Honey Pacifica Honey Shop Stand at Sunday Hollywood Market

Honey Pacifica's stand at the Hollywood Farmers' Market is where Los Angeles honey buyers go for raw honey that has never been heated. The market sets up every Sunday from 8 am to 1 pm at 1600 Ivar Avenue, at the corner of Ivar and Selma, and the stall is listed on the market's vendor roll simply as Honey Pacifica, honey. A 16 ounce jar of the company's cold-packed sage honey costs $13 on its own store, and a 16 ounce sage honeycomb is $17.

The company tells its founding story through the founder's son. Nick Poto, described on the about page as an unconventional guy and nicknamed The Midnight Beekeeper, started keeping bees after a first hive arrived in 1978 as a high school science project, and he officially started the honey business in 1979. The family still runs it from a warehouse at 9856 Everest Street in Downey, where hives are trucked back for extraction.

Honey Pacifica also claims a piece of natural-foods history. Its about page says it was the first all-natural, raw, unfiltered honey to reach the shelves of Whole Foods, a reminder that the company sold raw honey long before the phrase became a supermarket label. In March 2026 it announced a partnership with Porto's Bakery, the Cuban bakery chain famous across Southern California, on its own blog.

None of that history shows up as polish at the market, which is a point in its favor. The stall is a folding table of jars and comb, run by people who can tell you which flowers the bees worked that season. Behind it sits a schedule that sends the same honey to more than a dozen markets across Los Angeles and Orange County each week.

Cold packed is the phrase to look for on the labels. The company bottles these honeys without heating them, so they arrive cloudy and slowly turn thick and pale as they crystallize. The three core cold-packed varieties on the online store are Sage, Orange Blossom and Creamy Wildflower, each priced on the same ladder: $13 for 16 ounces, $30 for 46 ounces, $50 for 88 ounces and $84 for 184 ounces.

Sage is the one to buy first. California sage honey is pale and mild, and it crystallizes far more slowly than most honey, so a jar stays pourable on the counter for months. Orange Blossom is lighter and more floral, the honey for iced tea and lemonade. Creamy Wildflower is already crystallized to a spreadable texture, which makes it the best choice for toast and biscuits rather than for stirring into drinks.

At the top of the range, the store lists a 60 pound pail of each cold-packed variety at $365. That size is for bakers, mead makers and restaurants, and at present the larger sizes of the Sage and Creamy Wildflower honeys show as out of stock online. For a household, the 46 ounce jar at $30 is the value sweet spot, and it is still light enough to carry back to the train.

The sage honeycomb is the item regulars ask for by name. It is listed at $17 for a 16 ounce piece, a block of capped wax cells filled with pale sage honey. Cut comb is the right choice for a cheese plate or for eating straight, wax and all, and it is a better gift than a jar because few people have tasted comb from a single Southern California bloom.

For something different, the Flavored Habanero Honey is listed at $10. It is honey infused with chile heat, and it works best drizzled on fried chicken, pizza or a slab of cornbread. Skip it if you are buying for a child or for tea; it is a condiment, not a sweetener, and a little goes a long way.

The Hollywood Farmers' Market was founded in 1991, and its organizer, Food Access LA, calls it the largest in Los Angeles, with more than 150 farmers, producers, food vendors and artisans. That size is the main thing to plan around. With that many stalls packed into a few blocks, the honey table is easiest to reach in the first two hours after the 8 am opening, before the late-morning brunch crowd arrives.

If you miss Sunday, Honey Pacifica's own market page lists the same stand at Wilson Park, 2200 Crenshaw Boulevard in Torrance, on Tuesdays and Saturdays, both from 8 am to 1 pm, and at the Beverly Hills market on Sundays from 8 am to 1 pm, plus alternate Sundays in Studio City and alternate Fridays in Venice. The same page lists Orange County markets in Irvine, Laguna Beach, Laguna Niguel and Orange, but those sit outside Los Angeles County, so the Hollywood, Torrance and Beverly Hills tables are the ones within easy reach of the city.

Food Access LA's directions are to take the Metro B Line to Hollywood and Vine station and walk two blocks to Ivar and Selma. That puts the market in the middle of the old studio district, a short walk from Hollywood Boulevard. Walk north up Ivar and east on Hollywood Boulevard to see the Capitol Records Building, the circular tower just north of Hollywood Boulevard on Vine that looks like a stack of records.

On the way you cross the Hollywood Walk of Fame, whose stars run along Hollywood Boulevard and down Vine Street, so a honey run turns easily into a morning stroll. The Pantages Theatre, the Art Deco playhouse on Hollywood Boulevard near the Vine corner, is another landmark within a few blocks of the market.

Honey Pacifica at the Hollywood Farmers' Market, 1600 Ivar Avenue at Selma Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90028. Market open Sundays from 8 am to 1 pm. Company office and warehouse: 9856 Everest Street, Downey, Monday to Friday 8:30 am to 4 pm. Prices quoted are from the online store at honeypacifica.com; market hours and history are from foodaccessla.org.