Visitors and residents of Jamaica Plain can now browse through vintage music while enjoying coffee and baked goods at a newly-opened farmers market in Boston.
Monumental Market began operating regular hours on Tuesday, offering drinks from El Colombiano Coffee, treats from Lavender Bee Baking Co. and a selection of vinyl records provided by Light of Day Records.
The market was created as a joint project between the three small-businesses who came together to sell their goods in conjunction with each other.
Javier Amador-Pena, owner of El Colombiano Coffee and one of the three founders of Monumental Market, grew up on the coast of Colombia, where coffee serves as a staple in daily life. He said he began looking to expand when his business showed promising growth.
“People like the coffee and the flavors and the story behind it,” Amador-Pena said. “Every cup of coffee tells the story of back home where I drink my coffee from.”
Amador-Pena said he was inspired to put together the marketplace when he noticed that people would purchase snacks from Kelsey Munger’s Lavender Bee Baking before coming in to enjoy a cup of El Colombiano — or vice versa. He then approached Lavender Bee to suggest a partnership.
Once they found a space, Amador-Pena said the two companies began thinking about how they could best serve customers in the region.
“Lavender Bee provided peanut — and tree nut — free baked crafts, which is not very common here in the Boston area,” Amador-Pena said. “We wanted to cover and provide for these people with allergies that very few will.”
The pair later brought on Chris Antonowich, a public relations and branding specialist who also sold vinyl. Monumental Market offered Antonowich a pop-up store space for his vinyls as compensation for his marketing work.
All food products offered at Monumental Market are homemade and sourced from local vendors, according to Amador-Pena, as part of the founders’ mission to be community-oriented.
“We wanted to provide a vibrant community space to come and not only get coffee or pastries,” Amador-Pena said, “but also to mingle and to talk about art.”
Joe Webster, contractor for Monumental Market and project manager at Erise Builders, said the record selection adds a unique charm to the area.
“You might come for a coffee, but if the records are there you kind of turn around and take a look,” Webster said. “You may come to take a look at the records, but there’s a cookie that looks pretty good, so you grab a cookie as well.”
Webster said the team put heavy care and focused detail into designing the space.
“Once the store is complete and once the construction is complete, you kind of become a bit of a cheerleader for them,” Webster said. “We built a relationship with Kelsey and Javier and we like them a lot. They deserve success. We really hope they do well.”
Although many Boston residents have not yet heard about Monumental Market, they shared their music tastes and potential interests in vinyl records and record players.
Blaise Fritsche, 26, of Allston said his varied music taste was partially shaped by his involvement in college radio.
“I used to do radio in college and I worked for WERS for a while, so I had a lot of indie influence,” Fritsche said, “but [I listen to] mostly funk stuff that my dad showed me growing up.”
Farah Delgado, 19, of Beacon Hill said vinyls and record players are not a significant part of her life, but that she finds them intriguing.
“I’ve never looked into it,” Delgado said, “but yeah, I think it would be interesting.”
