos and a charity event last year. “We have a great relationship with what was Chamblee Farmers Market,” says Michel Arnette, who owns both restaurants. “The hope was, one day we might have another location in Chamblee, and we kind of rooted ourselves” at the market. But he liked the idea of the market moving to him, too. “They came to me and said, ‘Hey, listen, what do you think of us sort of defecting from Chamblee and organizing as Brookhaven Farmers Market?’” Arnette and the market leaders worked together to get approval from area homeowners and business groups, and Arnette invited the restaurants’ local suppliers to become vendors. Dillwood Farms, Spotted Trotter, and TaylOrganic Farm will be joining over the next few weeks, as will Bakeshop and High Road Craft Ice Cream and Sorbet. Arnette envisions lifestyle vendors, too: nutritional supplements, gluten-free baked goods, Pilates instruction.
Some things won’t change. “We’re going to continue to verify that all of our vendors are following sustainable practices, and we’re going to continue to ensure that we don’t have resellers of produce,” Moise says.
Adds Arnette: “It’s going to be the right people doing the right thing.”
