By Nancy Brumback, Contributing Writer
Marlborough – Homemade sausages and breads, specialty cheeses from small-batch producers around the world, fresh pasta, seafood delivered daily, restaurant-quality meats and produce, and prepared foods to make life easier.
All that and more fills the Olde Colonial Market, a new food shop right next door to Stephen Anthony's restaurant and the latest addition to Anthony and Sara Scerra's growing business complex.
“It's been my dream for eight or 10 years to do a market like this,” Anthony said.
“Henry Ford's wife wanted to have a farmers” market here. It's what she envisioned for the country store,” Sara added.
The Olde Colonial Market is packed with foods you won's find elsewhere, but Anthony is quick to point out the prices are comparable to area supermarkets.
“We'se been in business for 25 years and we plan to be here another 50. We'se here for the long haul so we offer both good value and high quality,” he said.
The Scerras are particularly excited about their cheese selection.
“Our supplier tells us there are 20 places in Italy that produce Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, but only four meet his standards,” Sara said. Many of the Italian cheeses carry the Denominazione di Origine Protetta (DOP) certification of origin from the Italian government.
Anthony pointed out some of the other unusual cheeses in the case – caramelized onion cheese (“Wonderful melted on a burger!”), sticky toffee dessert cheese, and pale cheese studded with flecks of black truffles.
There's seafood delivered fresh every day and a tank with live lobsters.
The meat case features a changing assortment of the 20 varieties of homemade sausages produced next door in the restaurant, with the maple breakfast sausage always available. Restaurant-quality choice beef can be cut into steaks to order, and there are fresh pork chops and chickens.
The deli sells Boar's Head meats and cheeses, as well as roast beef, roast turkey and ham cooked on the premises and sliced to order. Sandwiches and homemade soups are available too.
A line of imported Italian meats – prosciutto, salami and more – is on its way. They will complement the fresh pastas – fettuccini, fusilli, linguini and penne rigate, plus ravioli in the frozen food case – that the store buys from a local company.
Interesting specialty foods add zest to the store. Most unusual are refillable bottles of extra virgin, cold-pressed olive oil from Greece and balsamic vinegar from Modena, Italy. You buy the first bottle, then can come back and refill it from large dispensers in the store.
Fresh produce is beautifully displayed in baskets or a refrigerated case. The Scerras plan to feature produce from local farms during the growing season, and also add a farmers” market during the summer.
And if you don's feel like cooking, the Olde Colonial Market has prepared foods to take home, including roast turkey dinners, meatloaf, salmon, haddock, roast chicken, homemade pasta sauces and salad dressings.
There will be three to six varieties of freshly-baked bread available each day, plus some specialty baked goods from local suppliers.
Anthony noted that the market can fill special orders for cuts of meat, prepared dinners, cheese platters, holiday party fare and gift baskets. “Whatever you want, we'sl take care of you.”
As it happens, this location is where Stephen Anthony's restaurant opened 25 years ago. When the restaurant moved into bigger quarters next door, the store became an antiques shop.
The Scerras also just opened a function hall in the other half of the market's building that can handle parties of up to 100 people in an elegant setting with large windows overlooking Hager Pond.
And they aren's finished yet. A patio, also overlooking the pond, is being constructed between the restaurant and the market for outdoor dining. This summer, an ice cream bar and clam shack will open on the restaurant side. The Olde Colonial Market has an on-premises liquor license, so wine and beer by the glass will be sold to enjoy on the patio.
Maybe a customer exploring the store during the first week it was opened said it best. “You have real bacon? Oh my gosh, I's so excited that you are here!”
The Olde Colonial Market is located at 1007 Boston Post Road (Route 20) in Marlborough near the Sudbury line. It's open Monday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., and Sunday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. For information or special orders, call 508-460-1376.
