Located just past New Delhi Diamond’s on West Green Street, Press Bay Court and Alley is a growing marketplace that various locally owned businesses call home. Renovated storage bays house these “micro-retail spaces,” and the six-year-old Press Bay Court continues to drive foot traffic downtown through the addition of new niche businesses. By the end of summer 2024, Asempe Kitchen, Poured Candle Bar and Woodpepper all opened their doors to Ithacans.
Asempe Kitchen
Specializing in plant-based West African cuisine, Asempe Kitchen found its roots in chef Kuukua Yomekpe’s Ohio home in 2016. Although it was not financially viable for her to quit her full-time job, Yomekpe — or chef Kuukua, as she prefers to be called — eventually moved to Ithaca and established Asempe as a staple at the Ithaca Farmers’ Market. Soon after, the restaurant found its home in Press Bay Court in August.
Chef Kuukua said Press Bay interested her as a possible location for a brick-and-mortar version of Asempe ever since she attended their Thanksgiving Festival in 2021. She said it was “serendipitous” when a retail spot became available. Since Asempe Kitchen opened in its new location, Chef Kuukua said that she has found a community.
“We have been very, very well-received,” Chef Kuukua said. “I have found a lot of support from different people, and the community in general has been very, very supportive.”
Alongside catering and in-seat dining options, Asempe Kitchen hosts an “Afrobeats Brunch” every other Sunday from noon to 4 p.m. Food is served alongside a live Afrobeats DJ performance. Chef Kuukua said despite feeling overwhelmed as a new business owner, she strives to make Asempe an inviting space for all.
“We are a queer- and minority-owned business, and so I like to put that up front so people know that we are very supportive in whatever form they choose to show up,” Chef Kuukua said.
Poured Candle Bar
Unlike Asempe Kitchen, the Poured Candle Bar in Press Bay Court is the business’ second physical location. The space resembles a quaint restaurant, with two walls lined with an open bar and the rest of the area filled with seating arrangements. The store, which opened in Ithaca in mid-July after renovations, offers a unique experience where customers create their own candles, colognes, perfumes and reed diffusers, according to its retail space manager Jordan Johnson.
Poured Candle opened its main branch in Hudson, N.Y. in 2020, and its co-founders Dennis Green and Ricky Tiscareno oversee both locations and the online shop while Johnson manages the Ithaca store.
Johnson said Press Bay is a welcoming environment, and she “couldn’t have asked for better neighbors.” She said it is valuable to be near businesses that have a similar mission, and managing the space has been an overall rewarding experience.
“The first thing I always hear [when] people come in [is] an audible, ‘Wow, what is this place?’ Because the aesthetics here are so different from what you would see from a lot of other businesses around. I call it a New York City vibe here in Ithaca,” Johnson said. “A lot of people love that you get to go through the […] same experience as a person next to you, but you walk out with an entirely different, unique-to-you product that you get to use.”
Poured Candle will host drag queen Sherry Vine on Dec. 12 as she goes on her “Holiday Package” tour along the East Coast. Vine typically does risque parodies of holiday songs at her shows, and her event at Poured Candle will be a 21+ only experience. Johnson said that since the event nears the end of the fall semester, she hopes “it will be a nice break from academics.”
Woodpepper
Dane Percy’s journey in bread baking began when he took a couple years off from his job as a lab technician working in marine science to volunteer in AmeriCorps in 2008. While working in a community that served adults with special needs, he met a husband and wife baking team who taught him how to bake bread. Percy said while having kids and going through a divorce, bread baking has remained a constant in his life.
For Percy, the owner and baker at Woodpepper — a naturally leavened organic bread shop — opening the store in September means he is now pursuing bread baking full-time. He is the sole baker and sells a variety of white flour, high-extraction flour and whole-meal flour breads. Besides traditional varieties such as corn, sesame and sandwich breads, he sells original breads like the Backpacker, which has an organic whole rye flour base with organic sunflower seeds, water, natural levain and sea salt.
The local response to Woodpepper has been positive, Percy said, and interest has steadily increased over the six weeks it has been open. Although he said handling personal responsibilities while also running a business can be difficult, he “can’t complain.”
“There is always a certain sense of trepidation with business, especially in the food world, but the focus [at Woodpepper] is pretty clear, and I think people like to see that focus.”
Although Percy said he is not planning to host any special events or introduce new breads for the holiday season, he is excited to see his baking become a part of others’ holiday celebrations.
“I don’t have the skill set you need to throw in something festive for the holidays,” Percy said. “What I have noticed in my baking life is that people just love to add what I do normally to their events, and that makes me feel really special that something that I do normally can elevate people’s tables.”
Shubha Gautam ’28 is a Sun contributor and can be reached at [email protected].