Stockton Market is reopening in Hunterdon with big changes. Here's what to expect

The Stockton Market has been a fixture in this Delaware River town for more than a decade, featuring Hunterdon County farm goods in a year-round indoor farmers’ market that once had 30 vendors.

But over the years business faded, eventually only housing a deli that has since relocated.

Now the market is coming back, opening by late June at 19 Bridge St.

The new Stockton Market will be the only vendor, according to owner Dana Ashburn. However it will offer many of the goods that previous vendors sold.

“It can’t be what it was because the structure didn’t work,” said Ashburn. “It didn’t work to be open three days a week and depend on small farms to staff a stand and dedicate their time and money. We are building it to depend on our own internal team.”

The market will offer house-made baked goods, prepared foods and ice cream, all with a local and seasonal focus. It will also sell provisions from tristate-area artisans including former Stockton Market vendors like Kingwood-based Zach & Zoe Sweet Bee Farm, and Stockton-based Mediterranean Delicacy.

Stockton Market chef Chadd Jenkins will create items such as pizzas, salads, sandwiches, tartines, hummus, salsa, soups, stocks, granola, pizza dough, cookie dough and more.

In addition, the market will have 60 seats and a breakfast and lunch counter, also selling Equator Coffee. There will also be an onsite bakery under head baker John McGrath offering seasonal French pastries, danishes, focaccias, English muffins and more. (The bakery will also supply baked goods to the Stockton Inn across the street, which will open this summer.)

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Local and seasonal ingredients will be sourced from Ringoes-based distributor Zone 7, which partners with over 75 local farms.

The space has been brightened with additional lights, less walls, updates to finishes and seating, and white paint. Rooms have also been created where artisans and chefs can teach classes.

The market will be open 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Wednesdays through Sundays. Within a few months, Ashburn hopes to extend the market’s hours and be open daily.

Ashburn is the daughter of Stockton Market building owners Steven Grabowski and Cheryl Olsten, who also own the Stockton Inn. Ashburn used to help her mom manage the market and work the café, spending countless weekends taking the train to and from New York City, where she lived and worked as a makeup artist.

“I loved being at the market and circulating around the vendors,” she said. “It was exactly the kind of community I always felt that I wanted.”

She was disappointed when her parents sold the market in 2019. But three years later, it was back in the family. And this time, the woman who once traveled the world doing makeup for celebrities was ready to take her love of food to the next level.

Ashburn had dabbled in the food industry, taking courses at the Institute of Culinary Education in New York City, staging at New York City bakeries, and toying with the idea of leaving the beauty industry behind.

“I needed to be on-the-go, and doing a cat eye with glowy skin every day was just dimming my light,” she said.

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The opportunity to reinvent herself came at the onset of COVID-19 when Ashburn moved home to New Hope, Pennsylvania. A friend operating a meal delivery service needed someone to make desserts, and Ashburn figured, “I’m stuck at home, I can bake cakes.”

She would be in the kitchen "from 5 a.m. to 10 p.m. banging out these cakes,” Ashburn said. “I was like, ‘This is so intense. I love it, and it’s what I want to do.’ ”

Then her parents asked if she wanted to take over the market — and it all made sense.

“There were so many things that happened to me at the market that were so monumental," said Ashburn. “It was so full picture for me that now I had this opportunity to do something in my favorite space, where I had pitched a million times of what would happen there."

Go: 19 Bridge St., Stockton; stocktonmarket.com; opening in June.

Contact: JIntersimone@MyCentralJersey.com

Jenna Intersimone has been a staff member at the USA TODAY NETWORK New Jersey since 2014, although she's a lifetime Jersey girl who considers herself an expert in everything from the Jersey Shore to the Garden State's buzzing downtowns. To get unlimited access to her stories about food, drink and fun, please subscribe or activate your digital account today. You can also follow her on Instagram at @seejennaeat and on Twitter at @JIntersimone.

This article originally appeared on MyCentralJersey.com: Stockton Market is reopening in Hunterdon County this June