By the time the four of us got to Lexington Market on Tuesday,Feb. 18, Gov. Larry Hogan was gone. But that’s OK. He was there to talk aboutthe market’s future, and we were there mainly to get the crab cakes, raw clamsand oysters at the incomparable Faidley’s Seafood.
And not to be overlooked, to remember some of the market’s gloriouspast.
Hogan was there to break ground on the new South Market building, scheduled to open in the summer of 2021, all part of a $40 million project to makeover Lexington Market, the nation’s longest continuously operating public market.
What the hell, it’s time for a change at the old place,which has been a Baltimore landmark since 1782.
Also, it’s time for a change of image as well.
The four of us who arrived Tuesday – Kenny Ball, Gary Levin,Dr. Skip Millison and me – all remember better days at Lexington Market. Therewas a time when the raw bar at Faidley’s, for instance, was so packed atlunchtime you had to elbow your way in.
Yesterday, the seafood at Faidley’s was absolutely terrific.The prices everywhere in the market were reasonable, or better, and the vendorswarm and friendly. But the crowd was smaller than the old days.
The four of us remembered throngs lined up to buy fruits andvegetables and seafood, and the good-natured back-and-forth banter betweenmerchants and customers. That’s still there. But it’s quieter now because thecrowds have dissipated.
For a lot of years, Ken Ball’s father ran a meat stall here.Gary Levin’s dad worked at the Mary Mervis deli and seafood carryout. I oncespent a summer gobbling salami sandwiches there every day. My taste buds arestill talking about it.
But all of this was longago.
So let’s not be coy about this: the market’s taken on a badimage over the years. Much of it’s unfair and undeserved, but it’s therenonetheless.
Over the years, a couple of drug rehab places have operatednearby, and when they’re finished their appointments, some of the clients havechosen to hang out on Eutaw Street just outside the market.
Not every would-be customer sees this as a particularlypositive welcoming committee, even though police have long maintained crime’snot a big problem in the area.
Lexington Market’s important to Baltimore, and not justbecause of its food or all the people who make a living there. It’s part ofwhat makes this city unique. We’re not just a collection of bland chain storesyou find anywhere in America. We have a special history, we have a bustling cosmopolitanmix.
And we need the places like Lexington Market (like the newlyrefurbished Cross Street Market) not only for the variety of foods but thevariety of customers, the sheer gathering of people whose numbers alone remindus of our common, overlapping lives.
We stopped by the old Mary Mervis stall yesterday. It’s nolonger there, replaced by something called The Dancing Potato. But we did stopby the bakery stall where they sell Berger Cookies and a bunch of other bakedgoods.
We got a big box of a variety of fresh cookies, which weassured ourselves our families would enjoy. Let’s just say the cookiesdisappeared before anyone actually got home.
A former Baltimore Sun columnist and WJZ-TV commentator, Michael Olesker is the author of six books. His most recent, “Front Stoops in the Fifties: Baltimore Legends Come of Age,” was reissued in paperback by the Johns Hopkins University Press.
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