Essex Market is a definitive Lower East Side shopping experience. It’s where the soul of movies like “Crossing Delancey” meets the New York of 2021. Building on the rich and diverse culinary history of the neighborhood, it’s a foodie’s wonderland, where the shopping experience puts you at the heart of what it means to be a New Yorker. If you live at the One Manhattan Square condos from Extell Development, this hallowed site of New York past and present will also be your neighborhood market — both a place to linger over coffee and pastries on a Saturday, and to stock up any day of the week on options for an anything-but-everyday dinner.
Shopping at Essex Market is like shopping in a specialty store for every food item you could dream of — and it’s open seven days a week, with indoor and outdoor dining options. From Porto Rico Importing Co. to Formaggio Kitchen to Essex Olive & Spice, which sources from a farm in Morocco, every stall has a vision and a story, and each vendor provides the highest-quality incarnation of what they make. Ni Japanese Deli is a perfect example of a delicious marriage of nutrition and culinary ingenuity. Inspired by authentic Japanese fare, and by the search for food that his allergy-prone daughter could tolerate, chef Atsushi Numata creates humble-elegant dishes celebrated by the New York Times: “You do not want to miss the sushi rolls … which, despite the coarse, burly brown rice, manage to be elegant and assertive at once. The rice balls — some riddled with jalapeño, others empurpled by plum — are craggy, unbeautiful, and true.”
Nordic Preserves Fish & Wildlife Co., the dreamchild of Annika Sundvik, is a mecca for gravlax and the shop’s celebrated cured herring — dishes that have long been sought out on the Lower East Side. The wares are equal parts local food culture and traditional cuisine from Sweden, Sundvik’s homeland. At Irma Marin’s Puebla Mexican Food, you’ll find a popular Lower East Side restaurant reborn at the Essex Street Market, thanks to fans of Marin’s food who didn’t want to lose a cherished neighborhood restaurant due to a rent hike. This is Mexican home cooking at its best, and you can feast on enchiladas suizas and tiger shrimp stew cooked in chipotle sauce whenever the fancy strikes you.
To be transported to Italy, visit Pilar Rigon’s Mille Nonne, where the veggie lasagna can’t be missed and the turkey meatballs are organic. Based on her mother’s recipes, the food here tastes of a true Italian kitchen of old, and the business model is one of sustainability and forward thinking.
At Dhamaka, you’ll find provincial Indian cuisine as well as one of the most specialized meals in New York: the Rajasthani khargosh — a whole rabbit cooked with yogurt and cloves, which serves four and can be ordered a month in advance. At Eat Gai you can sample food as showstopping as it is mouthwatering, like fried chicken in a pineapple or succulent Hainanese chicken.
Whether you’re shopping for goat cheese, a fridge restock of organic produce at Essex Farm Fruits and Vegetables, or looking for a three-course meal, Essex Market brings you the global food scene all gathered together on the Lower East Side. It’s a culinary destination known the world over, just minutes from your home at One Manhattan Square.