Prospect Pantry
New Market Couple Dishes Out
Family Tradition with a Twist
By Joseph Peterson
Photography by Turner Photography Studio
NEW MARKET—Historically, the idea of prospecting conjures images of gold rush explorers heading west to get a shiny Denver nugget. But it’s California and Colorado natives, Ashly and Michael Wright, who made their way east to Maryland to find a prospect of their own, a breakfast-and-lunch eatery in this historic town.
For more than 170 years, the building at the corner of Prospect and Main streets has always housed some kind of business, a legacy the Wrights wanted to continue when they bought the property as a family home with the intent to turn its downstairs commercial front into a restaurant.
“We always wanted to open something of our own,” Michael says. “We have a background in restaurants, and we decided we had an opportunity, so we took it.”
The Wrights looked to the community to ask folks what they’d like to see that would be different from the handful of eating establishments already there. Seeing that the main breakfast and lunch options were national chains, an idea began to settle.
“We were like, well, we can do that and just do it better, do it more fresh, more local. People love to support the local stuff, and they like to go to places that are unique,” Michael says.
Which is what they did. Last month, the Prospect Pantry celebrated its second anniversary, the latest chapter for the Wrights in a story that started long before their New Market eatery.
To hear them tell it, Michael always worked in restaurants, and Ashly was raised in one, a lifestyle they’re passing down to their two young children, who already love to come down from their home upstairs into the kitchen to say hi to the staff and welcome the hustle and bustle of the morning before school starts.
“My grandfather owned restaurants with Joe DiMaggio in San Francisco, so I came up with that,” Ashly says pointing to many pictures on the wall of Marilyn Monroe and other celebrities. “Those are all family photos, so it’s just an environment I’ve always been in.”
Ashly’s career with Marriott is ultimately what brought them eastward to Washington, D.C., for what was meant to be one year. They ended up falling in love with the East Coast, and, as their family grew, sought somewhere a little farther from the metro area to put down roots.
As for the food at Prospect Pantry, fresh and local is the name of the game. The menu is replete with cafe staples often with a clever twist. In some cases, that surprise is a coastal carryover. “We have a lot of California items,” Michael says, laughing. “There’s a lot of things with avocado.”
Take the uber-fresh Açai smoothie bowl, topped with berries, coconut, bananas and granola. At just under ten bucks, this trendy, big-city breakfast is available at the eatery for a steal, an affordability that reflects the Wright’s philosophy of what it means to be a neighborhood pantry.
“A pantry you visit many times a week,” Michael says. “We try to keep everything on the menu under $10 so people don’t have to spend their whole wallets when they come here. And people do come multiple times a week. We have a lot of regulars.”
Fresh to the summer menu is the watermelon salad—a grid of big-bite-sized cubes of cold fruit sprinkled with pistachios, feta cheese and fresh mint leaves, drizzled with a tangy balsamic glaze. It’s a near-perfect side dish to go with every order.
Looking out from inside the Prospect Pantry’s eclectic dining room with its moss wall sign reading, “If these walls could talk” to the gentle bustle of Main Street, the Wright family has indeed created something special: an innovative café, a continuation of history, a place to belong.
“We didn’t seek out New Market,” Michael says.
“It found us,” Ashly cuts in, like it’s a story they’ve told before.
“Yeah, it was just perfect,” Michael adds. “We love it up here; we’ll be here forever.”