To Market! To Market! To Market!

Experience Ohio’s 3Cs through the state’s agricultural bounty

Enjoying Ohio at its best can mean having hot times in the city. We recommend experiencing Ohio’s finest assets by visiting three renowned public markets in the state’s “3Cs,” Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati.

Make visiting these stellar markets the core of a weeklong adventure that leads you diagonally across the Buckeye State, from Lake Erie in the north to the Ohio River in the south.

Along the way, sample what makes each city tick – high culture and rock n’ roll in Cleveland, fashion and civic pride in Columbus, and history and riverboats in Cincinnati – while you take in the local bounty at the public markets.

Cleveland
West Side Market

Cleveland’s well-loved, historic market is a global potpourri of meats, cheeses and produce, with more than 100 vendors. An anchor of the Ohio City neighborhood, just west of downtown, West Side Market reflects the feel of Cleveland with its long list of ethnic foods, including pierogi, falafel, hummus, bratwurst, kuchen, Irish soda bread, Italian meats and Parisian-style crepes.

While in Cleveland:

Columbus
North Market

Established in 1876, Ohio’s North Market is a feast for the senses, featuring 30 independently-owned merchants selling a cornucopia of food and related items in a 44,000-square-foot space, located near the Greater Columbus Convention Center.

Watch for the downtown market to be transformed in the near future. The city is studying a proposal that would build a multiuse tower around the market, which would include residences, offices, a parking garage, a boutique hotel and new bars and restaurants. (Also visit a new, second North Market location at Dublin’s Bridge Park development.)

While in Columbus:

  • Discover stylish bars and art galleries along High Street in the Short North.
  • Shop Easton Town Center, an indoor-outdoor retail mecca with hundreds of high-end stores including Burberry, Coach and Tiffany & Co.
  • Visit the zoo that Jack Hanna built, the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium, home to more than 7,000 animals.
  • Stay at Le Meridien Columbus, the Joseph hotel in the Short North and admire its Italian marble floors and world-class art collection.
Cincinnati
Findlay Market

Findlay Market opened in 1855, which qualifies it as Ohio’s oldest municipal market house. It has a wrought iron frame, which was rare for the time, and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1972. Findlay Market is planted firmly in Cincinnati’s Over-The-Rhine neighborhood, with century-old buildings boasting dramatic Italianate architecture.

While in Cincinnati:

  • Take a sightseeing cruise along the Ohio River aboard the Belle of Cincinnati, a Victorian-era steamboat.
  • Ride a streetcar through Over-The-Rhine, one of the best preserved and biggest historic districts in the U.S.
  • Gaze at the 180-foot rotunda dome of the Cincinnati Museum Center at Union Terminal and peruse its three museums.
  • Stay at 21c Museum Hotel, contemporary art museum and boutique hotel that’s ranked among the best in the world by Condé Nast Traveler.

/by