West Side Market

We have a friend over for the weekend so I couldn't think of a better excuse to (finally!) take a camera along to the West Side Market.

View from above

When I first visited the West Side Market 15 years ago, I thought it was a converted train station, but it was built as a market from the start ~100 years ago.

Hot, hot, hot!

The West Side Market is maintained by the city with oodles of vendors from numerous vegetable and fruit stands along the outside, to meat, pasta, dairy, dessert, bread, hot sauce vendors, as well as food vendors indoors.

Fruits and veggies

The vegetable vendors were out in the open, with nothing or a thin tarp to separate themselves from the arctic gusts until renovations to enclose the area were made several years ago.

Eat 'em up, yum!

There are several seafood stands selling fresh fish, octopus, scallops, shrimp, ...competing with one another. I can never remember prices from vendor to vendor because they aren't all in a line, and there are so many distractions too.

Ohio City Pasta

The raw food stands have competing vendors. The dairy and prepared food vendors don't really have competition. Then again, there aren't that many bakeries that serve pasties in the city, let alone in the same market.

Wee wee wee

Walking around between stalls is sometimes an eyeopener. Most of the meat is prepared by the time we head out there, but occasionally, we'll catch people chopping meat up.

Chopping block

This isn't quite as graphic as seeing stuff being gutted. I have yet to see that sort of prep done here. I've caught a few hog's head displays. Creepy...

Coffee

We hiked up a rarely traveled concrete stairwell evidenced by the still and aged smell for this vantage. The market doesn't feel quite as frenetic without people bumping in to you every 2 seconds.

- Cassaendra

West Side Market
1979 West 25th Street
Cleveland, Ohio 44113
(216) 664-3387