Upper West Side Heritage Food Court Finder: La Marqueta Run

La Marqueta, at 1590 Park Avenue with its entrance at 115th Street, is the nearest true heritage market hall for anyone living on the Upper West Side, and it is open Tuesday through Sunday. Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia opened it in 1936 as the Park Avenue Retail Market beneath the Metro-North viaduct. The West Side itself never had a municipal hall, so the honest heritage food court finder plan here is a two-part outing: a counter crawl along Broadway and Amsterdam, then a crosstown hop to East Harlem.

The Upper West Side grew up in the early twentieth century as an apartment district, and its food culture formed around family-run storefronts rather than a single public market. Appetizing shops, which sell smoked fish, cheese and dairy rather than meat, became the neighborhood's anchors. Two of them have lasted long enough to count as heritage in their own right, and together they offer the multi-counter grazing that a food court promises, just spread across a few blocks of sidewalk.

Barney Greengrass started in 1908 at West 113th Street and St. Nicholas Avenue in Harlem, then moved to 541 Amsterdam Avenue, between 86th and 87th Streets, in 1929. In 1938 a state senator dubbed Greengrass the Sturgeon King, and the shop has kept the nickname ever since. Come for the smoked fish counter: sturgeon, nova and sable sliced to order, sold by weight to take home or served on a plate in the small dining room next to the counter.

The dining room is famously unrenovated and fills fast on weekend mornings, so the practical move is to buy at the takeout counter if the tables are full. Weekdays are calmer. Smoked fish is priced and sold by weight, so ordering a small amount of two or three kinds is the easiest way to compare them. If the wait at the door looks long, do not stand in it: walk six blocks south and make Zabar's your main stop instead.

Louis and Lillian Zabar opened their store in 1934 as a narrow shop at Broadway and West 80th Street, built around coffee and smoked fish. Today Zabar's fills a much larger footprint at 2245 Broadway, and the ground floor works like an indoor market of its own: a smoked fish counter, a cheese department, prepared foods, bread and a coffee bar, each with its own line. Take a number at the fish counter first, then shop the rest of the floor while you wait.

Skip the upstairs housewares floor if you are short on time. It is a fun browse for kitchen tools, but the food is downstairs, and the purpose of this outing is to collect a few things to taste rather than to furnish a kitchen. Pick one smoked fish, one cheese and a loaf of bread, then carry them on the next leg of the trip or eat them on a bench in Riverside Park, two blocks west.

From the West Side, the most direct route runs across the top of Central Park. Take a crosstown bus to the East Side, then ride the 6 train uptown to 116th Street, one block from the market's Park Avenue entrance. Alternatively, ride the 2 or 3 train to 116th Street and walk east across Fifth, Madison and Park. Either route takes roughly half an hour from Zabar's, which makes this a comfortable afternoon rather than a rushed lunch break.

La Marqueta once held hundreds of vendors and was the commercial heart of El Barrio, shaped by Puerto Rican, Dominican, Cuban and Mexican families from the 1930s through the 1950s. It is much smaller now, and you should expect a quiet hall rather than a bustling food court. NYC Economic Development Corporation, which runs the market, lists current tenants including Black-Eyed Peas NYC, Cocotazo, e.terra Kitchen, Mama T, Maruka Café Galería, Urban Garden Center and X-Square African Caribbean Foods.

That small roster is the honest trade-off. Visit for the history, a coffee at Maruka Café Galería, a Caribbean plate and the plant stalls at Urban Garden Center, not for dozens of counters. The market is closed on Mondays, and Sunday hours end earlier, so a Wednesday through Saturday afternoon gives you the longest window. Pair the stop with a walk along 116th Street, the main commercial street of East Harlem.

This plan suits West Side residents with a free weekday, visiting relatives who want to see old New York food culture, and anyone who prefers a slow tasting walk over one crowded hall. It is a poor fit for a group that wants everyone to order from different cuisines at one table, because the two appetizing counters focus on fish, dairy and bagels. For that kind of group, a better choice is to ride downtown to Essex Market on the Lower East Side, where dozens of counters share one roof.

Families with small children should also think twice about the full loop. The crosstown leg adds a bus and a train, and La Marqueta's small roster means there is less to keep restless kids busy. A shorter version, Zabar's plus a picnic in Riverside Park, covers the heritage idea in under two hours.

Start at Barney Greengrass when it opens and eat breakfast at the counter. Walk down Broadway to Zabar's for a second tasting and a bag of provisions. Cross the park by bus, reach La Marqueta in the early afternoon, and finish with coffee under the viaduct. If anyone in your group is tired by then, cut the East Harlem leg and save it for another day, since the two West Side counters already make a full heritage food morning.

La Marqueta opens Tuesday through Sunday, according to NYC Economic Development Corporation, with its entrance at 115th Street and Park Avenue, and it closes earliest on Sundays. Zabar's is at 2245 Broadway at 80th Street, and Barney Greengrass is at 541 Amsterdam Avenue between 86th and 87th Streets. Save all three in the Karpo APP as one Upper West Side heritage food plan, so the whole route is ready the next time you have a free weekday afternoon.