320 Market Cafe Brings Ready-Made, Take-Home Dishes To Media

Too busy to cook? Lucky for you, Swarthmore-based just expanded to Media. While the original market location is more of a grocery-style experience, the Media location will focus on a large ready-made, take-home food selection, owner David Cunicelli said.

The 320 Market started in 1991, when Cunicelli and his brother Jack began selling produce in Swarthmore. Then in 2003, the pair began working more on the take-home end of things, selling frozen pastas, cheese, bread and deli sandwiches at the market café.

A few of those items, like cheeses and bread, will find their way to Media, but the menu will mainly focus on take-home options. In the past, those have included items as varied as tagliatelle with spinach, artichoke and sundried tomatoes, vegetarian butternut squash bisque, chicken pot pie, baked flounder stuffed with Crab Imperial, beer-battered cod, New England clam chowder, and sun-dried tomato and local farmstead chevre quiche.

The brothers have been looking to open a second location for about two and a half years, and had been close to signing a lease several times, but something always seemed to break down, Cunicelli said. This time, after finding the, 320 in Media

"It went well. … People were really happy to see us and talk to us and today's been even better," Cunicelli said last week.

Cunicelli hopes that the short distance between the Media and Swathmore locations will help spread the word about the new store. He noted that a number of people who have come into the new location already know of 320's Swathmore location.

"While we might have some cross pollination—customer poaching from Swarthmore—we're also able to expand based on the idea that people know who we are," Cunicelli said. "We do our best with word-of-mouth."

Another plus is that both Cunicelli and his brother Jack can get back and forth easily between the two locations, which are less than five miles apart. Equally convenient is that both men live within about two miles of each store.

320's Swathmore location has a very consistent customer base, and the hope is to grow a similar one in Media.

"There are some people in Swathmore that have been shopping since we opened 20 years ago. We know most people by first name or last name, and I have kids that work for me whose moms were pregnant with them when we started. And their moms still shop there," Cunnicelli said. "We have a very loyal customer base."

Cunicelli said he and his brother are looking forward to getting involved in the Media community.

"We're excited to pair with special events on Fridays and Saturdays and bring things to Media that we like: my brother is very passionate about cheese and he knows a number of cheesemakers in Pennsylvania that he'd love to bring down. … We both love working up here."

While opening a new location during this economy might strike some as risky, Cunicelli doesn't seem concerned.

"We concentrate on things we know really well," he said. "In Media, where there's such a competition for food … the more items we have that compete with other places, the less ability we have to showcase our unique qualities. No one does what we do with the same depth, or with the quality of some of the offerings we have."

While the hours may change as the owners feel out the market, as of now, 320 Market Café in Media is open Monday through Friday 9:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m., and 9 to 5 p.m. on Saturdays at 21 W. State St.