Fancying the Flea Market

A child watches the traffic on Elgin from inside the Urban Market.

Flea markets have been one of my favorite pastimes for some time now, at least all of my adult life. Chad sent me this New York Times article last weekend about the explosion of flea markets in New York City. I love this line: "In a city that thrums with opportunity and a veritable buffet of wonderful things to do--theaters! museums! parks!--flea markets have somehow emerged as many people's first choice of a way to spend the weekend." When I lived in New York, there weren't as many as there are now, but I visited the ones in Chelsea and on the Upper West Side as often as I could. I almost always found myself coming home with some thing that I didn't know I needed.

A dream of mine is to travel to London and take the Chunnel to Paris with the sole purpose of shopping all the flea markets. I walked down Portobello Road when I was in London once before, but unfortunately I wasn't there on a Saturday for the big market, so will have to go back. For now, my flea market passion is satiated with Houston's Urban Market and when I can swing it, Round Top, just an hour away. 

While technically an antiques market and not a flea market per se, the Urban Market is held three times a year. Last weekend, the weather could not have been more ideal for it. Now in its new location in Midtown, it truly is more of an "urban" market. Before it was in the grassy fields north of the Heights, which was fun, but probably a pain for the vendors in inclement weather. I wish we had a market that was every weekend though, or at least once a month.

Last weekend I was on the hunt for an old wine bottle, and as is usually the case when you have a goal in mind at these markets, I successfully found my treasure--an old Bordeaux wine bottle circa 1886. I learned that these old blown glass bottles are referred to as "carboys." My plan is to make mine into a lamp for the new room we are currently adding on to our house. (More on that in a later post.) 

My carboy, ca. 1886

There is a mini-farmers market also happening at Urban Market. A friend from my Houston Magazine days, Janice, of Words & Food, was offering a special "Urban Market Sandwich," which my mom and I split after tasting many samples of olive oil and balsamic at the booth next door. The sandwich was delicious with Janice's famous pimento cheese, plus turkey, bacon and cole slaw, if I remember correctly.

I ran into a lot of people whom I knew. Funny enough, almost every single one of them was in the real estate business. Must have something to do with our mutual interest in homes.

The next Urban Market will take place October 22-23. I have already marked my calendar and am looking forward to it. Maybe I will even see you there!