Melly Mell's Soul Food was serving customers at Madison Public Market when the market opened to the public July 23, with complimentary mini Soul Bowls offered. The market's public opening marked a new chapter for a business that has spent nearly two decades working its way from a break-room folding table to a spot inside the city's newest food hall.
From a Folding Table to a Food Hall
Melly Mell's serves customers at the Madison Public Market, giving the South Side caterer a long-awaited storefront inside the city-owned facility at 202 N. First St. Jackson's path to that counter started in 2008, when she began serving lunch out of a small break room at the Genesis Center on Madison's South Side, building a loyal following among office workers before opening a formal restaurant location in 2010, as Madison365 reports.
That first brick-and-mortar restaurant ran from 2010 to 2015, after which Jackson shifted Melly Mell's into a catering operation based out of FEED Kitchens on Madison's North Side, handling events ranging from intimate gatherings of four people to large functions of 600, according to BRAVA Magazine. That stretch as a caterer gave Jackson the operational muscle — and the community reputation — to eventually compete for one of the market's coveted anchor spots.
MarketReady Participation
Jackson was an early believer in the Madison Public Market concept, and she participated in the city's MarketReady program.
The market's Main Hall holds 28 permanent vendor suites alongside the TruStage MarketReady Hall, which is reserved for pop-up vendors and events, and Melly Mell's now shares the floor with other merchants including Cinn City Smash, Cervato Wine & Tapas Bar, and Indian street food vendor The Chowpati, the Goodman Community Center notes in its market coverage.
A Long Road From Garage to Gold Certification
The market itself represents one of Madison's longest-running civic projects. The idea was first floated around 2003 by a cooperative of local farmers, and it took more than two decades of planning, site changes, pandemic-era disruptions, funding adjustments, and rising construction costs before the market opened to the public in mid-2026, according to Madison365's reporting. The finished facility renovated a former City Fleet Services building at 202 N. First St., with an investment of about $24 million, as detailed by In Business Magazine.
In February, the City of Madison's Engineering Division announced that the renovated building had achieved LEED Gold certification from the U.S. Green Building Council, exceeding the city's minimum LEED Silver standard for renovated municipal facilities — the tenth Madison municipal project to reach that sustainability tier.
A New Place for a Longtime Business
City officials and market managers are projecting big numbers for the venue going forward: at least 500,000 visitors a year, more than 130 local businesses housed under one roof over time, between $10 million and $16 million in annual sales, and 100 permanent local jobs supported by the market, according to the Goodman Community Center.
For Jackson, whose business has already weathered one restaurant closure and a decade as a traveling caterer, a spot inside the market gives the business a new place to serve customers.
