Photography courtesy of City Market and Big City Photography
City Market: Renewing the Foodie Spirit Downtown By Beth Douglass Silcox
Tomlinson Tap Room
22
edible indy
City Market, an architectural icon and downtown Indy gathering place, is getting back to its roots as a true public market. Gone are the days of simply reheating foods. Under its copper roof and massive iron trusses, City Market’s nearly 20 food vendors prepare everything from crepes and Middle Eastern dishes to pastries and potato chips. Outside, farmers’ markets on Wednesdays and Saturdays invite people to shop for produce, meat, eggs and more from Indiana farmers. Ongoing renovations that started last year on the building have revived City Market’s position in the downtown Indianapolis food scene. “We are transitioning the market from a prepared-foods food court to a true public marketplace, where you have artisan, fresh and gourmet foods to purchase,” says Stevi Stoesz, director of business development and public relations for City Market. “We want City Market to be known for the best quality products.” That means reaching out to local and regional producers, like Cindy Hawkins, who got her start at area farmers’ markets and is now helping renew City Market from her French bakery, Circle City Sweets, just inside the Market Street entrance. “It’s a great location for us. It gives us production space for our wholesale clients and great visibility. Now we see some of our clients from Saturday’s farmers’ markets down here on Wednesdays,” Hawkins says. After just one year, Hawkins’ faith in City Market’s renewal as a marketplace is so strong that Circle City Sweets recently expanded to total 1,000 square feet and added a new shop called Circle City Soups, which also serves sandwiches and salads. When Indianapolis City Market threw open its doors in 1886, green grocers and butchers set up shop inside selling everything from dandelion greens to pickled pigs feet. Farmers came to town with bushels of vine-ripe tomatoes and sweet corn, cherry pies and yeast rolls. Even a laying hen or two, no doubt, made the trip.
Summer 2011
