After selling their Selby Avenue coffee shop they ran for more than 20 years, Mychael and Stephanie Wright planned to do some cooking at home, maybe build a pizza oven. Instead, the founders of the Selby Avenue JazzFest are launching a new community event at downtown St. Paul's historic Union Depot.
The Capital City Village Bazaar Extravaganza, scheduled for April 6 and free to the public, will feature food trucks, craft vendors and local jazz bands. Mychael Wright said he hopes this new venture proves as popular and long-lasting as the couple's previous efforts.
"We had time. We always like to do stuff," he said of their decision to un-retire. "We wanted to do something in the spring for our vendors. Bring the outdoors indoors."
Much like their launch of JazzFest was meant to infuse a previously sleepy stretch of Selby Avenue with music and commerce, Wright said he hopes a new event at Union Depot will be "a shot in the arm for downtown St. Paul." The extravaganza will run from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and feature 30 to 40 vendors, Mychael Wright said. An assembly of food trucks will be in the Depot's east plaza.
Lindsay Boyd, Union Depot general manager, said she looks forward to a long and successful association with the Wrights.
"We are very excited to host this event and thrilled that Mychael chose this location," Boyd said. "These are the kinds of events we want here."
The Wrights launched Jazzfest shortly after they opened Golden Thyme Coffee & Cafe. It's drawn thousands of jazz fans each year to the intersection of Selby and Milton Street. Neighbors and city leaders say the shop and festival gave the stretch of Selby, between Lexington Parkway and Dale Street, a positive and uplifting vibe. More than a dozen small Black-owned businesses have opened within blocks of Golden Thyme. Over the years, the festival grew to more than 100 vendors in tents lining a couple of blocks of Selby.
The Wrights said they hope a similar formula — Mychael working on the music side, Stephanie on craft-sellers and nonprofits — will repeat that success.
"We're going to have the Selby Avenue Brass Band, Walker West Music Academy, Brio Brass and the Minnesota State Band," Mychael Wright said. "And Walter Chancellor Jr."
The Wrights remain involved with JazzFest, which runs the second Saturday in September. Their hope is that the new Depot spring event finds its own way.
"We're working on it," he said. "Rome wasn't built in a day. This will allow us to cast a larger net."
