Wilmington's Market Street Got New Tables at Both Ends This Year

On a Monday in early October, Bob Hart stood inside Al's Sporting Goods at the corner of Market and Second and held up a photo of the original store. Customers walked past racks marked 20% to 50% off. Several told a reporter they hadn't known the shop was closing until they saw the signs on the doors. Spotlight Delaware reported that the store will close in December, after 91 years in business.

Walk north from that corner and the rest of the year's news on North Market Street is all about restaurants. Four dining rooms opened or reopened between the 200 block and the 900 block in 2026. A fifth, a café, is on the way. Al's is the only notable business leaving, and it is a store. Taken together, those moves have changed what Market Street is mainly for: it now runs on dinner reservations and late bar hours more than on shopping trips.

The corner at Second Street changes hands

Abe "Al" Kristol opened it in 1935 as a pawn shop in a separate building on Market Street. Hart's father started working there soon afterward and later took it over with a partner. Hart started at the store when he was 12 and has run it for 40 years.

He told Spotlight Delaware that he is closing because he is retiring, not because sales fell off. He said the shop was "doing pretty good business" but he couldn't find anyone to take it over.

"I think it's tough today to sell a retail business with people buying stuff online."

Hart did find a buyer for the side of the business that sells team uniforms and equipment. That operation reopens at a new location on Jan. 1, though the new owner can't hire all 18 of his employees. Hart said he sold the storefront itself to JPMorganChase, which already uses the rest of the building as a parking garage for its Wilmington headquarters. According to the same report, the bank declined to comment and online property records don't show the sale yet.

Debbie Schwartz manages The Lofts & Shops at 2nd & LOMA, the buildings across Market Street. She told Spotlight Delaware she is concerned that some people will lose access to a sporting goods store once there isn't one downtown. She also said she believes in mixed-use communities, where people can shop near where they live.

The liquidation sale is on through the closing. If you have a youth league season coming or someone on your list wants cleats, this fall is the last time you can buy them at that corner.

Two dining rooms, one block up

From Al's corner it's a short walk to the 200 block, where two restaurants opened within a few months of each other.

Urban Fork, 201 N. Market St. Monica Thomas brought her Philadelphia business, Monz Crabby Dip, to this downtown location. Out & About Magazine described the restaurant in its July issue, which came out in late June, as elevated soul food with handhelds, seafood and brunch dishes. The restaurant's website adds flatbreads, full plates and a full bar. The hours are the real story. The site lists Thursday through Saturday from 11 a.m. to 1 a.m., Monday and Tuesday from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m., Sunday from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., and closed Wednesday. No other restaurant on this list posts hours that late.

Villa Italiana Mediterranean Cuisine, 218 N. Market St. Out & About reported that it held a ribbon cutting on Sept. 15 and that violinist Ernesto Carias plays every Friday and Saturday starting at 6 p.m. The menu includes lobster ravioli, branzino, pastas and pizzas, plus lunch specials and a weekday happy hour.

Spotlight Delaware's profile covers the people behind it. Kelvin Molina and his wife, Janine Hernandez, opened the restaurant with partners Johnny and Karen Orejuela, who own Three Amigos Mexican Grill. Kelvin's son Diego is general manager. Head chef Aguinaldo Santos calls the food more Italian American than traditional Italian. The family runs three pizza and Italian restaurants in Pennsylvania, in Honey Brook, Coatesville and Parkesburg. Villa Italiana is their first restaurant in Delaware and their first upscale one.

The dining room is built to look like an Italian villa. The host stand is made from a 1970s Vespa. Karen Orejuela painted the countryside murals. The panes of stained glass are more than 120 years old and came from an Italian church that was being renovated. The restaurant took more than two years to open, and the owners named two reasons: a permitting process that ran longer than expected, and wanting to be fully ready before opening the doors. Kelvin's pick on the menu is the penne vodka with prosciutto and Roma tomatoes. "The vodka sauce is my favorite," he told Spotlight Delaware.

At 625, a chef opened across the street from himself

Bardea Restaurant Group's Ezme opened in May. Delaware Business Times gave its address as 625 N. Market St. The location matters because Ezme sits directly across from Bardea Food & Drink and Bardea Steak, a few blocks from Casa Nonna, Roost Pub & Kitchen and DE.CO Food Hall. All of them come from the same executive chef, Antimo DiMeo.

DiMeo has twice been a semifinalist for the James Beard Foundation's Best Chef award in the Mid-Atlantic region. He told Spotlight Delaware he isn't worried about competing with himself, because each of his restaurants gives people a different reason to come downtown. With 50 seats, Ezme is the smallest of his restaurants. It's built around mezze, small plates shared across the table instead of one entrée each. He expected the menu to lean Greek, but a research trip pointed it toward Turkey. "Istanbul almost felt like New York," he said.

The paper described Ezme as high-end with a relaxed room, where diners on a Thursday evening wore everything from aloha shirts to sundresses. When one chef has three dining rooms within sight of each other, the 600 block can fill a full evening without anyone leaving it.

Oath '84 moved from King Street to get twice the seats

Delaware Today placed Justin Womack's Oath '84 at 405 N. King St. when it covered the restaurant in 2023. It won a state EDGE grant, and the Division of Small Business's list of grant winners says the money would help move the restaurant from King Street to Market Street and double its seating. The same entry describes the restaurant's cooking as a mix of Indo-Trini and American cuisine.

Oath '84 reopened in July at its new flagship, 902 N. Market St. Out & About describes it as a modern tapas restaurant and bar that blends Caribbean flavors with American influences. It's open Wednesday through Saturday from 4 to 10 p.m., with Sunday brunch and live music.

The second part of the plan is 84 Next Door, an Indo-Trini-inspired grab-and-go café serving coffee, sandwiches and small bites. The state grant listing calls it a breakfast and lunch spot. In late September, Out & About said an October opening was expected. Before you walk over for a morning coffee, check 84 Next Door's website to see whether it's open. When it does open, the 900 block will get the street's only new breakfast-and-lunch spot this year.

The street from south to north

Here are this year's changes, in order from Second Street north:

Most of the hours on that list cluster around evenings and weekends. Urban Fork serves until 1 a.m. three nights a week. Villa Italiana's music starts at 6 on Fridays and Saturdays. Oath '84 opens at 4 in the afternoon. Al's, the one business that ran on daytime shopping, is the one that's leaving. Spotlight Delaware described the closure as one of the latest shifts in a commercial core that served northern Delaware as a retail hub decades ago.

Putting one evening together

With this many new options along a single street, one Friday or Saturday in November can cover a lot of ground. Going south to north:

1. Stop at Al's at Market and Second before it closes in December, while the discounts are still on.
2. Have dinner on the 200 block. Villa Italiana's violinist starts at 6 on Friday and Saturday, and Urban Fork's posted hours run until 1 a.m. those nights.
3. Another night, start at the 600 block. Ezme has only 50 seats, and Bardea Food & Drink and Bardea Steak are right across the street.
4. Save the 900 block for a weeknight or Sunday. Oath '84 opens Wednesday through Saturday at 4 p.m., and Sunday brunch comes with live music.

On a Saturday, the walk from Al's corner up to Oath '84's front door goes from a business founded in 1935 to a restaurant that moved to Market Street this July.

If you live near downtown or are thinking about a move closer to Market Street, the new openings are worth knowing about when you weigh a block. I keep track of what changes on these streets because it affects how a home feels to live in. Reach out to Myking Johnson to schedule a consultation or get your free home valuation, and we can talk about what this year's changes mean for your corner of Wilmington.