An established Stonington baker has opened a new cafe-market with her adult children, bringing eastern European and Middle Eastern flavors and a new gathering place to the island town.
School Street Market, which opened its doors July 31 on a once-empty lot just above Main Street, offers drinks, baked goods by Margie Litman and a small retail market that the family aims to expand.
They plan to grow the business in response to community wants and needs, and hope to keep the space active year-round in a town that grows noticeably quieter when summer ends.
“I really wanted to make a nice community space out of this spot because it’s been empty for so long, a place where people can just come and hang out, have something to eat and drink,” said Litman, who opened the market with her daughter Abby and help from her two sons after years of planning. She previously ran Stonington Baking Company from her home for more than a decade.
The market is currently housed in a retrofitted shed with outdoor and greenhouse seating at 40 School St., part of a small cluster of economic activity facing the community center and weekly farmers market in Stonington’s former school building.
The menu includes homemade organic sodas, iced coffee and Margie Litman’s baked goods, including pastries such as cookies, scones and the sugar-coated, cardamom-flavored “dirt bomb,” something of a cross between a donut and a muffin.
Offerings also highlight savory flavors and home recipes from the family’s Jewish background. Those include sweet babka bread – some using sesame seed halva – Turkish street bread-style bagels called simit and “schmearkase,” an herb dip made with cottage cheese and cream cheese.
“I want to be a little creative here in terms of my baking, too, and trying to bring some of our cultural heritage into that,” said Litman, a classically trained pastry chef.
Her career has included recipe testing for a cookbook, working in a Washington, D.C., bakery and making desserts and managing the kitchen for her temple in Bethesda, Maryland, where she lived before renting in Stonington and eventually buying a house in 2013.
But she was always interested in her own venture, something the family discussed for years.
“It’s been like a bit of a family dream,” said Abby Litman, who moved to Stonington from Los Angeles two years ago in large part to open the business with her mother.
The family has a long history in Maine, where Margie Litman’s father worked for decades and she spent summers growing up, she said. The state’s, and the island’s, self-starting character and tradition of home businesses is a supportive environment for their new venture.
“I feel like people here really take care of themselves and each other, and so I think that’s why this area is so appealing [to us],” Abby Litman said. “This is a place where you can start your own thing.”
The idea took different shapes over time – at one point, they hoped for a commercial kitchen onsite – and is still growing in response to what the community wants and needs, the two said.
The duo expects to stay open through the early fall, with hopes to eventually operate year-round, and are considering winter events such as community dinners, pop-ups or local fundraisers with fire pits outside or heaters in the greenhouse. The Litmans also aim to add more market space that could carry goods such as granola or bread, packaged meals and local products.
Community response has been great so far, said Abby Litman, who greeted multiple familiar customers during a reporter’s visit Friday. The family had also teased their new venture over the past two years, at one point opening a stand on the lot during the farmers market.
People were excited then to see something happening in the long-empty lot, where longtime residents have fond memories of past eating establishments, the two said. The addition of a new space to gather now has also met with a warm welcome.
“I’m feeling good about what we’re doing up here,” Margie Litman said.
School Street Market is open from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays.
