Village Cork Owners Ready to Open SoDo Village Market

We've heard of LoDo, RiNo and LoHi — and recently even SloHi. But where, might you ask, is SoDo? Maybe it's not the city's trendiest new neighborhood, but folks who live on South Downing Street are surely enjoying the new food trend hitting the blocks just south of Evans Avenue. SoDo Village Market, a new organic grocery store from the owners of the Village Cork on South Pearl Street, will be joining City & Country Deli & Sausage, Roaming Buffalo Bar-B-Que and Maddie's, come June 17.

Owners Mike and Lisa Lapp live in the neighborhood. "We've always wanted a market that we could walk to," Mike explains, "and then we said, 'Let's just do it ourselves.'"

SoDo Village Market will encourage "conscious shopping," he says, with an emphasis on local, organic and sustainable foods and a goal of avoiding plastic packaging. So there will be a section of bulk foods in glass jars available for shoppers, who will receive a 10 percent discount on future bulk purchases every time they bring the jar back.

While the space is small, it will include meat and produce sections as well as preserved and dry goods. Seafood will be sourced from Organic Ocean, while meats will come from the likes of Niman Ranch and Boulder Chicken, and produce will come courtesy of Growers Organic. Lapp says that owning both a market and a restaurant will help reduce food waste, since produce at the market that might not be pretty enough to appeal to shoppers can always be sent to the restaurant for use in dishes on the menu.

Caleb Phillips, the chef at the Village Cork, will be providing fresh bread, pasta and seasonal jams for the market (peach and rhubarb are likely to be on the shelves come opening day), along with a few meat-counter items like pre-made crabcakes. But Lapp says they won't have grab-and-go items, since City & Country right next door already does sandwiches and fresh sausages.

The Lapps had a brief trial opening at the end of May, but the deli has been closed since then to make final preparations for opening permanently. As of this Saturday, the shop will be open Tuesday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m, and Saturday and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., at 2395 South Downing Street.

Welcome to the new SoDo!