Emile DeFelice: Market Force

Saturdays in South Carolina’s capital city haven’t been the same since Emile DeFelice came along. At least not for the 5,000-plus residents and visitors who spend a chunk of their Saturday milling and mingling around the four city blocks that become Soda City Market every weekend of the year. Rain or shine, hot or cold, every Saturday since November 2004, DeFelice’s vision for a central gathering spot where good food, fresh produce, fun people from all walks of life all come together has come to fruition, bringing downtown Columbia to life along with it.

It’s a simple concept—a farmers’ market, and then some—but it didn’t exist in the heart of Columbia, not far from the Capitol or the University of South Carolina, until DeFelice saw that hole, that opportunity, and made it happen. 

“The 'town square' and 'village market' are as old as human communities themselves, and have historically centered on necessities like food,” he says, and while Columbia had such markets decades ago, “we relocated and revived it.” 

Today Soda City Market has become an economic engine. The private for-profit market that carefully curates its vendors and invests heavily in supporting and ensuring their success grossed $2.5 million in its first year, and generates pay checks for some 350 people and families on a peak-season Saturday (year-round, it averages 150 vendors each week). As a “producer-only market,” every thing sold is either vendor-grown or made. 

“It’s all unique, hand crafted and produced, right here, in South Carolina,” says DeFelice, who was once a vendor himself. 

“I’m most proud of creating and helping build incomes for women, minorities, non-Americans, children (check out our buskers!) and even the city of Columbia—all traditionally business underdogs,” he says. “The first three categories represent the majority of Soda City vendors, way outside the mainstream for small businesses in the nation.”

Every market is a like different painting that DeFelice composes and curates. 

“We’ve had businesses start in the market and graduate into a brick and mortar,” he says. 

But creating a canvas for social connections is as important as the economic benefits, he says. Soda City has become a magnet for different ethnicities to come together, and for drawing the creative class to Columbia. It’s about nourishing minds and enriching lives, as much as filling bellies and wallets.

DeFelice and his Soda City Market team have built on the Market’s success to create spin-off community gatherings, such as the annual Gervais Street Bridge Dinner, which entails producing an outdoor seated dinner for 1,000 people on the Gervais Street Bridge, and the Brookland Beach Bash in 2018, which basically transformed part of Columbia’s riverfront into a big beach party for a day. 

“Developing the market has given me a whole range of tools, a soapbox if you will, for more ways to enhance the community,” says DeFelice. 

What’s up next for this civic visionary?

“We’d like to expand the market in one very specific way on one specific property—opening a daily indoor raw and prepared food and flower market in an old Cadillac dealership property on Main Street,” he says. 

DeFelice calls this “an elusive goal,” but given his impressive track record, Columbia better get ready.

Visit Soda City Market on Main Street every Saturday from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. to support local businesses and learn more about various cultures and traditions that make up Columbia's diverse community.