Well, I know it's not a "real" certified farmer's market (except at certain times on Friday and Saturday, but I really wanted to see what had made this place last for 75 years! (They just had their birthday last month, I think). I really liked the dynamic of the space; almost carnival-like, very informal. At peak times, nearly too crowded, but not enough to keep one away....
I love that they had a Taschen Books outlet here. Taschen publishes a huge variety of art books and table-top books that are nearly always visually stunning and (occasionally) historically significant even....
The Loteria Grill serving Mexican food in the heart of the market was suggested to me by a wonderful foodie- and baker- blogger who works as a reference librarian in the L.A. area. It always looked incredibly intriguing, was constantly very busy, and unfortunately always seemed to correspond to being between meals for me, so I never actually managed to eat there...but, I love that they used the theme of the colorful, festive, loteria game cards!!!
This was the fantastic Monsieur Marcel gourmet market that also has an open air café serving a very enticing menu including wines by the glass and cheese plates. I found a number of items in the shop that I thought were particularly interesting (both for use immediately, and to take home): sea salt caramel lollis from Breton, the very concentrated Bigallet organic black currant syrup from France (on sale!), a hip flask of one of my favorite aperitifs: Pastis Prado, and some attractive square "chestnut" paper plates by Caspari that were so evocative of the next season that I hope to use them for cheese this Autumn....
