• Courtesy Of Kate Bujold
• Maverick Market at 110's soft opening

Since August 2020, Local Maverick has sold products from more than 150 small Vermont food, drink, craft and wellness businesses through its online and pop-up markets. Now, the team behind the sales and marketing platform will offer those products at a brick-and-mortar shop in Burlington.

Maverick Market at 110 held its soft opening at 110 Main Street, Suite 1C, on Saturday. The shelves and fridge are stocked with products such as Bee Happy Vermont honey, NU Chocolat sweets, Stony Pond Farm cheese and Gosia Meyer Jewelry. The 750-square-foot, multipurpose space is also home to a small tasting room for Shelburne's Wild Hart Distillery.

"We went back to our roots," Local Maverick founder and CEO Ryan Nakhleh said. Local Maverick has an office space in the building, which faces the Hilton Garden Inn Burlington Downtown, and customers used to pick up their orders in its courtyard.

Initially, the retail store will be open Friday through Sunday. Nakhleh hopes to extend hours in April and eventually to bring back local delivery.

Also an event space, Maverick Market at 110 will host everything from networking meetups to financial literacy programs to demonstrations to pop-up dinners. March events include a demo with Bridge Road Sugarworks and pop-ups with Only Cannoli, Harmony's Kitchen and Frog Hollow Farmstead. In April, Local Maverick and city-run small business initiative Love Burlington will collaborate on a weekly speaker series.

Nakhleh spent the past year working to open a nonprofit commercial kitchen space for emerging food businesses in the Essex Experience, but Local Maverick was unable to secure 501c3 status, and construction costs rose to an unrealistic level, he said. He sees the Burlington store as a way to start small, test the concept and demonstrate the level of demand.

"The end goal is still to build out that full kitchen incubator," Nakhleh said. "But this is a really exciting step in the right direction."