“Billed as ‘a gathering place where great taste is always in season,’ Milwaukee Public Market offers local baked goods, cheeses, meats, produce, and prepared eats,” notes the article. “Choose goodies from nearly 20 vendors and enjoy your selection in the Palm Garden seating area on the second level. Or learn how to make your own fare at Madam Kuony's demonstration kitchen, where cooking classes are offered multiple times weekly.”It's an interesting contest, in that Milwaukee's Public Market is a relatively new, tourism-focused space for inter alia artisanal cheese, coffee, and sausage vendors, while the Eastern Market combined some of the features of Milwaukee's Commission Row with retail space and the Reading Terminal Market is downstairs in what used to be a functioning railroad terminal.
The Milwaukee Public Market, a local social hub for both locals and visitors, was among 20 market nominees from across the country. Among them, the Eastern Market in Detroit and the Reading Terminal Market in Philadelphia were awarded second and third place, respectively.
Let me establish my criteria for evaluating such markets. "We've got stringbeans and onions, cah-bages and scallions, and all kinds of fruits and say..." Bonus points if they have bananas! Foodie frou-frou fails to impress. We'll evaluate the contending claims each of these markets might have to be the favorite, with lots of illustrations, below the break.
We've visited the Public Market numerous times. It often serves as a lunch or early supper stop on those train rides I sometimes document.
And yes, the streetcar returning to the intermodal station stop does bend the corner around from Broadway to St. Paul. During the summer, the eateries on the southeast side of the market offer a trackside view. "Granted, two stops from the Public Market (always a good place to stop for seafood) to the station isn't exactly a big deal, but this car also goes to the Grohmann Museum and into the Italian grocery district on the east side."
Milwaukee, though, did have a proper farmer's market, with the same sort of shed roofs that you'd see at a railroad station platform, and space for the truck farmers to set up and sell pickling cucumbers or corn on the cob, picked that morning. As I've noted previously, the closest to that experience you might see in Milwaukee is at the West Allis farmer's market, summer season only. That's the frugal South Sider in me, and a public market in the shadow of the banks is not the same thing as that Mitchell Street market in the shadow of the old South Division High School.
On to the USA Today list. I'm familiar with some. Not Napa's Oxbow Public Market in tenth place. It's Napa. Enough said. Seattle's Pike Place Market, whose signage probably inspired Milwaukee's, has changed a lot since I was last there, over forty years ago. "Situated along the water, the market was originally founded to allow produce growers to sell directly to consumers. Today, it's a protected historic district that inundates visitors with sights, sounds, smells, delicious food, and the best people-watching in town." So much for those Wenatchee apples and fish caught that morning, with the seagulls crying out for a handout. I have no experience with the North Market in Columbus, Ohio, in eighth place, and only passing experience with Boston's Public Market, although as that was on a bus tour of the city incidental to an O Scale convention, the time constraints involved in such a setting suggest another visit under less stressed circumstances is in order.
In sixth place is the Findlay Market in Cincinnati, which is served by a streetcar on its west and east side. It's the same streetcar, bending the corner around twice on its way back to the river. That post says a little about my criteria for evaluating farmers markets.
First, "There are parts of the Findlay Market that strongly suggest "yuppified." Yes, you can buy all manner of flavored coffee drinks or ice cream treats there."
Keep walking, though. "Then, there are the sorts of stalls that George Orwell wrote about in 'Keep the Aspidistra Flying,' if without the glassy-eyed rabbits and live eel."
I suppose, like Pike Place, Findlay retained enough of its original purpose whilst getting in on the foodie prosperity and artisanal arugula.
In fifth place is the Ferry Building Marketplace, using the ferryboat concourse now that San Franciscans have their Bay Area Rapid Transit for getting around. There's not much likelihood of a San Francisco trip in my future, however the Cleveland swap meet is good for a visit every few years and the West Side Market, in fourth place, might be an idea for before-shopping coffee or after-shopping treats. "West Side Market has been feeding hungry Clevelanders for over 100 years. Nibble on a from-scratch doughnut or pastry while you shop for fine meats and fresh vegetables, fresh seafood, baked goods, dairy and cheese products, and even fresh flowers. There are also booths that sell ready-to-eat foods, herbs, and nuts."
In third place is that Reading Terminal Market. The article says more about contemporary sensibilities than about why that market is where it is. "Naturally, you can grab a cheesesteak, but sushi, crepes, and Pennsylvania Dutch pretzels are also in the mix, along with a host of butchers, bakers, and local makers. Finish it all off with a scoop from Bassetts Ice Cream, the market's first tenant still going strong 130 years on." Once upon a time, when the trains terminated upstairs, and ran beyond the ends of the electric zone, the market was where produce from Reading and beyond, from Allentown, Bethlehem, and Harrisburg, from Pottsville and Pottstown, from Intercourse and King of Prussia, and from Valley Forge might have come in on the trains. There was still some of that regional vendor presence when I last looked in, although with Amtrak's routings being what they are, Philadelphia hasn't been a stop recently.
There's a public market in Chicago that might be inspired by the Reading Terminal Market, using the former baggage area of the North Western Terminal. There are two entrances directly into the French Market, open during daylight hours, and a passage from the commuter concourse under the train shed.
The French Market offers refuge, including seating, mid-day when the hourly regional trains are running; although it gets hectic when the dashing commuters are all dashing for their trains. Oh, and dear reader, did you know the clock on the trainshed wall facing east on Washington Street is set to Lombardi Time? I don't know if the French Market was even entered in the USA Today competition. During operating hours it offers some alternatives to the generic food court fare in the headhouse building.
That brings us to the runner-up, the Eastern Market in Detroit. "Thousands of locals and visitors head to Detroit's Eastern Market each week, where they find more than 225 independent merchants and vendors selling everything from fresh produce and flowers to antiques and home goods."
That fails to do the Eastern Market justice. Perhaps a few things have changed in forty years. But when I was working in Detroit, that complex combined the wholesale delivery of produce to restaurants and greengrocers with the retail sale of produce and flowers. I wouldn't be surprised if somewhere in that complex there wasn't a babushka fresh off the kolkhoz with an abacus and a balance scale to work out those transactions in root vegetables. Then there was a smaller public market on Chene in Hamtramck ...
Had I voted I might have picked Eastern and Reading and Findlay ahead of Milwaukee. But Milwaukee is outside the security zone for the Republican convention and a short walk to the Harley festivities or Summerfest grounds, and should do a good business.
All this food posting is making me hungry. Find yourself a vendor of fresh produce and do some business. Give yourself extra points if your purchase is in the shadow of the high school or if the vendor tots up the sale with an abacus.
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