Thursday, September 9, 2010

A Public Market Returns to Pittsburgh

The neighborhood group “Friends in the Strip” will officially launch a public market Friday morning with a bell ringing ceremony. Market Manager Cindy Cassell says the market was eight years in the making. “Our board of directors along with our market council have just hung in there and persevered until they got it going,” says Cassell, “most major, and minor cities, have public markets.” The Market at the Pittsburgh Produce Terminal on Smallman Street near the intersection of 17th and Smallman will be open Fridays 9a to 7p, Saturdays 9a to 5p, and Sundays 10a to 4p. Cassell says organizers worked with businesses already in the strip in an effort to compliment what can already be found in the Strip on a weekend. “One of the most received phone calls in the Neighbors in the Strip office are people calling to ask if there is any Indian food in the Strip, so this is the first Indian food in the Strip,” says Cassell. While many of the vendors in the market will be back week after week Cassell says there will be two rows of seasonal businesses that will come and go. An old streetcar bell was donated to the market and Cassell says it will be rung every day to open and close the market. Visitors are being asked to bring their own bells Friday for a special opening ceremony at 9:00am. The market will include fresh produce, prepared food and hand made goods. According to Cassell it is a feast or all your senses. The Pittsburgh Public Market held a “soft opening” last week, which attracted several hundred visitors. Cassell says there has not been a public market in the city since the last of four closed in 1965.

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