WORCESTER—Lynn Cheney never got to have a ribbon cutting at her Maker to Main Market location on Main Street. The day she was supposed to, Gov. Charlie Baker announced a lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Cheney’s making up for lost time with a ribbon cutting at her new Harding Street location Friday.
Maker to Main closed its Main Street location in early 2023 and Cheney worked for six months to transform 162 Harding St. into a market space that had a soft opening on Sept. 22.
The market is celebrating its grand opening Nov. 3 at 3 p.m. with samples of some of what they have to offer, speeches by local officials, and a special announcement about a new offering.
Farmers and makers who supply the store will also be in attendance, so the public will have the opportunity to ask them questions about their products, according to Cheney.
Cheney said she wanted to have a grand opening to bring attention to the fact that the market is up and running. Some people simply assumed she closed permanently when the Main Street location closed, she said.
Cheney decided to move to the Canal District, she has said, because her Main Street location wasn’t getting enough foot traffic to make it profitable.
Foot traffic in the Canal District has been amazing, Cheney told the Worcester Guardian Wednesday, with people on their way to the Worcester Ice Center stopping in before a game or show. Cheney also said her customers from her previous location have made their way down to the new market.
The new business is still focused on supporting local farmers, producers, makers and brewers, which is why Cheney said she kept the name Maker to Main, which signifies bringing things from local makers to the mainstream rather than to Main Street.
The new location allowed them to add in a kitchen and a deli which has allowed them to offered prepared food.
“We’re just blowing through prepared foods – dinners and sandwiches and soups – in a way that we had not really anticipated right out of the gate,” Cheney said.
Cheney’s husband Billy Nemeroff, who is also the owner of BT’s Fried Chicken on Park Ave,, is making those prepared meals.
His offerings Wednesday included potato and pasta salads, roasted vegetables, and soups such as white bean sausage and kale soup, chicken soup, and autumn squash and sage bisque.
Cheney names her favorite selection prepared for the market by her husband so far is the julienned turnips with shaved apples and onions and Taleggio cheese.
“I’m sitting at home eating dinner and I went, ‘Oh this is incredible,’” Cheney said.
Cheney said working with Nemeroff has been “great” and that they collaborate well because of a similar mindset.
In addition to offering the prepared meals, the market is now offering its own spices and herbs, their own granola mixes, and bulk dry goods like rolled oats and beans.
Cheney said she also works to offer products that accommodate people with different eating restrictions, such as gluten-free, no sugar and vegan-friendly products.
The six-month process to get the Harding Street store up and running was challenging due to supply chain issues and increasing costs. Cheney said she thought about throwing in the towel all together.
Talking to other small business owners helped Cheney get through it though.
“When you’re an entrepreneur it can be a very lonely experience, where you feel like the things that you’re enduring…can be incredibly challenging and it makes you second guess your sanity and wonder if you’re just on an island by yourself,” Cheney said. “The reality is you’re not and oftentimes when we talk to another small business owner, you find out…that other people have gone through similar hurdles.”
Despite the challenges, Cheney said she knew she was going to continue to work to open Maker to Main on Harding Street because she knew it would work. Cheney started out with a wholesale business called Lettuce be Local that supplied local restaurants.
“It’s taken me 12 years to get here…and I’m nowhere near the end, there’s so much more coming,” Cheney said.
Kiernan Dunlop is an award-winning journalist who has spent the past five years reporting in Worcester, New Bedford and Antigua and Barbuda. She’s been published in Bloomberg, USA Today, Canary Media, MassLive, and the New Bedford Standard Times, among other outlets. She can be contacted at kdunlop@theworcesterguardian.org
