Photo by Merrick Wilson.
0712 Homewood friends enterpreneurs
Taylor Baggett, Margaret Hale, Joseph Salls, Matt Smith.
In Homewood, friendships don’t end when you graduate and head off to college. For these Homewood High School alumni, their friendships and support for each other turned their dreams of owning a business into a reality.
In 2010, high school sweethearts Margaret Hale and Taylor Baggett started a catering/cooking class business called The Chef Next Door in Huntsville. The business did so well that they needed to expand, and the expansion opened new doors and ideas to their catering business.
As they looked for a space to house their catering company, they found a location that had room for a small restaurant operation.
“After mulling over the different options for the space, we decided to go all out and open up a small café,” said Baggett, Class of 2003.
When it came to forming the rest of the group, they knew exactly where to turn. They approached former 2003 classmates Joseph Salls and Matt Smith, and the idea grew from there. In August 2011, The Marketplace Café held its grand opening.
“We are all very close friends and entrepreneurs at heart, so it was a natural
fit. The rest is history,” said Hale, Class of 2004.
“We wanted the best and brightest working with us to create this café from the ground up, and the best and brightest just happened to be our oldest and closest friends,” Bahggett said.
Salls said he wanted to join the team because of Chef Margaret’s never ending pursuit of her dream.
Hale said people are surprised when they learn that they are all high school friends and still so close: “I have found that Homewood has a great track record for people who were friends through elementary, middle, and high school staying friends for the long haul.”
Homewood is a great community, Smith said, and it provided them with great relationships. The Marketplace Café is within the Interior Marketplace in Huntsville’s Hampton Cove. Their menu offers gourmet soups, salads, sandwiches and handmade baked goodies.”
The Chef Next Door, which is attached to the café, offers customizable cooking classes for all ages, on-site cooking demonstrations and event catering.
