Bill's Bees Honey Shop Stand in South Pasadena on Thursdays

Bill's Bees has no storefront, and that is exactly why Angelenos who want real local honey keep showing up at its Thursday stand. The table sits in the South Pasadena Farmers Market at Meridian Avenue and El Centro Street, right beside the Metro A Line platform, and the honey on it comes from hives kept in Little Tujunga Canyon above the San Fernando Valley. A 16 ounce jar of any single varietal costs $14, and the market runs from 4 pm every Thursday.

The company's own history begins with a Boy Scout. Bill Lewis took on a few colonies of honeybees more than 40 years ago to finish the requirements for the Boy Scouts of America beekeeping merit badge. Years later he and his wife Liane moved to a 700 acre equestrian ranch in Little Tujunga Canyon, where Bill found ten abandoned bee colonies on the property, adopted them, and in 1994 Bill's Bees was born.

The South Pasadena market was the business's first booth. The about page says that once Bill had a large enough honey supply, he opened a stand there, and the operation grew from that one table. Clyde Steese joined in 2003 to help consolidate the hives, the company was fully incorporated in 2012, and in 2008 Los Angeles magazine named it the best local honey in the city. The market still lists the vendor simply as Bill's Bees of Lake View Terrace.

That history matters when you are standing at the table. This is not a reseller buying drums of honey from a distributor. The bees spend part of the year on pollination and foraging trips and are then returned to their home mountains in Little Tujunga Canyon, which is why the varietals here track Southern California bloom seasons rather than a supermarket shelf.

The core lineup is five single-source honeys: Sage Blossom, Wildflower, Buckwheat, Avocado Blossom and Orange Blossom. Each is $9 for 8 ounces, $11 for 12 ounces and $14 for 16 ounces on the company's online store, and the larger 32 ounce jar is $22. For households that go through honey quickly, the 48 ounce size is $28 and the 80 ounce container is $39, which is the cheapest way to buy local wildflower honey in bulk.

If you cannot decide, the Local Honey Tasting Flight at $15 solves it. It packs small portions of all five, Buckwheat, Orange Blossom, Wildflower, Sage Blossom and Avocado Blossom, so you can taste at home and come back next Thursday for a full jar of the winner. It also makes the most useful gift on the table, since few people outside beekeeping have tried avocado blossom honey side by side with sage.

Sage Blossom is the one Los Angeles is known for: pale, mild and slow to crystallize, it is the honey to use in tea. Avocado Blossom is the opposite, dark and molasses-like, good on yogurt or in a marinade. Buckwheat is the strongest of the five and the one first-timers most often regret buying in a big jar, so start it in the flight before committing to the 16 ounce size.

Beyond liquid honey, the stand carries wildflower honeycomb. The online store lists a 6 ounce comb at $14, a 12 ounce comb at $30 and a 16 ounce honeycomb chunk, comb suspended in liquid honey, at $28. Cut comb is what to buy for a cheese board, since it holds its shape on a plate and you eat the wax along with the honey.

Two newer spreads arrived on the store in October 2026: Classic Whipped Honey and Whipped Cinnamon Honey, each $12. Whipped honey is crystallized under control until it turns smooth and spreadable, so it does not drip off toast. The table also carries 8 ounces of bee pollen for $22 and HoneyStix, eight flavored straws for $2, which keep children busy while adults taste.

The South Pasadena Farmers Market says it runs every Thursday afternoon throughout the year, except Thanksgiving and other major holidays, from 4 pm to 8 pm in spring, summer and fall and from 4 pm to 7 pm in winter. Bill's Bees publishes slightly different winter hours on its own market page, so in the cold months aim for the 4 pm to 7 pm overlap rather than the very start or end of the evening.

The first hour is the easiest time at the honey table, before the after-work crowd arrives and before the limited comb stock has been picked over. Bring a tote, since glass jars add up fast, and if you plan a bulk order or a stack of flights for gifts.

If Thursday does not work, the same honey travels across the county. The company's market page lists stands in Burbank and at Victory Park, 2925 Sierra Madre Boulevard in Pasadena, on Saturdays, Santa Monica on Wednesdays and Saturdays, Montrose and Temple City on Sundays, Granada Hills on Friday nights, and alternate Sundays in Studio City and Santa Clarita. South Pasadena remains the original, and the easiest to reach without a car.

The market's own directions are simple: exit the Metro A Line at South Pasadena station and the stalls are right there. Pasadena Now gives the station's address as 905 Meridian Avenue and notes it opened in 2003 as part of the original Gold Line, at Mission Street and Meridian Avenue. Drivers can use the free Mission Meridian lot north of Mission Street, though on Thursday evenings the train is the calmer option.

Once you have your jars, walk the few blocks of Mission Street west of the station, the Mission West business district, which is lined with independent shops and cafes in older storefronts. Wikipedia's station page lists the Meridian Iron Works museum as a neighbor of the platform, so you can fold a short history stop into the same visit. It is a short, pleasant loop that turns a honey errand into an evening out.

The market itself was established in 1999 and has been operated by the South Pasadena Chamber of Commerce since 2010, so it has the relaxed feel of a neighborhood fixture rather than a tourist event. Pasadena Now describes it as a market that thrives one Metro stop south of Pasadena, and much of the Thursday crowd does arrive by train, stepping off the platform straight into the stalls. Bill's Bees has been part of that routine longer than almost anyone.

Bill's Bees at the South Pasadena Farmers Market, Meridian Avenue and El Centro Street beside South Pasadena Metro station, South Pasadena, CA 91030. Thursdays from 4 pm, closing at 8 pm in spring, summer and fall and at 7 pm in winter; closed Thanksgiving. Prices above are from the company's online store at billsbees.com.