I haven’t spent much time in Downtown LA, but I have always wanted the excuse to go.  As any Angeleno knows, you need a really good excuse to get out of your neighborhood and drive the 45 minutes (12 miles) to get downtown.  My previous excursions to downtown had been to see the Disney Theater and jury duty, so I was looking for another adventure.  I had read about the Grand Central Market, and it reminded me of New York’s Grand Central Market and the Chelsea Market, so I grabbed a few friends, and we made an afternoon of it.

Sadly, it did not live up to the hype.  The Market did have some great restaurants - not sure if you can call a market stall that.  We decided to give Egg Slut a try, and we waited in the 15 minute line while people watching (it happened to be Halloween, so the watching was worth it).  We thankfully scored three seats at the counter, and our sandwiches of egg and cheese on a buttery brioche were definitely worth the wait.  We checked out the deli, the ice cream store, and the Thai stall, and they all looked amazing, but that was the extent of the market.

The actual market stalls were rather depressing - the fruit looked old and bruised, and the cheap prices almost too high.  We could easily score better goods at any local farmer’s market.  The stand with spices and mixed nuts seemed appealing from afar, but the goods too looked like they had been sitting there for ages.

The Market is also deep in downtown, and the streets are not welcoming. Even after living in NYC for 20 years, I didn’t feel safe on these streets at 1pm in the afternoon on a weekday.  While their are plenty of pedestrians and cars, and lots of movement, the streets still had a dark and eerie feeling, almost ominous.  This was not the LA of the movies, or of my home.

I will go back to the market, and I will try another market stall, but I’ll wait until they revitalize more of downtown.  Maybe next time I’ll try the Last Bookstore, and immerse myself in the scent of used books and listen to an author read samples on the scratchy microphone - that would definitely be an excuse for the drive.