Down to the Market

http://www.thewashingtonmarket.com/

• 461 Ellicot Street, not on Washington
• Price - Cheap
• Distance to target - 970 steps
• Coke or Pepsi? - Stewarts

An easy walk from almost anywhere downtown on the quieter street of Ellicott across from St. Michael's our stop today was The Washington Market. It has a distinctly lower-Manhattan feel to it with brick walls and exposed duct work.  While it may often go overlooked due to its much more famous next door neighbor The Washingon Market deserves a spot on your regular lunch routine.

It has a bit of multi-personality disorder, unable to decide if it wants to be a cafe, or a deli, or a grocery store. The thing is it wears all of those hats well.  They sell good coffee and breakfast foods that you can enjoy on the front patio.  The market is one of those hip places that sells kettle potato chips, and coke in glass bottles, and those flat pretzels that are just the outside of the pretzel*.  The deli makes sandwiches for lunch or catering trays to take back to the office, although Buffalo Lunch is strongly opposed to the working lunch meeting.

Groceries to left of me, seating to the right.

The best part is definitely their lunch menu though.  They have a case of fresh made pasta salads always available but also some cool fresh salads like the Asian Fusion to go along with more traditional Greek and Caesar.  They also have a big griddle in the kitchen and a huge menu of hot sandwiches, wraps, and our personal favorite:  The Chicken Quesadilla.  A giant wrap toasted on the griddle in butter comes out crispy but it's stuffed with chicken and sour cream and big hunks of fresh avocado.  It's huge and delicious and a reason to stop in all on it's own.

Lunch is affordable here too.  Most menu items are $7-$8, while a few reach the lofty heights of $9.50.  Nothing over the $10 mark though so the whole menu is open to try and we'd recommend making the effort to work your way through it.

You can take out but there is plenty of seating available to dine in.  From the front patio to the coffee house style front room to a full-on dining area in back you can always comfortably get a place to sit. They don't have full service but they will bring your order out to your table when it's ready.  Speaking of which, it can get crowded at lunch time so call ahead and save yourself a wait.

* - What do they do with the rest of the pretzel?  Is there a landfill full of pretzel fillings somewhere?