As long as I’ve lived in Indy, I can’t believe I hadn’t made it to City Market before. A hub of local artisans, Indianapolis City Market a fantastic one-stop destination for a variety of goods, from jewelry to beer to French pastries.
I know this place is a hot spot for the weekday lunch crowd, but since I don’t work downtown, it wasn’t at the top of my list to visit until I learned that a few of the farmers market vendors I love have booths here.
I visited on a Saturday, and while not all of the vendors were open, there were enough options available to make it worth a weekend morning trip. There were no metered parking spots available, but there was a $5 lot across the street from the building that was convenient, with plenty of spaces.
Once inside, the first place I stopped was Circle City Sweets, whose almond croissants I’d been craving since late last year. In addition to those, I also sampled a few other desserts – many macarons and chocolate hazelnut mousse cake. After having the macarons here, I’d rate them pretty high on the list of the best macarons in Indy. The champagne and pistachio macarons were particularly delicious!
While I was there, I was also introduced to doissants — croissant dough that’s fried like a doughnut with or without some kind of filling. These always sell out, and they had none available, except for a couple of boxes set aside for people who had pre-ordered them.
The second stop was at Mauricios Pizzaria. I only tried a couple bites of the cheese pizza and it was good. I wouldn’t go out of my way to get it again, but I can see it being an easy choice for a quick weekday lunch.
The third stop was at Gomez BBQ. While I didn’t get anything here, the brisket sandwich and bread pudding both looked & smelled fantastic, and put them at the top of my list to try on a return visit to City Market.
The fourth stop was Just Cookies, and I was amazed at how low the prices were there! Cookies were only 65 cents to a dollar apiece, and they were all very good — chewy texture and perfectly flavorful. I’m a big fan of the chocolate chip cookies here and was also happy to grab some no-bakes as well.
The last stop was at The Flower Boys booth, which appeared to be closed, but since they had just finished a morning class and happened to still be around, I was able to snag a bright winter bouquet.
If you’re in the downtown area and looking for a quick casual lunch stop or just looking for a place to sit and kill time or maybe enjoy a cup of coffee & a pastry on a Saturday morning, City Market is a great spot to visit.
