Residents said “Oui, oui” last week to Brookfield’s first ever French market.
The village debuted the first of six French artisan markets the evening of Wednesday, July 8, from 4-7 p.m. on Broadway Avenue near Eight Corners. The French market will take place each Wednesday until Aug. 12.
The street market, which stretched about a quarter of the way between the roundabout and the intersection with Lincoln Avenue, featured vendors selling homemade pastries, lemonade, candles, jewelry, baskets and more. There was also live music and a cartoon artist drawing live portraits or painting landscapes of the village for people.
During the market, the vendors at the Brookfield Shops retail incubator program nearby were also open for business, a departure from their regular weekend-only hours.
Chicago native António Alban is the owner and operator of Ye Old Proof & Crumb, selling breads and baked goods made from scratch alongside his wife.
“This turnout right now turned out great. There’s a lot of people; there’s a lot of vendors. It’s very promising,” Alban told the Landmark. “While we were at our commercial kitchen, some of the guys there recommended a few of these French markets to apply to. That’s how I heard about this one.”
Kendra Shaw of KGPS Consulting, which helped village staff bring the retail incubator to life last year, said residents were unexpectedly lining up nearby before the market opened at 4 p.m. to get in as soon as possible.
Justine Martin, formerly a school social worker in Cicero, operates Giraffe Goddess Gifts, a shop specializing in hand-carved wooden spoons and soapstone goods as well as hand-woven baskets. She sources her goods from members of the Kamba tribe in Kenya, where she lives with her husband. Martin said she returns to the Chicago area once or twice per year and brings the tribe’s handmade items with her to sell.
“I was thinking, ‘How can I make an income?’ I fell in love with this handmade culture. The women make all the baskets from the sisal plant, and some are mixed with banana fiber,” Martin said. “The wood carving cooperative is the same tribe. They live in a dry region, so they started to rely more on handicrafts, and then I added soapstone. The women sand the item, after it’s carved in water, with four layers of sandpaper to make it so smooth.”
Martin said she decided to bring her wares to the French market due to her local connections.
“My family is from Western Springs. My brother lives in Brookfield, and I have other family here. It’s close by, and it’s a town that I love,” she said.
Pam Coppin runs a business, alternately called Chef Pam’s Catering and Chef Pam’s Pasties, doing catering and selling pasties, English hand pies filled with meat or vegetables. Originally from the UK, Coppin said her team sailed across the pond to open a restaurant and catering business in Florida before opening shop in Chicago, too.
“We work with several of the French markets, and this came through that,” she said. “We weren’t quite sure how business would go because, of course, we’re supposed to be on week four now, and we’re on week one, so we weren’t sure. We’re absolutely pleased. It’s a very lovely crowd of people, very pleasant. Get to talk to lots of different people that you wouldn’t usually speak to.”
Coppin said her business was scheduled for the first three weeks of the French market in June, which were repeatedly cancelled due to forecasts of heavy rain and even a tornado.
“It was difficult. The first week, we actually got here and set up and then were told the tornado was close by. Chaos broke loose. From the UK, we’re not quite used to tornadoes, so it was quite a new experience for us. That was that. We closed everything down, and the next two weeks, we were given early [notice] at 12 o’clock,” Coppin said.
But that first week, her group lost their entire inventory, she said.
“The products we well, they’re actually baked fresh to bring to market. On that first week, we had all our stock with us, and they’re not reusable. We wouldn’t reuse them the next day for another market, so that was a tough week,” she said. Other than that, we got through those weeks without [the French market], and now we’re here.”
