“I have one photo that a customer I adore who's a photographer took of me that's black and white. It was at the downtown market [under the Jones Falls Expressway]. I'm just listening, talking to a customer. And I get weird...Like, ‘Oh my gosh, I was so young. Look at my face.’ At Waverly I moved around, but when I'm at the downtown farmer's market, we have been in the same spot for 30 years. And I think about…it's the whole energy of... I know that vantage point with the neon sign of a diner and City Hall behind me so well. I have been at that same spot for all these years through all the things that I've gone through personally week in and week out. It's a neat thing.”
When Barbie Maniscalco started doing part-time gigs with Uptown Bakers in college, she never could have imagined that it would turn into a career. She was an English major at James Madison University, and in her senior year she took an upper-level marketing class. She was the only non-business major in the class. “For our final project you had to hold your dream interview or do a sales presentation. My roommate and I sat in our house and I remember thinking, ‘What am I going to do?’” Her roommate worked for Uptown Bakers and suggested that they call Lou, the owner of the bakery, and ask him to ship a box of bread so Barbie could do a bread presentation. “And so he did. Little did I know that it was foreshadowing.”
“It was really a small neighborhood bakery in Cleveland Park across from the Uptown Theatre. We had started to think about moving into the Baltimore wholesale for restaurants, so I looked into the farmers markets just to get leads, to meet chefs like John [Shields],” Barbie told me as we shared a seafood salad at Gertrude’s Chesapeake Kitchen, John's iconic restaurant housed in the Baltimore Museum of Art. The entire menu at Gertrude’s is crafted to celebrate and preserve Chesapeake culinary traditions, highlighting farm-fresh, locally sourced food like that from the 32nd Street Farmers Market. Uptown Bakers provides bagels for the Gertrude’s brunch menu.
“The farmers market is a showcase for products as people are developing a menu, for people who don’t want to do in-house baking,” she said. Barbie is also proactive about educating her customers about where they can find Uptown Bakers products during the week. "It’s the left hand talking to the right hand, the bakery and the community.”
"I feel a big responsibility for this actually,” Barbie said, describing her unique role as an intermediary between the bakers and the public. “The bakers just couldn't do everything.”
Barbie started vending at the Baltimore Farmers Market downtown in the fall of 1993. She started at the 32nd Street Farmers Market the following spring after meeting Barbara Lahnstein from Neopol Smokery, who agreed to let them share half of their vendor space at 32nd Street.
Although Uptown Bakers has vended at various markets throughout the DMV, the Baltimore markets have been the most consistent for them. “I feel like I've gotten to have a storefront without having a storefront because it's a consistent place that people know they can come. And you're welcoming them.”
It’s what Barbie calls her “ministry of hello.” “It's something that's really important to me with the people that work at the stand. I think it's really important to look people in the eye.
They're there for bread but we're there for more than that.”
Even when there’s a long line, Barbie encourages her team to take the time to talk with customers about whatever is important to them, whether that be questions about allergens, how to navigate the market, or what they choose to spend their allowance on.
“There were two sisters that used to come and their dad gave them money to spend. One always came and got a double chocolate muffin from us, and the other would go to Karen Locke’s flower stand to get fresh flowers for her little play table every week. And I was like, ‘They don’t get to get both?’ And their dad said no. It’s giving them what’s important to them and that’s what they want and that’s what they chose.”
For Barbie, identifying the different reasons that people come to the market is something she honors and uplifts. “I'm in a stage of life where…I mean for whatever reason whether it's I've raised a family and I'm just a little further down the road…but I think I pay attention to the different people that are at the market and the different reasons that they are there and try to celebrate it.”
Over the past three years, I have gathered over 200 stories from community members, all connected by the common denominator of the 32nd Street Farmers Market. Each of these stories reflects a different need, a different phase of life. My own relationship with farmers markets has evolved over the years. It’s now a part of my weekly grocery shopping, and the seasonality of what’s displayed on the folding tables informs the meals that my husband and I prepare each week. But when I was a freshman at Denison University without a kitchen, I’d walk down the hill every Saturday to buy a cinnamon roll and chocolate milk at the Granville Farmers Market.
It wasn’t just about buying treats to break up the monotony of dining hall food, although that extra cream cheese frosting elevated the pumpkin bread that I’d sneak out of the dining hall. It was an opportunity to meet people and start to build a sense of familiarity with them. When my parents visited me, I put in a special order with “the cinnamon roll lady” because cinnamon rolls are my stepdad’s favorite treat. It was something to share with them from my new home, a relationship that I had formed distinct from my family that I could invite them into.
“It's just been such a gift in my life, you know, building relationships both behind the scenes and with customers,” Barbie reflected. “I have seen kids born, grow up, and go to college... just the rhythm of their family. Whether they’re having a hard week or people are going through things in their life…parents who are ill… There was a gentleman from New England, ‘Pa.’ He had such a strong accent. I loved him so much. He came every week. And his daughter-in-law still comes. We talk about him, you know, just remembering him. But I think that's nice too. You have those memories and connections with different families.”
The market community has been both a witness to and part of Barbie’s own family rhythm over the years. “I was at the market the weekend I got engaged.” Her husband Andrew was on the 32nd Street Farmers Market Board for a period. Barbie’s sister worked at the Uptown Bakers market stand with her, and they would go to Pete’s Grille after the market closed to weave together the tidbits of conversations they had in between greeting customers. Both of Barbie’s sons worked at the Baltimore markets over the years. She remembers her son Andy sitting with boxes of pastries on his lap after picking up the pastries from the bakery in Hyattsville to bring to the market. She was pregnant at the market the week before she gave birth to her son Jack.
"I had to get coverage. My mom and dad helped and then there was somebody from the bakery who filled in. I took a couple weeks off and all these market customers brought baby gifts. And I didn't know their names. This is a reason I want to know people's names because people had signed their names and brought lovely gifts. And I was like, ‘Who is this?’ And my team was like, ‘You know, the family with the red wagon that buys a sourdough and a couple muffins.’”
Barbie emphasized the sacredness of a gathering place like the 32nd Street Farmers Market. “We're moving into a world where people don't talk to each other anymore. The connection and people, you know... People remember the way you make them feel.”
Stop by and say hello! Uptown Bakers is there to welcome you every Saturday at the 32nd Street Farmers Market 7am-12pm, and from April – December at the Baltimore Farmers Market 7am-12pm.
Can’t wait for the market? Uptown Bakers supplies bread to the following restaurants and storefronts. Ask your waiter about what they’re featuring! Can’t make it to the market this week? You can find Uptown Bakers breads and baked goods at the following locations:
Abbey Burger of Mt. Washington
Amicci's of Little Italy
Captain James Seafood Palace
Chuck's Trading Post
Claddagh Pub
DiPasquales
Hilton Baltimore Inner Harbor
Hotel Revival
James Joyce
Jimmy's Famous Seafood
Kitsch Café
La Scala Ristorante Italiano
Lord Baltimore Hotel
Mastellone Deli & Wine Shop
Meringue Cake Studio
Mt. Washington Tavern
On the Hill Café
Papermoon Diner
Prima Foods Inc.
Southern Provisions Bar and Kitchen
The Outpost American Tavern