Little King, nestled into the west end of Beacon’s Main Street, brings joy to its customers as it lives up to its promise of being “a place where living and eating well is for everyone.” The sensory soft landing begins the moment you step through the doors with a welcoming playlist. Little King tantalizes with the aroma of just-baked pastries and fresh coffee produced at the espresso bar over the hiss of frothing milk.
Chef Jeremy King and Ken Baldwin, a husband-and-husband team, opened Little King last October across from M&T Bank. The space, which at various times in history has been everything from a chocolate shop to a post office to a ship-building workshop, is now an upscale, approachable home provisions shop and cafe. “My goal has always been to run a successful food business with as little compromise as possible,” says King. “The model of a cafe inside a retail shop supports that goal.”
Little King has been a dream in some form or another for the couple for many years. Baldwin, a creative director by trade, even has merchandising mood boards from 10 years ago that still inspire their work today. During the pandemic, King came up with the name for a bakery pop-up concept at the Beacon Farmers’ Market. But ultimately, COVID precaution prevented him from doing it.
Still, Baldwin was growing tired of the interminable Zoom meetings with his fashion and beauty brand clients, and King, taking a break from the restaurant industry, was looking for the right challenge. They couldn’t wait to build something tangible. As the couple took stock of life, the idea of creating Little King as a brick-and-mortar operation grew irresistible.
But it almost didn’t happen—at least not in its current space. When Baldwin and King called the real estate broker who listed the property at 199 Main Street online, they found it was already under lease. Fortunately, the prospective tenant backed out, and they were able to secure the space.
The provisions shop offers items that reflect King and Baldwin’s experiences and tastes. Curated with the ethos of buying better and replacing less, Little King’s retail shop has items ranging from globally-sourced home goods, decor, and cookbooks to edible provisions like kimchi and other Asian pantry staples.
The cafe offers seasonally inspired menu items, such as a rye brioche bun ($6) with an egg in the center served with romesco and cheddar or garlic, chive, and McGrath cheddar gougères ($4.50).
If you’re in the mood for something on the sweeter side, Little King offers gluten-free coconut macaroons ($3), oatmeal date cookies ($3), house-made vegan granola bars ($4.50), and gluten-free butter mochi cakes ($4.50)
The owner’s approach to Little King goes beyond peddling wares to building relationships with their customers. “Little King is your good friend who considers themselves an experienced shopper, someone who enjoys the finer things in life, cooks with all their heart, and loves a good time,” says Baldwin, who values the interactions with customers over the transactional aspect. “I had a customer tell me the other day that she was having a horrible morning and her interaction with our shop turned her day around.”
Baldwin and King are constantly tweaking the business, so all facets offer support to the rest. They are evolving the space with pop-ups, dinners, and collaborations with local makers and artists. Recent pop-ups with Ciao Downtown and Woldy Kusina have been quite successful and offer the couple a chance to play around with new concepts.
This summer's calendar includes a pasta-making class later in May and book release event in July with Danny Freeman, Beacon resident and author of the forthcoming Danny Loves Pasta; a June event showcasing the fine tools from curated digital hardware shop Yuns; a Korean food pop-up by Serious Eats contributor and private chef Sunny Lee in July; and an August pop-up showcasing the breadth of Vietnamese cuisine by Phoebe Tran of Bé Bếp Baby Kitchen.
The adventure of bringing this sophisticated emporium to Beacon has rewarded the couple. Baldwin’s favorite part of this has been seeing growth in themselves and their relationship, “You can only imagine how hard it is to work with your partner,” he says. “Trying to balance work and life during a pandemic has had its struggles. It’s been a great testament to our love and relationship that we have been able to build something truly creative that we are both incredibly proud of.”
Visibility as a queer- and Asian-owned business is important for the couple, though unfortunately it has not been without its challenges. “We’ve both enjoyed daily interactions with so many Beaconites who represent what a lively, creative town Beacon is. It is also no surprise that any community is a microcosm of our world, so it would be disingenuous not to mention the negative too,” says King. “What’s most important to me is that queer and Asian American people see that Ken and I built this business, putting up with a lot of racism and homophobia in the process, and are here as proud members of their communities.”
Still, most of Beacon has been hospitable to Little King. “People have responded positively to what we’re doing,” says Baldwin. “We’ve had multiple husbands come in and say, ‘my wife said I can buy anything from this shop and she would be happy.’ That’s a great feeling to know we are doing something right.”
Let them welcome you into the space, and be sure to try a sandwich, though the term falls short when describing King's tasty chicken sandwich ($15). The chicken is brined overnight in buttermilk before being roasted, hand-pulled, and served with a crunchy root slaw, aioli, and pickles on focaccia. The bread itself is a marvel, made daily from a recipe Chef King has tested hundreds of times—crunchy, chewy, salty, with the perfect bite.
Don’t forget to say hi to Baldwin and King—and pick their brain on the best things in their shop or town at large. You might consider picking up their irresistibly cute sloth sponge ($4) for use in the kitchen sink, or, like King, you might use it as a Christmas ornament.
