New locally-driven food shop opens in the Highland neighborhood

In Season Local Market

The newest food-related addition to the Highland neighborhood, In Season Local Market, is a tiny shop with big ideas. Located at 3210 Wyandot Street, In Season opened its doors this past Saturday. According to co-owner Todd Stevenson, nearly 400 people wandered through the 180-square-foot space that day, checking out the shop's selection of organic eggs, locally raised beef and pints of vanilla Red Trolley ice cream.

"It's just kind of what the neighborhood needed," Stevenson said of his new market, "and on the scale we're trying to do it, it's really accessible."

In Season's mantra is, "If it's not from here, it's not in here." All of the shop's dairy products, meat, fish, produce, sweets and soaps originated within a 250-mile radius of the vividly painted shop.

"There's so much available locally and when you find it local, it's fresher, it's cleaner and you can taste the difference," says Stevenson, who opened the shop with business partner Shannon McLaughlin.

He says the two thought of the idea while attending a pre-season Denver Broncos game last year. After coming up with the concept, they scoured local farmers' markets for products to sell, eventually choosing vendors such as The Denver Bread Company, Socolofsky Farms in Larkspur, Haystack Mountain Goat Dairy in Longmont and Denver's Urban Baby Gourmet.

The store has a limited selection of everyday products (in other words, you won't be able to do your weekly grocery shopping there), but the duo behind it are trying hard to make shopping at In Season easy. Their website features a grocery list that lists every product they carry. Within two weeks, customers will be able to set up a house account that will allow them to shop online and pick up their groceries on the way home. Next month, the market plans to offer after hours delivery to customers' homes in certain areas.

Store hours are currently from 2 to 8 p.m. on weekdays and from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on weekends. But Stevenson and McLaughlin are open to suggestions, both about their hours and their products. Do customers want more gluten-free foods? Is there demand for a raw-milk pick-up spot?

"We want to be a neighborhood store," Stevenson says.