Specialty Foods Store the Meadow Has Opened a Fifth Location in the Former Pastaworks Market

A local business selling little bundles of culinary indulgence has expanded yet again, opening a fifth location in the former Pastaworks market on Southeast Hawthorne Boulevard.

The Meadow welcomed customers to its new shop late last month and carries a dizzying array of specialty foods: over 120 craft salts, some 200 different cocktail bitters, and a whopping 400-plus fine chocolate bars displayed like treasured library books on the wall.

The Hawthorne store also has products not found in its original location on North Mississippi Avenue, including wine, vermouth and a special pantry section that pays homage to Pastawork’s legacy in that space.

With this latest opening, the Meadow has quietly grown into a multistate, and even multicountry, chain that doesn’t, well, feel like a chain. Each shop is unique, which is evident in everything from the inventory to the materials used to make the building frames.

Launched in 2006, the flagship on Mississippi was constructed out of Doug fir and cedar planks reclaimed from shuttered factories. Four years later, the business expanded to New York City using wood from old farms in Pennsylvania’s Amish country. A third store in Northwest Portland followed in 2013, followed by one in Tokyo just two years ago, which literally has a little bit of Oregon embedded in it, thanks to the help of some old-growth timber.

At Hawthorne, you’ll find that the Meadow is designed to encourage customers to have tactile experiences with the products. That means that you can expect carefully curated items lining the shelves, buckets of fresh-cut flowers on the floor, and knowledgeable staff on hand ready to answer questions, like whether you should mix your next drink with peppercorn rizzo or dandelion bitters.

The new location will also offer Mystery Boxes, a product that was born out of the pandemic. The customized gifts are created based on details shared by the customer—everything from your favorite cocktail to a cherished memory. In addition to that, the Meadow is in the process of creating its first custom line of chocolates.