New Amsterdam Market Launches A New Era For Eaters

Posted by Kerry Trueman, Eating Liberally

The New Amsterdam Market is laying the foundation for a real food renaissance on the cobblestoned streets of one of our city’s most historic districts. The Seaport, former home of the Fulton Fish Market (now located in the Bronx), first provided New Yorkers with a public market space all the way back in 1642.
The New Amsterdam Market, a non-profit organization, aims to revive that tradition with a year-round indoor market, both retail and wholesale, featuring sustainably produced foods from our region’s farmers, fishmongers, butchers, cheesemongers, bakers, and other vendors of local food products. In addition, the Market would offer programs “to help New Yorkers of all backgrounds and income levels learn to purchase, prepare, and eat nutritious, healthy foods as well as enter careers in the emerging sustainable and artisanal food movement.”
The Fulton Fish Market, first founded in 1822, most recently occupied two public market halls, the New Market Building and the Tin Building, both listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The Market proposes to turn these publicly owned spaces into “a world-class civic, cultural, and retail destination as a unique and compelling market district.” The Market would be an invaluable asset in addition to our already thriving Greenmarket system, whose vendors are strictly limited to farmers.
The plan has won the support of Manhattan’s Community Board One and local elected officials as well as culinary celebrities Alice Waters, Dan Barber, and Mario Batali, among others. The event on Sunday, June 29th was the third meeting to showcase the Market’s participants and promote its vision for reclaiming the Seaport’s centuries-long legacy as a destination where New Yorkers can get to know our region’s food purveyors and purchase high-quality, fresh, local ingredients and food products.
The third Market meeting, like the first two (held last fall and winter), drew thousands of folks eager for an alternative to our industrialized, globalized food system. I arrived mid-morning and found the Market so crowded that it took several hours to navigate through the throngs of happy foodies savoring sustainable snacks and chatting with the farmers, chefs, and other vendors and advocates who were delighted to enlighten curious eaters about their contributions to the Market.
Clearly, there’s tremendous enthusiasm for this project at a time when so many people are questioning our convoluted food chain and seeking more local sources for their foods. Here’s hoping that The New Amsterdam Market will continue to build on the momentum that it’s created with these terrific one-day tastes of what a permanent New Amsterdam Market would offer to New Yorkers. To learn more about the New Amsterdam Market’s mission and how you can support it, click here.