A couple of weekends ago, Jake and I had a little afternoon to ourselves. T was off at baseball practice and we decided to see a movie (Zootopia! It was super cute!) and then head over to the Liberty Public Market for a little afternoon lunch. The market hasn’t been opened for too long but we were able to snag a parking spot pretty close to the market.
This is the front sign which faces the Corvette Diner side of Liberty Station. They’re growing a little garden in the front!
Just to the left of the huge Liberty Public Market sign is an outdoor seating area.
If you walk down to the left and come around, there are these little decks that jut out next to the market.
There were quite a few people utilizing and enjoying these little deck areas. Great way to maximize on the outdoor space!
The market was quite crowded that Saturday afternoon. The aisles inside Liberty Public Market were bustling with people! Jake took this “aerial” shot for me if you’re wondering. I’m too short to pull off a shot like this on my own! It gives a good sense of the packed crowd inside the market.
The flow inside the market is a bit tough; there isn’t a lot of aisle room. When there’s this many people in the market, people form lines around stalls and it makes traffic flow pretty tough. We found ourselves having to squeeze around people just to get around and it made it a little hard to wander in the middle section of the market. The outer edges were easier since it wasn’t quite so packed. Hopefully the ebb and flow of the market will balance out over time and it won’t feel like you’re a fish swimming upstream all the time.
The first place we passed by was the Liberty Meat Shop. In addition to being a butcher, they had a food offering.
They offered little samples of their BBQ Beef Brisket which was delicious. The BBQ sauce added a wonderful flavor to the tasty brisket.
We squeezed passed quite a few places, like the West Bean Coffee Roasters, Fully Loaded Juice, and Fish Bone Kitchen. This central part of the market was quite packed and we decided to wander over to Le Parfait Paris, which we had visited last year. They’ve got a little stall in the new market offering a more limited supply of their baked goods. The case is restocked often and there’s plenty to choose from, in addition to their coffees, sandwiches, and breakfast offerings.
Such pretty desserts!
Just to the right of Le Parfait Paris is a pasta stall called Pasta Design.
Here they make fresh pasta in a variety of colors and shapes!
They also make fresh pasta for you to eat on site, including lasagna and ravioli.
Fresh flowers are available at AE Floral at Liberty Public Market.
There’s also a stall offering a variety of sauces and products called Pacific Provisions. They had a good number of items to browse through instead a bunch of BBQ and hot sauces.
Howlistic is a natural dog and cat supply store. All products featured in their shop are made in the USA. There were a number of interesting looking natural dog treats that I thought Maya might be interested in trying!
I spied these Wicked Whoopie Pies! I didn’t get one of this visit but it’s definitely something I want to try in the future. I think that Peanut Butter Whoopie Pie has got my name all over it.
The Wicked Whoopie Pies were one of the offerings from Maine Lobster. I bet you can guess what they serve here!
This part of the market was getting packed so I didn’t take as many photos as I wanted to since I uh… couldn’t see much and I felt trapped like a sardine in a can. We squished by the crowd and I lingered in front of Crafted Baked Goods to oogle at their cupcakes and desserts.
There were a lot of good looking items at Crafted so I’ll have to return to try a few things!
After browsing around I decided on a couple of items to try out.
The first thing we tried was the BBQ Beef Sandwich from Liberty Meat Shop. I couldn’t get that sample out of my head and wanted to take on a full sandwich (which I shared with Jake, of course).
We really loved the brisket in the sandwich and the BBQ sauce was a wonderful sweet style sauce that we loved. I did not love the bread though… or rather, I didn’t love that the bread got soggy pretty quickly. It seemed like the bread was dipped a little in sauce and I didn’t like it. Still enjoyable overall though.
I also decided to get a pasta dish from Pasta Design and Jake questioned my food pairings. BBQ and Pasta. He thought I was kind of crazy, but hey, that’s what I wanted to eat!
I choose the Prosciutto and Brie Ravioli in the Pink 50/50 sauce (mix of alfredo and marinara sauce). While I really liked the ravioli itself, I wasn’t crazy about the 50/50 sauce which tasted a little watered down to me. It was lacking in flavor but luckily the ravioli itself was delicious. I’d like it with a different sauce, maybe, but the $12 price tag (for 5 pieces of ravioli) might make me reconsider getting a prepared pasta dish in the future. I think I’d rather get a dozen ravioli to go and make it at home instead.
I also got two baked goods from Le Parfait Paris. Surprisingly I didn’t get any dessert – but that’s because I had made this fantastic caramel sauce the night before and I wanted to eat more of that instead of getting new dessert! The item in the front is a Brioche topped with crunchy pearl sugar. I didn’t really like this as much as I hoped I would. The bread wasn’t as tender as I thought it would be and the pearl sugar didn’t do much for me. I enjoyed the chocolate croissant the next day at work and really liked that though!
All in all we enjoyed checking out the Liberty Public Market though I’d probably avoid going on a Saturday afternoon again. The crowds were a bit overwhelming and it was a little difficult to really walk through the market. I like the offerings though and having all of the choices in one area. I’ve love to visit again though and sample more items.
Liberty Public Market
2820 Historic Decatur Road
San Diego, CA 92106
(619) 487-9346
General Market Hours: 7AM-11PM
Le Parfait Paris
Hours: 8AM-7PM
Pasta Design
Hours: 11AM-7PM
Liberty Meat Shop
Hours: 11AM-7PM
Oooh that pasta looks so cool!! I’ve heard a lot about this place pretty recently and my roommate made a visit, saying there were so many foods she wanted to try. Will definitely make a visit soon (hopefully I can beat the crowds!)
Hi Joleen – I loved the look of their fresh pastas – so colorful! There’s definitely a lot more than what I documented, it just got a little too crowded to comfortably take photos. Hope you check it out soon!
Ah, for some reason I thought the decks were unfinished, like it needed tables with chair or something.
We liked the lobster roll at Wicked Maine Lobster. The Kryptonite (mint infused cold brew) from West Bean was also good.It’s a nice mix of eateries in here. We went on a weekday when it wasn’t as crowded. The coffee place was open earlier as was Le Parfait Paris (love their pastries). Crowds make me cringe. Kudos to you for braving the crazy crowds.
Hi CC – It could be that the decks are unfinished! I thought they were just “hang out” areas since that’s how everyone was using them. Tables would be nice but everyone seemed to be using them as just another picnic spot. I definitely want to try that lobster roll you had – it looked delicious. When we go again we’re definitely going in the morning. Maybe I’ll be able to properly walk around.