Roma Market Will Indeed Happen in Little Italy

Roma Market first announced its expansion into Little Italy in early 2015 and since then, a summer 2016 due date has come and gone and both Eater readers and neighborhood residents have been asking if the project might ever come to fruition.

We bring official word from the company that Roma Market is moving forward, though we’ll all need to be patient a little while longer. Chief operating officer Eric Enciso tells Eater that the 8,900-square-foot market is scheduled for completion in February 2017.

The grocery store, which was first founded in Pasadena in 1953, operates another location in Escondido. Enciso says the Little Italy outpost will have a loft-inspired design and retail Italian specialty foods and produce, plus beer, wine, spirits and a variety of household goods. There will be a deli counter, with a large selection of deli meats and hot prepared food, and a bakery section with a pizza oven component. A coffee bar featuring full breakfast service will transform into a beer and wine bar in the evenings. A small number of seats will be available inside, with more seating at an outdoor patio on Columbia Street and in the building's atrium.

Dixie Hall, one of the partners behind the market, will take a section of the space to launch her new frozen popsicle concept, Dixie Pops. Sold from a glassed-in kitchen with a walk-up window on Columbia Street, the handcrafted frozen treats, from decadent ice cream bars to vegan dairy-free pops, will come in rotating flavors ranging from grapefruit-mint and lemon-lime with strawberries to Vietnamese coffee and Reese's Peanut Butter Cup.