Surfing The Channel

In 1934, long before the streets were lined with coffee shops, costume warehouses, and the smaller and quaint hotels in LA, the corner of Third Street and Fairfax in the city of Los Angeles was an open and empty expanse of land.  A small group of farmers pulled their pick-up trucks in, let down their tailgates, and started selling their fruits, flowers and vegetables off the back.  Much to their surprise, they hit on something that the people in the area needed, and within minutes of setting up, cars filled the empty lot with customers strolling through the trucks, and buying the farmers’ wares.  And thus the Fairfax Market was born and has become one of the longest standing institutions in the city.

To walk through the Market now, with the adjoining Grove Shopping Mall, it is hard to imagine that this area was ever wide open and non-developed.  Just a few months after the market was opened, the first Fall Festival took place in October, this is still a tradition that is widely popular to this day, more than seventy-five years later.  More than ninety percent of the stalls, booths and restaurant counters in the market are independently owned and operated, with many of those businesses being some of the original ones from 1934, such as Magees and the Ultimate Nut & Candy Company.  Along with the eighty-five plus businesses, the second floor contains not only the home office of one of the first banks in America, the Gilmore Bank, but many other offices as well.

Many different stars have been spotted having breakfast or lunch in the market.  I myself sat next to Alanis Morisette one morning as we both enjoyed our crepes.  Not only is this a popular location for tourists, but many locals frequent the produce stalls, and make the Fairfax Market part of their weekend go to breakfast rituals.  If you walk in for the first time and find it to be a tad bit familiar, many movies have used this market as a location throughout the years.  Should you just be visiting, you will definitely want to make a stop here, and should you live in Los Angeles, well then, you are already aware of the market and all of its wonders.

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