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| - oh West Side Market, I really wanted to love you, especially after seeing all the fantastic reviews on here, I've never been to a place where I was so underwhelmed and overwhelmed at the same time.
Parking - good, lots of it, had no issues finding a spot close to the market.
Outdoor produce area - first of all vendors, the best way to get me to buy your produce is NOT to harass me: "hey beautiful, hey pretty lady"....seriously?? I felt like I was entering one of those Russel Peters sketches and I would be offered up some Punani to try. "Hey lady, is it ripe? Can I squeeze it?"
yes, fresh fruits and vegetables they have galore, but only a small fraction of it is locally produced and this disappointed me tremendously. Bananas, mangoes, avocados and figs don't really do well in the CLE climate. Most of the fruit and veg is trucked in from other parts of the country and the people selling here at the market are just like any other grocery store selling third-party products. I caved when I saw the champagne grapes from California because they reminded me of one of the country's greatest indoor farmer's markets that actually has local produce, the Embarcadero market in SanFran. And even though I bought something from him, the vendor still found it in himself to make inappropriate comments to me, lovely, I won't be back to buy from you.
The areas behind the market stalls are filthy, boxes and rotten produce everywhere, along with a disgusting smell from the produce strewn over the ground...come on people, a clean atmosphere would do a lot to improve the feeling of the market.
Indoor Market area - here's the overwhelming part, there are a LOT of vendors here, many of them selling similar types of product, I'm not quite sure how many sausage stands I saw but I stopped counting. And I'm a Ukrainian girl who likes a good kielbasa...
Red Meat - I'm from Cattle country in Alberta, so I know good meat when I see it. When my family wanted something, I'd be out at my uncle's farm to pick out my cow or my pig or my chicken for slaughter and we would do it up right then and there. So you could say that I'm very particular about my meat....I read from another review that a lot of the meat was local, but I asked about 5 people where their meat came from and none of them said "Ohio". For the most part they were co-ops of anywhere between 100-350 farms that would produce the meat and ship it here. Once I hear that, I know I can get better meat at the North Union Farmer's Market. Some of the meat didn't look all that great either. I only bought a bit of bison because it's one of my favorite meats to eat, but even this came from farms spread across Montana, North Dakota and Canada.
Poultry - the chicken looked a little lacking, take my advice, go see the chicken guy at the Chagrin Falls farmer's market, his whole chickens look a lot fresher and tastier than any of the ones I saw here
Bread - I checked out about 3 bread places and they all looked like good stuff, didn't get anything b/c I already had a loaf at home from the CCF farmer's market but if I ever come back I may be tempted to try out a nice pumpernickel
Crepe stand - this is where I probably should have had breakfast, the crepes looked pretty good and there was a decent line-up, I may come back to try it out
Sweets - there were a lot of sweet stands at this place with all kinds of things covered in chocolate and a bunch of baking, I imagine these would be great for the kids, but at this point I was just ready to get the hell out of there.
Maybe I need to come back with someone who has tried some of these places but as for right now, I will stick to my clean, friendly and TRULY local producers at the various North Union Farmer's Markets....
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