About two decades after it was first proposed, the brand-new Madison Public Market is opening today on Madison’s East Side. And that means that the people of Madison can now get their fix of delicious homemade soul food — fried or baked chicken, catfish, perch, rib tips, black-eyed peas, greens, cornbread, mac and cheese, baked beans, mashed potatoes, cabbage and kale, candied yams, green beans, and more — from Melly Mell’s.
“This is a great opportunity for me,” Carmell “Melly” Jackson tells Madison365 from her space at the Madison Public Market, located at 202 N. First Street, on the corner of E. Johnson and First Streets. Melly Mel’s new patio overlooks E. Dayton St. “I’ve always wanted to have my own place like this and this is a dream come true. This is what I’ve been waiting for for so long.”
The Madison Public Market officially opens to the public today, bringing together “an incredible collection of local entrepreneurs, makers, chefs, artists, and small businesses under one roof,” according to the market’s website. Community members are encouraged to stop by starting at 4 p.m. to support the many merchants and vendors and to explore the beautiful new building, which, after some delays through the years, is set to open.
“It’s just a beautiful building. You have all of these beautiful murals with different ethnicities and nationalities on the walls,” Jackson says. “There’s a wall with all different plates and serving things with people’s names on it who donated. There are little kiosks all through the market for people who have small businesses who want to come in. It’s really nice.”
Melly Mell’s will be open from Wednesday to Sunday. “For the first two months, we will be open from 5-8 p.m. on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday,” Jackson says. “We will have specials. People have been asking for my deep-fried tacos, my Philly cheesesteaks. We will have a griddle so you can call and get them made to order.”
On Saturdays and Sundays, Melly Mell’s will be open from 10 a.m.-8 p.m.
“I’m for sure going to do a nice Sunday brunch … a soul food brunch with grits and eggs and smothered turkey wings and omelets, pancakes … just a variety of what you have at a brunch,” Jackson says. “So I’m looking forward to Sundays, because there’s really no place to get a soul food brunch after church. People have been calling me constantly about coming in for brunch after church and asking when I am going to open up.”
Melly Mell’s has been a Madison staple since 2008, when Jackson first started setting up a folding table in the tiny kitchenette on the first floor of the Genesis Center on Madison’s South Side and would sell her delicious dishes to people from throughout the building at lunchtime.
“I’ve come a long way from that little break room right there that we would set up and break down at Genesis. You were there from the very beginning,” Jackson smiles. Jackson would soon move from that break room to have her own area of the Genesis Center basement for her Melly Mell’s Restaurant. “I think about that restaurant sometimes and how I started out in the basement of the Genesis Center on 313 W. Beltline Highway that was so hard for people to find. Now my spot will be on First Street and I will have doors that open up to a patio and a neighborhood. So it’s going to be really nice.
“Even if the people could find the Genesis Center, which wasn’t easy to find, they still had to find my restaurant,” Jackson adds, laughing. “They would have to go in a side door and go down some stairs and walk for a long time in a maze. It was something.”
There won’t be any problem finding the Madison Public Market. In between two of Madison’s busiest streets, East Washington Avenue and East Johnson Street, the new building has beautiful murals throughout the facility and modern amenities.
“We are brushing right up to Tenney Park, which is beautiful, and the Yahara River. It’s such a nice area,” Jackson says. “You can eat here on the patio, eat at the Public Market or take it to a park nearby.”
Jackson says she will still do some of the catering that she has become famous for over the last decade or so. “I’m gonna do weddings, family reunions, graduation, stuff like that. I’m doing the Madison Night Market and Dane Dances… I have some things coming up. I’m going to be out there still, because I like to mingle with the people. And as I get started at the public market, I probably won’t be there as much after it starts, after that first couple of months.”
At the new Madison Public Market, Melly Mell’s will have food that you can grab in a hurry.
“I’m gonna have a heat-and-eat section. So there’ll be meals like greens, mac and chees, baked chicken, cooked, sealed, and we will put them in the refrigerator,” she says. “So you could just take it with you if you don’t have a lot of time … it’ll be already prepared meals that you can grab and take home and heat it up at your convenience.”
Every day, Melly Mell’s will have its specials of the day. They will have a lot of vegetarian and gluten-free options, too, Jackson says, and, of course, Melly Mel’s will have its delicious desserts: banana pudding, peach cobbler, cake, bread pudding, pound cake, and sweet potato pie, which they will be selling at the grand opening.
“This grand opening I have been waiting for for a long time,” Jackson says. “I hope to see a lot of people coming out and supporting us and everybody at the market … and having some great food.“
