Crepes, craft brews & more headed to Wilmington's Market Street

Remember when you drove back to downtown Newark for the first time years after graduating from the University of Delaware?

Old hangouts were replaced by new, strange gleaming storefronts. A new batch of young faces looked back at you. And there was an overall feeling that the town had moved on without you.

If you haven't been on Wilmington's Market Street in several years, you'll get that same feeling.

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And even as a new wave of spots have opened along the Market Street corridor in recent months — including healthy foods at Wilmington Green Box, ice cream and burgers at UDairy Creamery and a full Caribbean-inspired menu at Bull Bay Cuisine — you've seen nothing yet.

A stream of new restaurants along with a brewery and cidery are plotting launches ahead of the opening of the $75 million The Residences at Mid-Town Park luxury apartment complex, expected to welcome tenants in the spring. It's at the site of the former Shipley Street parking garage that serviced Grand theatergoers.

With its 200 apartments, 12,000 square feet of retail space and a 500-space underground parking garage, it's a massive addition that will make its mark on Market Street even though it's a block away.

Work has already begun to blow out the walkway in between Chelsea Tavern and UDairy, creating a larger natural path connecting the two streets with a casual outdoor beer garden filling the space.

But plenty of newbies will be sprouting on the city's main drag in the meantime.

Here's a look at some of them:

The French addition

The newest major addition to Market Street is slated to come as early as next month in the form of something the city doesn't have: a full-service French restaurant.

Margaux, a restaurant and bar with its own on-site bakery and crêperie, is scheduled to open at 902 N. Market St. below the Residences at Rodney Square at the former home of the Exchange. The doors of the main restaurant could swing open as early as next month with the bakery/crêperie/coffee shop following a month or two later with a separate entrance.

After years of eating and drinking in city establishments, Moroccan-born co-owner Soufiane Lailani says he has learned one thing not to do with a new restaurant: close early whenever business is slow.

"The thing about downtown that always irked me is when [restaurant owners] say we're not open because there are no people here at this time or that time," says Lailani, who moved to Delaware 24 years ago. "My philosophy is different. The reason why no one is going there is because you're not open.

"Look at a place like Kid Shelleen's [near Trolley Square] — you don't have to even think about it. They are open until 1 every day. It's consistent. On some nights is it just you at the bar? Sure, but you know it's always open."

The focus at Margaux will be on classic French dishes and flavors, along with some new creations and a Moroccan dish here or there.

"I'm not Americanizing the French. It won't be watered down," he promises. A bar and lounge area will also be part of the space's new layout with small plates served.

Beer, cider and iron skillets

A few steps down the street you'll find another anticipated new business — and this one is for the beer nerds.

Stitch House Brewery (829 N. Market St.) is about to be only the second downtown Wilmington brewery to produce its own beer in more than six decades when it opens this fall, aiming for a November debut.

The beer tanks have already been delivered to the 160-seat Stitch House, which will also offer a lunchtime sandwich board, along with cast iron skillets served in three different sizes. An in-house smoker will be put to use, picking up from one of Sheridan's other businesses, Wilmington's Locale BBQ Post.

When it comes to booze, there's one other craft alcohol-maker on Market's horizon.

Civil Cider could open as soon as this winter at the corner of North Shipley and West Fifth streets, the former home of the 4W5 Cafe. Alex Sianni and Gretchen Brizendine — the couple behind De La Coeur Café et Pâtisserie in Wilmington's Forty Acres — are the ones bringing that corner of Shipley Street back to life after years of dormancy.

There are several more spots prepping for a Delaware debut in the city.

Italian, Chinese and more

The Italian restaurant Arde Osteria at Seventh and North Market Street, which shares the same owners as Market Street's DiMeo's Pizza, should open by the new year, according to Sarah Lamb, director of design and marketing for developers Buccini/Pollin Group.

Others coming soon include Tom's Dim Sum at 625 N. Market St., 218 Grill at 218 N. Market St. and Mi Mi Teriyaki at 925 N. Orange St.

And when it comes to what we don't know about Market Street's upcoming tenants, attention turns to the upstairs stage and restaurant at The Queen, now under Live Nation management after World Cafe Live left in May.

Unlike World Cafe Live, which operated the upstairs space themselves, offering full meals at both stages, Live Nation's Queen doesn't do dinner.

The concert giant is looking for a restaurant partner to operate the upstairs space with it. No word yet on a confirmed deal.

"We're pretty close, but it's nothing that we could talk about yet," says The Queen General Manager Trenton Banks.

Contact Ryan Cormier of The News Journal at rcormier@delawareonline.com or (302) 324-2863. Follow him on Facebook (@ryancormier), Twitter (@ryancormier) and Instagram (@ryancormier).