Serious Eats: New York
Robert LaValva on the New Amsterdam Market
"We're already looking towards next year. After all, Borough Market quickly became a weekly event..."
Photos: Erin Zimmer
When I first visited the New Amsterdam Market on a brutally cold, ice-whipped December day back in 2007, Robert LaValva and Cerise Mayo had assembled a single long row of vendors for their first-ever "Wintermarket" at the South Street Seaport.
Photograph by Robin Riley
In fairness, it was an incredible row of vendors: Anne Saxelby grilling cheese sandwiches, Mario Batali (in shorts!) slicing porchetta, The Bent Spoon serving ice cream that sold out despite the nastiest sleet storm I'd ever seen.
But looking back two years later, it's incredible to see how the market has evolved. After a hugely successful 2008 market and a well-attended oysterfest fundraiser in February, New Amsterdam Market was able to set a monthly schedule for the fall of 2009, and this Sunday, November 22, the third market in this series will convene. (More info here.)
LaValva's mission is the same as ever. He seeks to establish a year-round, large-scale venue for sustainable, local food—driven not only by farmers, but by purveyors, butchers, and distributors who can draw from multiple sources to expand the range of regional products available in New York in bring the best of those to market.
But establishing a monthly meeting, LaValva tells us, has caused a key shift: New Yorkers are starting to view the market as a resource, not just a novelty. "People come here to shop," he told us. "At the October market, we saw visitors coming with bags, and shopping lists. People from lower Manhattan, who arrive on foot, and buy food for the week. There's a sense of a regular schedule that lets them do that."
The future of New Amsterdam Market, after the jump.
Photos from the New Amsterdam Market in 2008: Erin Zimmer
Markets are organic entities, LaValva is fond of saying, and his has evolved considerably—details from the choice of vendors, to the foods they sell, to their position in the market are reconsidered with each meeting. "We're deliberately, carefully encouraging an old sense of the market," he says. And not only a public market, but a showcase for food—"How it's gathered, cultivated, farmed, fermented, and preserved. We want to put production on display."
As far as hopes for a permanent market? LaValva is already looking towards next year. "After a few months to sort things out, we're looking to relaunch in the early spring. Our first question, of course, is whether we can hold events more frequently."
How frequently? "After all, Borough Market started off monthly. But when they saw the overwhelming interest from vendors and the public, they became something much more—very quickly."
Two 2009 meetings left for the New Amsterdam Market: this Sunday, November 22, and December 20.
Related:
Meet & Eat: Robert LaValva
Favorites from the Return of New Amsterdam Market at the South Street Seaport
Free Sample Sunday at the New Amsterdam Market
Why You Should Visit New Amsterdam Market at the South Street Seaport, This Sunday, 9/13