Middlebury Market makes a culinary mark

Author: Kelly Janis

Middlebury Market has now become Middlebury Market and Sama's CafÈ, the newest of 54 College St.'s many distinctive faces.

Chef and owner Usamah "Sama" Hayyat is no stranger to Middlebury. He grew up in the town and worked at the Market and CafÈ when it was known as Baba's, serving ice cream in the capacity of what he calls a "creamee boy." After several years of absence from his creamee post while attending college in Rhode Island, Hayyat heard that the store and restaurant by which he had been employed as a teenager was up for sale. Interested in purchasing it, he secured a business partner in Shelburne.

"We didn't really know each other, but we met and talked and had the same ideas," Hayyat said. Ultimately, the two of them "just decided to do it."

The pair's chief focus was elevating the quality of the Market and CafÈ to a higher plane. "We wanted to change the look of it, really just complete it and make it more food-oriented, even in the market," he explained. "Not so much snacky junk food type items but more Vermont-made products, salsas-that kind of stuff."

After nearly a year in business, Middlebury Market and Sama's CafÈ is reaping the fruits of its labor in the form of widespread customer satisfaction. Not content to rest on his laurels, however, Hayyat has recently implemented yet another change.

"Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights we're doing sit-down dinners," Hayyat said. "It's still very casual, very relaxed, just nicer meals at a really affordable price."

The impetus behind the addition is simple. "We really just wanted to give Middlebury another opportunity to have an affordable place in town for dinner," Hayyat said. Some restaurants in town, he observed, are high-priced and "not so much fancy, but you kind of feel stuffed up. Here it's just really casual and really laid back."

Dinner options at the restaurant are diverse in their nature, ranging from the $5.50 7-ounce burger topped with lettuce, tomato, onion, cheddar and bacon on a homemade roll to the $13.99 16-ounce lamb shank slowly cooked in their wood fire oven with creamy mashed potatoes and a rich vegetable gravy."

Many meals are inspired by their chef's cultural heritage. In describing a favorite lamb dish, Hayyat said that "it's a kind of Middle Eastern dish I ate a lot when I went back to visit in Jordan when I was younger, and it's one that I've always liked."

In addition to the sizzling dinner entrees and the sandwiches, pizza, soups, quiches and pre-made salads offered at lunchtime, the establishment boasts an ice cream counter alongside a repertoire of savory desserts. Among the most popular is the "tableside s'mores," which serve two to three hungry diners and, by the menu's description, are "just like being next to a campfire." The market contains an array of grocery items while the cafÈ furnishes customers with cappuccino, espresso, latte and coffee roasters.

This breadth of offerings contributes to the pursuit of appealing to a broad audience.

"We cater to families, couples, singles, college kids. You know, everyone," Hayyat said.

A typical day, Hayyat laughed, is "pretty good and crazy. We open up at 6:30 and go right into pastries that we bake fresh here every morning: muffins, croissants, sticky buns, cinnamon rolls. Then we go right into lunch where we offer four different soups every single day as well as different soup and sandwich combinations. And then dinner and mid-afternoon is a lot of pizza-slices for kids getting out of school-people studying, coffees and more pastries. And dinner has been really good lately. We've been getting a lot of business at dinner time."

Claudia Bromley has been employed by all three of the establishments which have occupied the building which houses Middlebury Market and Sama's CafÈ over the past five years. She is pleased with the location's most recent renovation, especially the overhaul of the building's interior, a muted sea of yellows, greens and blues complete with hand paintings, wooden tables adorned with flowers and a tidy division of the building into its various spheres.

"It's what the store needed," Bromley said. "It's a nice change. It's a warm feeling."

Bromley offers high praise for the Market and CafÈ's current owners. "They're good people, and good people to work for," she said.

And Bromley couldn't forget the customers. "Certain customers that come in here, you get attached to them," she said with a smile.

That attachment, it seems, is mutual. "I can walk here, so it's convenient," said Middlebury resident John Barstow as he gazed up momentarily from the newspaper in which he was engrossed. "Sama is doing a good job. This place is as good as it's ever been."

It is not only regular customers who are taking notice of Middlebury Market and Sama's CafÈ. "We've had a lot of people come in and say, 'Oh, I've had that before, it's really good, you should try that,'" Hayyat said. "It seems like a lot more people are trying us out."

Gary and Enes Holsten, who sat deep in conversation with twin cups of coffee, attested to this observation. The Holstens stumbled upon the Market and CafÈ three weeks ago after a move from Pittsford to Brandon. "We came in and had pastries and coffee and just watched [Hayyat] work," Enes Holsten recalled.

The duo was immediately impressed. "He has so much energy," Gary Holsten remarked. "He's personable and full of life."

The restaurant suits the couple to a tee. "It's wonderful," said Gary Holsten. "We love it. It's comfortable, it's homey. The food is excellent, the prices are reasonable." The Holstens said they intend to recommend the Market and CafÈ to their friends and, naturally, continue to frequent it themselves. "We remembered that they had a Sunday brunch, and that's why we came back today," Enes Holsten said.

The cafÈ serves brunch from 8 a.m. to noon every weekend morning. Customers can choose from among a selection of eggs, potatoes, pastrami, maple hash, poached salami and stuffed French toast. The meal comes with a choice of coffee or tea, and includes breakfast sandwiches and wraps for takeout.

It is apparent from the restaurant's healthy buzz that the morning offerings are an appealing draw. "We actually skipped church to come here," Enes Holsten admitted with a sheepish grin. "That's bad." She cast her gaze to the heavens and whispered "Sorry" before basking in an extended sip of her Green Mountain coffee.