04.02.26 – We have updated our hours for the rest of our time here at 250 Rittenhouse Ave. We will be open Wednesday – Sunday (closed Mondays and Tuesdays) from 10 am – 5 pm. Our last day of service will be Thursday, April 30th. We will be winding things down throughout the month, which means we’re not repurchasing a lot of items. So if there’s something you love, now is the time to grab it. Thank you so much for your support and love. We feel it.
And stay tuned for more info on our next location. We can’t wait to see you!
We want to share an important update about Juneberry. We will not be continuing our lease at 250 Rittenhouse Ave.
After our doors had been open for six months, a business built slowly through the quiet of winter, we were offered a lease renewal with a rent increase of over 40% and a short window to decide if we would accept. About a week later, while still in our decision-making window, that offer was taken off the table. Instead, we were informed the lease would not be renewed, making it impossible for us to continue operating in this space. We are deeply sad to be leaving a building we love so much.
Building this little store has meant the world to us, truly. It feels a little hokey to say, but we’ve come to feel protective of it, like it’s a person. We had to let it become something before we could even say what it was. We wanted it to grow into itself quietly and honestly, without the pressure to define it too quickly. And it did.
You can feel it in the regulars who come in for their daily coffee, the ones who buy all the soup before we’ve even had a chance to write our soup of the day sign, and the people who stop in just to say hi and leave with a giant leek. We love you all. You’ve kept us going.
If we had to distill it down, it’s this: for us, cooking is about loving and being loved. It’s self-care and caring for others. Opening this little store to share food and beautiful ingredients we find delicious has been our love letter.
And that doesn’t end here. Don’t despair yet. I mean, feel free to despair a little bit on our behalf. But Juneberry is still very much alive! We’re in the process of figuring out what comes next, what we’ve been (somewhat jokingly) calling Juneberry 2.0. A new home, a new shape, a new evolution of everything this has been becoming. We’ll share more as we know more.
In the meantime, we plan to remain open in our current space through April, at least. If you want to experience Juneberry in this chapter, we would truly love to see you. We’ll also be slowly phasing out our grocery over the coming weeks, so if you’ve been eyeing a bottle of wine, some fancy tinned fish, or a pantry staple you love, now is a very good time to stock up.
And our team… they deserve their own moment. Working with friends can go a lot of ways, but we feel lucky every single day to be surrounded by people who are so talented, kind, funny, and almost always game for anything. And when they’re not game for something, it’s probably because it was a bad idea. They are a huge part of what makes Juneberry what it is.
We’re starting to imagine what the next chapter of Juneberry could look like, and we’d really love your input. Things may be a little different, but our hope is to carry forward the parts that matter most. If you have a couple minutes, we put together a short survey to help us understand what you love, what you’d miss, and what you’d be excited to see next. It truly means a lot to us to build this with you.
Many of you have asked how you can help. This is uncomfortable for me — I’ve avoided asking for help my whole life — but here goes. Turning a new leaf, personal growth, etc. We’re working on a new location and things are looking promising. We have a few spots under consideration, and while we iron out who, when, where, and how, we need financial help to keep the Juneberry team intact. We’ll have to close for a bit, and that pause in income plus unexpected construction and remodel costs for a new space means we need assistance covering our team’s wages during the transition. We’ve put together a fundraiser; 100 percent of funds raised will go directly to staff wages while we’re closed.
If you can, please donate to help keep the Juneberry team together. If you’re not in a place to give money, we absolutely understand. There are lots of other ways to help. Roughly eight million of you (okay, maybe a little less) have offered time, skills, and muscle. We put together a sign-up where you can tell us what you’d like to help with, from moving equipment to knocking down drywall.
juneberry is a corner store in bayfield, wi— part bakery, part deli, part wine cave, fully stocked. we’ve got the staples for cooking at home, and all the reasons not to: fresh bakes, soups, sandwiches, and the like.
and then a handful of items that exist for no reason other than they’re fun.