Strawberry Museum is both simple and complex in its conceit: Firstly, it is strawberry stuff. Secondly, it is SO MUCH strawberry stuff.
Now in its third iteration, Strawberry Museum is a seasonal pop-up for the berry-obsessed, beginning June 1 and stretching to the end of August.
The first Strawberry Museum, in the summer of 2021, was a month-long weekend pop-up that crammed a little restaurant house with every strawberry thing you could imagine—shaved ice, charcuterie, art prints of little strawberries sunbathing in the nude. It always had a line snaking around the block.
Created and organized by Brittany Sigal, early Strawberry Museum looked like a market, where local bakers and makers individually sold their on-theme wares. Square readers were abundant. When Sigal opened a brick and mortar cafe called Zuckercreme later that year, the shop's season-themed markets followed a similar form. On the weekends you'd find it filled with tables, staffed by bakers with their goods. As she went, Sigal began selling items on consignment, and slowly expanding her shelving and store displays.
Now Zuckercreme has built out its own kitchen and most of its wares are consignment, laid out like goodies in an overflowing candy shop. More than half are crafted: earrings, knitted plushies, hats—you name it. There are preserves (vinegar, grenadine, shrubs, jellies, etc.) and fresh items that can be enjoyed in the cafe, which is cozier now and tucked in the back.
Our advice: Don't show up too focused on one thing, especially when it comes to the treats (you could find strawberry shortcake, you could find blueberry muffin ice cream). Plenty of snacks cycle through in small quantities. However, the soft serve is fairly consistent, and Zuckercreme has a dedicated ice cream maker, Hound Dog Ice Cream.
Sigal still organizes markets with tabling, but holds them outside the small shop, like at the strawberry-themed fashion show, which popped-up in the old Victoria's Secret in the Lloyd Center Mall. Infrequently, you'll find smaller events in the shop's cafe, such as the seasonal floral arranging classes from Petal Dispatch.
"We've slowed down [on events] this year, " Sigal told the Mercury. During the shop's first year, the food themes were near-monthly (pie! s'mores! doughnuts! pie, again!), but none of those proved as popular as Strawberry Museum.
"Like most small businesses our sales were down," Sigal said, "we've had to focus." Sigal admits to slight business burnout. But she's not tired of strawberries, she said: "If anything, the strawberry inspires me to keep going."
Zuckercreme will have most of its strawberry items on sale to celebrate the Montavilla Street Fair. Strawberry Museum continues through the end of August at Zuckercreme, 414 SE 81st, zuckercreme.com
