Within the interlacing streets of downtown Los Angeles lies Grand Central Market, a warehouse style building filled with various food stalls and bustling eateries. The day my husband and I visited was a particularly hot day in the city. We had taken the metro downtown and walked to the market. By the time we arrived at our destination, I was getting a bit weary of the city “perfume” shall we call it and ready to eat (go figure!). To my delight, we were surrounded by a bounty of food options. Our three favorites were (in no particular order):

#1 — DTLA

This spot is a cheese lover’s dream. There is a large glass-enclosed display of cheese varieties available for purchase to go, or you can also choose a snack from their menu if you want to eat in. We chose the latter, and is was scrumptious! This is what I had (it was a special moment).

#2 — G & B Coffee

This spot is for the coffee (and tea) lover. Their unique concept of having a coffee bar (instead of a traditional counter where you wait in a line to order your coffee confection) lends a festive air to the place and makes you want to strike up a conversation with the person next to you (which happpened to be my husband, making conversation quite easy and fun!). I had their fizzy tea which combined two of my favorite things, bubbles and tea. Their location is across the street from Angels Flight where a cherry blossom tree happened to be in full bloom when we were there, so beautiful!

#3 — McConnell’s Fine Ice Cream

This spot needs little introduction as all things ice cream are, by definition, wonderful (or at least by my definition) and they did not disappoint. Geniusly they offer a pairing of three smaller scoops so that you can get a good sampling of their flavors.  Although we knew we wanted their strawberry and their mint chip, we leaned on the expertise of our ice cream artisan to make suggestions for a good final pairing. Lemon/rasberry it was, a perfect trifecta!

Grand Central Market is a unique microcosm of people, food, and community. A place to put on your “things to do” list. It is located at 317 S. Broadway Ave., Los Angeles. Let me know what you think of it.