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'Things Were Already Getting Weird,' Yellow Green Farmers Market Vendors On Surviving The Pandemic

Yellow Green Market
Courtesy of Elizabeth Becker
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WLRN
Elizabeth Becker owns and runs the Chillbar restaurant with her husband Frank. She posed with an Apocalypse Martini the last weekend the market was open before the virus shut it down in March.

Editor’s Note: Two days after the publication of this story — on Thursday Aug. 6 — the owners of Chillbar told WLRN they have been kicked out of the Yellow Green Farmer’s Market by the market's board, via a phone call. 

Frank and Elizabeth Becker were told their space was no longer available because they were not paying the optional half-rent payments during the pandemic closure, and that the management decided to reconfigure the back of the market. The market's management previously indicated, in a statement to WLRN, that that under the half-rent policy vendors "will not lose their booths if they don’t pay anything."

 

When asked about the Beckers' claims, Mark Menagh, the market's general manager, responded in an email statement: "I cannot comment on a particular vendor details with the market. There are some vendors whose situation before the market closed means there were extenuating circumstances to their remaining at the market. Yes, the Chillbar is no longer able to maintain their space at the market."

 

Before the pandemic, the Yellow Green Farmer's Market in Hollywood was a favorite spot for locals and for tourists. At its peak last year up to 10,000 people would come through to eat and buy produce any given Saturday or Sunday. 

The last day it was open was March 15 and it almost reopened for Fourth of July weekend — then the spike in coronavirus cases stopped that from happening.

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WLRN caught up with three different vendors at the market to check in and see how their businesses are changing. 

BRUNCH AT CHILLBAR

"The last day that we were open I had this sign that I'd made that said 'ask me about the apocalypse,' which I thought was very funny at the time. I also put up specials out front — they were apocalypse martinis…" Elizabeth Becker's sense of humor embraces chaos. 

She owns and runs a restaurant, Chillbar, with her husband Frank. It's been a popular brunch spot in the back of the Yellow Green Market since 2011. 

 

Becker said there was nothing but uncertainty during the last weekend the market was open.

 

"Everybody was walking around the market, all of the vendors talking to each other go, 'I don't know what's going to happen next,' I was like, 'well I don't know what to wear so I chose steampunk, I thought that was apocalyptic enough, which is how seriously I was taking it. I was concerned about what one wore to it," Becker said. "I had no idea it was going to become what it is today." 

 

In the beginning, most people really didn’t understand what was coming.

 

"Things were already getting weird," Becker said. "I'd gone out and gotten gloves for staff to wear, which was, you know, way before we were all wearing masks and face shields and social distancing and all the rest of it."

 

At its peak last year, there were 300 small businesses at the Yellow Green Farmers Market.

 

Inside, and outside, the crowded open warehouse vendors sell food and plants, CBD oil, jewelry, artwork and more.

 

Yellow Green Farmers market pumpkin
Credit Caitie Switalski / WLRN
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WLRN
The Yellow Green, as loyal shoppers call it, is where vendors sell all kinds of fresh produce. A pumpkin at the market in 2019.

Lots of the vendor booths at the Yellow Green Market in Hollywood run on temporary event licenses. Chillbar, though, is a fully licensed restaurant. 

They could technically do takeout service if they wanted, and Becker said they thought about it, but when they asked the market… "They absolutely refused to allow us to do any kind of takeout. That's just — that's their choice," she said. "You can't argue with them. " 

 

Becker is 60 years old. Her husband is 66. Chillbar was their retirement plan, to supplement social security checks. 

 

"Now, you know now it's just gone," she said.

 

She said they've tried to use this time to recharge — and with July's spike in cases — take health experts’ advice to just stay home. 

 

"We've been working our whole lives and this is the longest vacation we've taken since we had children," Becker said. "We always wear a mask when we go out, we wash our hands … we don't see anybody. … We don't do a whole lot. Like retired people do, I garden, Frank cooks."

 

The Beckers are not confident they will open their restaurant back up.

 

"There's too many people who aren't following guidelines, to make it safe," she said. 

 

A couple of options they're exploring when it is safe: bottling their sauces from Chillbar to sell, or delivering cocktails — if that’s still allowed in a post-pandemic Florida.

 

When the Yellow Green Market closed, Chillbar had four part-time employees. Becker remembers that tough goodbye conversation.

 

"I said 'I have no idea what's going to happen next, you know, but I'll tell you as soon as I do know,'" she said. "I actually wasn't able to pay some of them until just recently, when I finally got some of the CARES Act, like two weeks ago. ... They had other jobs but those jobs aren't available either. They're just kind of doing a 'wait and see thing,' like we all are."

 

The Beckers are open to turning over Chillbar to somebody else. For them, this moment of change has converged with the Black Lives Matter movement and influenced their search for the right new chef.   

 

"We wanted to give it to an African American chef when it reopens, raising up people of color with their own business," she said. "So we're still lookin for somebody who wants to do this." 

 

 

HERBAL REMEDIES

 

Unlike Beth Becker, Lisa Stag-Tout barely remembers that last weekend her booths were open. 

 

"All I remember was a whirlwind," she said. 

 

Stag-Tout has two spots in the market — her business is called Herban Tapestry. She sells herbs, spices and teas. 

 

Elderberry was popular.

 

"We had the biggest weekend we've ever had," Stag-Tout said. "The people that shop with me are interested in keeping themselves healthy, or taking something as a remedy to help them feel better so I was insanely busy."

 

She decided to keep paying half her rent while the market stays closed. This way, the market's management will let her keep her current rate once it can reopen, and paying during the shutdown will apply to future rent when she returns. 

 

"What happens if it never happens?" she fears. "Those questions don't really get answered. So It's month to month."

 

She's been taking call-in orders, trying to work on a website, but orders have still slowed down a lot during the pandemic.

 

"I assume that's because people aren't working," Stag-Tout said. "I feel like I'm in a good position, and I don't think that if this went on for another six months that would be the same."

 

Part of the reason Stag-Tout feels like she is in a good position – her sympathetic landlord at her other location, close to downtown Hollywood. 

 

"I've been able to pay him rent pretty much on time, until this month. And now he's like 'Well, that's OK, pay me later, keep me informed you know,' just pay in bits as I can," she said.  "I think when you have that person to person it's much easier to get on."

 

Stag-Tout really wants to bring Herban Tapestry back to the Yellow Green Market. She’s been there five years. However, when she thinks about her favorite parts about working out of the market, what she sees ahead are weekends that look much less carefree. 

 

The days of bumping shoulders inside the market and dogs smelling each others noses, you just wont be able to do that. - Lisa Stag-Tout.

Read More: The Sunshine Economy: Borrowing And Business During COVID-19

BANG DIP

Jason Hadley is the man behind the popular food spot at the market, The Bang Shack, where he's made his Chicken Bang Dip for the last three-and-a-half years: It's made of chicken, mild cheddar, spinach, "and then Area 51 top secret ingredients," he said. 

 

At the start of the pandemic's impact on South Florida — from about mid March to nearly the end of April — Hadley said he couldn't even get back into the market to get his supplies and equipment.

 

"There was no income, zero income coming in. We were trying to get government assistance, we applied for everything under the sun and we weren't getting anything back," he said. "If we were paycheck to paycheck it would have hurt even more." 

 

Now, he's trying to take his dip recipe, and the vegetarian and vegan versions, to a new brick-and-mortar restaurant in Hollywood. He signed the lease earlier this summer because he was able to negotiate six months of not paying rent. 

 

It's been his dream for a while, but it will also solve the problem of having to be closed when the market is closed. He was already thinking about a restaurant instead. But Hadley said he still hopes he can spend a few more months at the market.

 

"I have a huge following at the Yellow Green Farmer's Market so I will be utilizing the partial rents I've been paying to have it cover a few months to promote my new spot," he said.  

 

He started making his Bang Dip at home in small batches and selling them out of another shop with ties to the market — Kay Rico Coffee in Hollywood.

 

"You know, just to generate some sort of income."

 

THE MARKET'S FUTURE

 

Meanwhile, the managment at the Yellow Green Farmers Market has been building Chickee huts outside to encourage people to social distance when they can come back. 

 

There's no set date for that yet. 

 

Even if there were, Beth Becker from Chillbar said there’s a lot to be nervous about. 

 

"I don't know how anybody can be successful there now," she said. "Until there's a vaccine."

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Credit Caitie Switalski / WLRN
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WLRN
A sign on the bar at Chillbar at the back of the Yellow Green Farmers Market in Hollywood, pre-pandemic.

Caitie Muñoz, formerly Switalski, leads the WLRN Newsroom as Director of Daily News & Original Live Programming. Previously she reported on news and stories concerning quality of life in Broward County and its municipalities for WLRN News.
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