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The closing of J-Mart in 2004 left Bowie residents with fond memories, but empty stomachs. There would be no more ice cream, no more mini golf and no more delicious carry-out sandwiches for lunch that made J-Mart a landmark in the city for 40 years.
Five years later, Main Street Catering and Carry-Out has picked up the J-Mart legacy in the same building that once housed the old sandwich shop on Old Annapolis Road.
"We had to kick it up," Darrow said. "With the reputation they had, we had to surpass them."
Darrow and her daughter, Kerri Clark, have been operating their catering business since 1998 out of the kitchen at St. George's Episcopal Church in Glenn Dale, where Darrow's family had a history of attendance. The two have been serving up classic Maryland-style dishes — Darrow's term for the traditional Maryland farm-cooked chicken, macaroni and cheese, greens and crab cakes — for more than 10 years, with Darrow handling kitchen duty while Clarke handles the clientele.
Clark says that Main Street has a personal touch that puts the client at ease.
"It's very difficult for people to believe in a caterer, and to trust that everything will be taken care of," Clark said. "You kind of take ‘em by the hand, tell them this is how we do it and it's gonna be OK."
In 2004, the duo was cramped inside the church's kitchen, in need of an expansion. When Darrow and Clark first started Main Street in 1998, they catered 25 events. Since October 2008, the duo catered 920 events. That's when Darrow noticed that J-Mart was shutting its doors, forced to close due to construction on the adjacent Old Annapolis Road bridge.
After purchasing the building, it took four years of extensive renovations, courtesy of Darrow's husband, and the completion of the new bridge before Main Street could relocate the catering business from Glenn Dale to Bowie in the summer of 2008. Customers may barely recognize the new building, which maintains much of the same structure as the old J-Mart building, but had stark changes to interior and exterior features.
During the transition, Darrow's son, John Smith, was brought in as a consultant at the new location, and would eventually stay on full-time as executive chef.
Smith, who refined his culinary skills during an apprenticeship at Louisiana Restaurant in Baltimore, is now responsible for creating dishes for both catering and carry-out. Smith's fiancée, Mary O'Neill, also came on board to help run the carry-out side of the shop, which opened later in September 2008.
Having an entire family work together "has its positives and negatives," Smith said. "But when it comes down to business, everyone does what's best for the company."
A relatively small group of employees has also become like an extended family, Smith said. He hired mostly inexperienced workers he could train personally. No one starts to prepare food without his approval.
"It's nice to have people built from the ground up," Smith said. "It's a different philosophy from corporate."
Since opening, the carry-out has strived to maintain a consistent level of quality and taste to match the catering business. It's the best way to keep customers coming back again and again, Smith said. Everyday, customers can expect the same great Reuben or chicken cheesesteak they ate the day before.
Many of the dishes Smith creates for catering find their way onto the carry-out menu, as well. For instance, the beef tenderloin used in the sub is the same served to guests at events hosted by Main Street
While consistency is crucial, Main Street isn't afraid to shake up the menu with weekly specials, like Wednesday's beef tenderloin sub, and has a rotation of seasonal specials, such as chicken pot pie and roasted vegetable bisque.
Bowie resident Peggy Price arrived at Main Street late one afternoon to try her personal seasonal favorite: Cream of crab soup.
"They change the menu up; I love the specials and the choices," Price said. "But if you don't get here in time, it's gone."
On that day, Price was too late. The kitchen had run out of the popular menu item much earlier that day, so she had to settle for something else. It's a small price to pay for food made from scratch with fresh ingredients.
She'll be back to try again another day.
Main Street Catering and Carry-out
14207 Old Annapolis Road, Old State Highway 450, Bowie
Phone: 301-805-2508
Hours: 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday through Friday; 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday; Closed Sunday and Monday
