On any given weekday afternoon in Piedmont, Mulberry’s Market is bustling with people roaming the aisles, middle and high school students perusing shelves and jars of candy and filling cups with slushies and customers lining up at the deli counter.
It’s a snapshot of what the store has become over nearly 19 years: a neighborhood gathering spot for groceries and more. For co-owner Chad Olcott, it all started with a rather modest idea: wanting a place in Piedmont to get a good cup of coffee.
Olcott and his wife, Mulberry’s co-owner Laura Pochop, had moved to Piedmont from San Francisco with their two daughters. A college friend who grew up in Piedmont encouraged Olcott to check out its elementary schools, and the family ultimately settled there when their daughter was ready for kindergarten.
“We immediately loved it,” Olcott said. “We loved the sense of neighborhood and the sense of community.”
Olcott, then a stay-at-home dad, discovered one thing Piedmont lacked: a neighborhood coffee shop like the one he had frequented on foot, stroller in tow, in San Francisco. He could drive to one in Oakland, but he wanted something within walking distance.
“I kind of got obsessed (with it),” he said.
Next to Havens Elementary School was Bonfare Market, a small convenience store. It offered the basics but wasn’t the kind of place Olcott imagined stopping for coffee or a sandwich on the way to Piedmont Park with his children. When the lease on Bonfare’s roughly 3,000-square-foot space expired, an opportunity presented itself.
With help from a friend in commercial real estate, Olcott and Pochop submitted a business plan for a neighborhood store with coffee, a deli, groceries and ice cream to the landlord. Their working name was “The Third Place,” a reference to a place outside of home and work where people could come together.
“I’d like to believe that is exactly what we created,” Olcott noted.
Turning the space into Mulberry’s was an undertaking. The couple raised the ceiling, installed a tin roof, replaced the property’s refrigeration and air conditioning, added marble countertops, moved the entrance and built a coffee bar and ice cream section. The renovation took six months and cost far more than they anticipated.
Among those who helped was Olcott’s best friend, David Crombie, who moved into the family’s basement and worked at the store seven days a week. On Dec. 8, 2007, the moment had finally arrived for the grand opening.
“I think there were 500 people in the parking lot,” Olcott said. “We cut the ribbon, opened the door, and it was nonstop all day.”
The first year was the hardest, as the owners learned to run a grocery store while dealing with broken refrigeration. Throughout the difficulties, the community stuck with them.
“They were so forgiving because we did make mistakes, absolutely,” Olcott said. “And the town just never gave up on us.”
About a year after opening, the owners brought in Virginia Davis, a trained chef and lifelong Piedmonter who also co-owns Yellow Door coffeehouse in Montclair. She was candid about Mulberry’s early deli offerings.
“She was like, ‘I love what you guys have done, but your food sucks,’” Olcott recalled.
Olcott and Pochop had created the foundation — a neighborhood grocery with wine, cheese, coffee and grab-and-go items — but Davis wanted to take the food further. After cooking for Olcott and Pochop and serving her dishes at a dinner in her home, she suggested selling them at Mulberry’s.
“I talked my way into a job,” said Davis, who became the store’s third partner a few months later.
Under Davis, the deli began making its food in-house, including soups, meatballs and baby back ribs.
“It’s original in that we grill our own tri-tip, we grill our own salmon, we make our own pulled pork,” she said.
The three Mulberry’s owners developed distinct roles: Davis focused on the food, Olcott on the customer experience and merchandising and Pochop on finances and operations.
“We really had a triumvirate,” Olcott said.
Among the small touches in Mulberry’s are some rooted in Olcott’s childhood. During summers in New Hampshire, he frequented a corner store that sold candy from glass jars. That memory inspired the candy jars at Mulberry’s today.
The store offers family charge accounts too — another feature inspired by that New England store. Mulberry’s has also given back to the community, including by naming sandwiches (called “Hometown Heroes”) after Piedmont families and supporting local schools.
“We’ve been trying to support the schools ever since we opened because we think it’s the schools that bring everybody to Piedmont,” Olcott said.
Sal Viveros, Mulberry’s chief operating officer, has seen that community connection firsthand. He started as the store’s general manager and has been with it for 15 years.
“It’s a community gathering spot,” he said. “Everybody comes here.”
He said many of the same neighbors return regularly for the groceries, deli and familiarity of seeing people they know. He credited that longtime support with helping Mulberry’s endure.
“We definitely understand that we wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for our loyal customers,” he said.
After a year on sabbatical, Olcott was to returns to the store this week, ready to consider possible changes.
“I’m going to dive back in with our team and start rethinking what we could improve,” he said.
That could include redesigning the store’s flow, updating refrigeration and gathering input from Piedmont residents.
“I’m not the 32-year-old dad anymore,” Olcott said. “It would be interesting to say to the young family that’s just moved in, ‘OK, what is it you’d want? What could we be doing better?’”
Whatever comes next, Olcott said the central idea behind Mulberry’s remains unchanged.
“It’s a community store, and we are incredibly grateful to the community,” he said.
At 335 Highland Ave. in Piedmont, Mulberry’s Market is open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays and from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. Sundays. For more details online, visit mulberrysmarket.com.
JL Odom is a freelance journalist based in San Francisco who can be reached at jlodomphd@gmail.com. When they’re not covering the Bay Area, they’re usually training for their next marathon.