Aw. New Yorkers might finally get a Reading Terminal Market of their very own. A couple of grassroots organizations have started to lobby for a year-round indoor food market in Manhattan. First, the unused Battery Maritime Building in downtown was going to be converted… but they’ve decided to convert the space there to a space for food-related trade shows. Apparently, the Jacob Javits Center was too downscale. Go figure. But they’re trying:
The place, whether at the historic old fish market, the new Penn Station or somewhere else, would be warm in the winter and cool in the summer, with a stand where you could buy a good sandwich or an espresso and gossip with other people who like to talk about cooking.
“New York really just doesn’t have that one place,” said Micah Arbisser, who, with his wife, Lisa, had bundled up their infant and made their way from the Lower East Side to the little market.
Like many New Yorkers who piece together a cook’s pantry from Chinatown shops, farmers’ markets, FreshDirect, Fairway and other stores, the Arbissers have market envy. It may be easy to boast that New York is the greatest food city in the world, but one trip through San Francisco’s Ferry Building and farmers’ market, London’s Borough Hall or Seattle’s Pike Place Market can be deflating.
Of course, Philly gets a condescending nod as well, when the paper of record writes that “at the moment, nobody has proposed a big indoor market to rival the ones in San Francisco or even Philadelphia.” “Even Philadelphia”? Yeah, NYC parochialism is awesome.
Hungry for a Market, but Where? [New York Times]
