Bow Market in Somerville welcomed two businesses this month – the plant store Buzz and Thrive Gardens and the Vietnamese restaurant Viet Citron – while maca, a macaron bakery, undergoes renovations.
Bow Market specializes in pop-up stores, letting entrepreneurs test business concepts and hone their products – or, the case of the spring openings, get access to shoppers and diners from around Somerville and Cambridge without giving up established businesses elsewhere in Massachusetts.
Viet Citron will operate at Bow Market for at least three years as a small-menu concept kitchen “where we test a lot of new ideas and recipes” for a location in Burlington, chef-owner Trân Lee said.
“The customers in Camberville understand sustainability and are quite adventurous with their taste buds,” Lee said. Among the modern Vietnamese food focused “on high-quality ingredients and bold flavors,” Lee recommends a rice bowl, banh mi sandwich or the salt-roasted crispy pork belly that “comes out of the oven every hour” in a bowl with vermicelli called a banh hoi.
Buzz and Thrive Gardens has been a frequent vendor at the Somerville Winter Market and Union Square Farmers Market, but co-owner Patrick Hillman said having a plant shop with regular business hours – it opened March 5 plans is expected to be at Bow Market through May – was a “great opportunity” to grow.
Buzz and Thrive has a greenhouse in Leominster open since 2015, but Bow Market offers “so much to see and do” that “it brings a lot of potential customers through,” said Hillman, a former horticulturist for the Worcester Horticultural Society at the New England Botanical Garden.
Maca is set to celebrate its seventh anniversary at Bow Market in June with the opening of an expanded storefront combining its current space and a storefront next door. With the expansion, the shop will serve bubble tea and bubble tea waffle sundaes, owner Tamy Chung said. The new menu items are a tribute to her heritage in Taiwan, where bubble tea originated.
After specializing in the delicate, sandwichlike pastry known as the macaron, the expansion is a testament to “how far I’ve come and how much further I can go,” Chung said. Leading up to the expansion, the business has been a one-person effort with a little help from friends at the storefront on the weekends.
“It really takes a village that supports and cheers you on, and we have that here at Bow,” Chung said.
Bow Market, 1 Bow Market Way, Union Square, Somerville
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