Market feud heats up Margate early

MARGATE, N.J. - It's one Margate institution versus another. Seven weeks before Memorial Day, a fight over tomatoes.

At one end of town, it's Cookie, as in Steve & Cookie's, arguably the best restaurant in Margate, whose owner, Cookie Till, wants to bring a farmers' market to her parking lot this summer.

At the other, it's Mr. Casel's, a.k.a. Howard Seiden, owner of the red-roofed, wouldn't-be-Margate-without-it Casel's supermarket (pronounced like castles), a tightly packed, midsize market that is pretty much the hub of summer food shopping and near-fender-benders in Margate.

He has a lawyer, an impressively legalized letter of zoning- and site-plan-related objections, a newly renovated deli case, and the best nova slicers on the island.

She has a lawyer, six other restaurants and a dozen farmers on board, fresh mint for mojitos, and, quite possibly, the best osso buco in town.

At stake? Good corn, tomatoes, blueberries and peaches, the products of local farms, some organic, some not, sold for four hours every Thursday morning. Possible solution? Another spot, maybe Ventnor.

To Seiden, it's an issue of fairness. He has invested in prime Margate real estate on Ventnor Avenue from Frontenac to Gladstone, including renovations and property taxes, and does not want his business undercut by farmers who just sell out of the back of a truck in a parking lot.

"Every capitalist system succeeds because of rules," his lawyer Richard King said. "He spent a lot of money for his supermarket. It's like people pulling up and selling dresses out of a truck. If someone wants to open up a produce store in Margate, they are absolutely entitled to it."

To Till, it's a matter of convenience.

"My frustration is with the distribution system of Jersey Fresh and getting it really fresh," she said one morning last week, sitting on a bar stool in her empty 220-seat restaurant at Monroe and the bay, once home to the infamous Strotbeck's, a private dining club. "The only way to get it is to go out to the farm stands, and nobody has that kind of time. Wouldn't it be great if I could have that here?"

So she got six other heavy-hitter restaurateurs to agree to purchase their produce from her market: Knife & Fork in Atlantic City; Tomatoes in Margate; Sage and Hannah G's, both in Ventnor; Fourth on First (the old Fourth Street Cafe) in Ocean City; and Sea Salt in Stone Harbor. She suggested Casel's could be a buyer, too, or join in with its own stand.

Till has about a dozen farmers truck in goods each week, including the Reeds at Reed's Farm Market on Spruce Avenue in Northfield; Dennis Donio, the peach guy in Hammonton; and the Muth Family Farm in Williamstown. Plus, kids from the local school would sell peppers and eggplants from their organic garden, a joint project of Till and the Northeast Organic Farming Association, with their profits going to the local food bank.

Till, whose restaurant is de rigueur on the see-and-be-seen Margate scene, has a passion like the White Dog's Judy Wicks in Philadelphia for locally grown food and for community involvement. She sees the farmers' market as an issue of free trade, convenience, and environmentally friendly health. She notes the growing imperative of buying local and organic produce, a trend exploding all over, said Ron Good of the imperiled-by-Corzine New Jersey Department of Agriculture.

Bob Bickell, owner of

» READ MORE: restaurantreport.com

, noted that restaurants "are hooking up with farmers like crazy" all over the country.

Seiden, whose rotisserie chickens already go head to head with Bobby Chez across the street, found out about the farmers' market by accident. He was attending a Margate commissioners meeting for something else when he heard Till's presentation. At the time, city officials were enthusiastic, even offering to help with the garbage.

Seiden's objections, which suggest Till needs to produce a new site plan for her parking lot and obtain a variance or two or six before proceeding, have put the project in limbo and turned the city upside-down like so much topsoil (well, not exactly). At the very least, it has been a distraction from the spring's other major story: the city's new black-and-white, Adam-12 retro police cars (the better to pull you over with, my dear).

Roger Rubin, Margate's land-use administrator, did not return calls for comment. On Tuesday, Till plans a farmer-chef dinner at which the market will be discussed.

She said her attorney had advised her that a fight with Seiden would take more money and time than it was probably worth. So she's looking at locations in neighboring Ventnor, such as the parking lot of St. James Church at Newport and Atlantic. Or possibly to the south in Longport, if administrators there can find any vacant land (so far, no, but they're still looking).

David Adler, communications director at the Food Trust, which runs 15 farmers' markets in Philadelphia, said farmers' markets were almost always a positive addition to an area and rarely encountered opposition. In some cases, supermarkets are bringing farmers to their own parking lots.

"The farmers' markets increase foot traffic and are good for retail in the area," Adler said. "It can liven up an area."

For some, this dispute goes beyond two indispensable Margate businesses, or beyond the predictable preseason dustup in Margate (last year, Lucy the Elephant's finances; before that, beach-block parking and port-a-potties). If the locals are bickering, can shoobies be far behind?

"You can't build enough parks, baseball fields and farmers' markets," Bickell wrote in an essay to be posted on his Web site. "The last time I checked, Margate is part of America, and if you will forgive me, a farmers' market is as American as apple pie and competition is part of the process."

Or as American as blueberry pie, a staple on Till's summer menu that would be nothing without blueberries from Hammonton.

Contact staff writer Amy S. Rosenberg at 609-823-0453 or

» READ MORE: arosenberg@phillynews.com

. Read the philly.com Shore blog at

» READ MORE: go.philly.com/downashore

.