New kitchen adds a restaurant experience to this Wilmington market

When you walk into The Kitchen at Biggers Market, it’s hard to believe it used to be a tanning salon. But the owners of the market at 6250 Market St. had a vision, long before they announced the plans two years ago.

They wanted to create a place where people could buy local and regional produce, meats and more. They also wanted to make the most of what came through their doors.

In 2022, Sven Wallin and his partners opened the Biggers Backyard Bar and announced plans for what would become The Kichen. Last year, chef Marshall Jefferson started working with them, preparing grab-and-go foods in a commissary kitchen in Pender County, and operating a food truck in Wilmington on the weekends. Now, they’ve been able to open their own commercial kitchen, and grow their staff of chefs. It’s something the Biggers partners would like to replicate in Carolina Beach. Until then, here’s a look at what you can find on Market Street.

The chefs

Jefferson wasn’t one of those chefs who grew up in a kitchen. Instead, he worked in golf shops in high school, and went to college to study film. That’s what brought him to Wilmington. And, for a while, he worked as a production assistant. When the cyclical film industry turned away from this area, he was looking for other jobs and thought about golf. It was at Beau Rivage Golf & Resort that he learned he could work – in the kitchen.

“I loved it. I loved how quick the day went by,” he said. “And I loved hearing people say how much they liked the food.”

He then moved to catering and working as a private chef and was contemplating opening his own food truck when he connected with Biggers. He was intrigued.

“What chef doesn’t want to use local, fresh ingredients,” he said. “My job is to basically take what they have and make cool dishes out of them.”

He worked alone last year but has now recruited a staff to help prepare foods for both Biggers locations and window service food on the weekends on Market Street. That includes Eric Prange, Katharine Myhand and Cody Petersen making the Biggers take on classic comfort fare.

More: Popular Wilmington produce market looks to expand with more permanent location

House-made ice cream

One window at The Kitchen is devoted to the ice cream made on site with milk and cream from a North Carolina farm.

“I studied ice cream for three weeks before this,” Jefferson said. “I got books on it and had a chance to mess around with the machine.”

What they make at Biggers is called a Philadelphia-style ice cream, rather than a custard style. They use the market’s mint for the mint chocolate chip. They make their chocolate from cacao powder for the chocolate fudge brownie flavor. Strawberry is available while the fruit is in season. They puree and reduce them to mix in the base and to create a “flavor bomb” swirl. The blueberries are combined with a lemon crumble for another fruit-based flavor.

At the window

If you walk up to the window at The Kitchen, the menu includes weekly specials (which depend on the seasonal produce) and classics, from burgers to hot dogs to chicken tenders, as well as shrimp po’boys and fish tacos using seafood from Seaview Crab Company that’s sold onsite.

Jefferson learned some secrets about burgers while working with his brother who owns a French-Canadian bar in the Washington, D.C., area called the La Mont Royal. The chicken tenders are also a favorite.

“It makes a huge difference when you’re breading your own chicken and using local chicken,” he said. “They melt in your mouth.”

Right now, window service is available lunch and dinner hours Friday through Sunday.

At the market

A lot of the work at The Kitchen, though, is making the products that go to the market locations. On one recent day, the crew made Mediterranean quiches, ham and pepper quiches, strawberry rhubarb pies, cobblers, chicken pot pies, bacon mac and cheese with a gouda gruyere sauce, and a hundred or so individual servings of banana pudding.

“We are still figuring out demand,” Jefferson said. “We aren't even in peak season now.”

And there’s still more ahead. Maybe more hours for the window service and more baked goods – from cookies to banana bread.

“For everything, there is a lot of experimentation and refining the recipe.”

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Allison Ballard is the food and dining reporter at the StarNews. You can reach her at aballard@gannett.com

This article originally appeared on Wilmington StarNews: Biggers Market in Wilmington, NC, adds kitchen to Market Street spot