South End Open Market

We went today (Father’s Day) and were expecting a farmer’s market. However, there were absolutely no fruits and vegetables around. The only sign of plants were from two stands with some very specific plants, all on the more expensive side too. For what the pictures made it seem like, it was not crowded at all. Maybe everyone took the day off for Father’s Day.
The only things we saw there were people trying to sell handmade arts and crafts. While they were nice, they were not of interest to us and that was all that we saw.
There were maybe about ten food trucks (not sure how many there normally are). They had a good selection, but ended up trying Walloon’s Fried Chicken. It was maybe 1 o’clock and they were already out of the classic sandwich, but it was not really a problem since the other sandwiches we got were delicious. For drinks, I got an unsweetened iced green tea from Bön Me and he got a black tea with strawberry & mint from a stand ($ 5!!! yikes). It wasn’t too hard to find seats – you will have to share with other people.
TLDR; Good food; mainly handmade arts and crafts; NO farmer’s market there.

Looks like people are finding their new location at Ink Block. It is too bad that they were forced out of their space at SoWa, where there is now a competing market. I’ve been going to the South End Open Market for years, and it’s always been awesome. I love all the food trucks and local vendors. I was especially excited to see that Union Square Donuts has moved to the new location as well. They are my favorite!

This place makes me so happy. If you’re looking for a great place to spend your Sunday afternoon, this place has everything you could want. There’s a farmers market to purchase fresh produce or a bouquet of fresh cut flowers. You can grab a quick but wonderful bite at one of the many food trucks that they have on site. And if that’s not enough, there are also numerous galleries to stroll through and a huge vintage flea market to find some long lost treasures. Everything is reasonably priced, parking isn’t too difficult to find, and it’s just a few blocks away from the T station. If you’re visiting the Boston area or a long term resident, like me, definitely make your way over to SoWa. You won’t regret it!

Love this place in the summer time. I don’t find the market to be that great, Copley Farmers Market and the new Boston Public Market are much better, main reason to come here are the food trucks! Get there early, around 11 – 12 to avoid massive lines and no place to sit. They added a lot more tables this year which is great, but around 1230pm the lines are so long at most of the trucks you will spend your whole afternoon waiting for food.

Recently found this place and love it! Good amount of gems to choose from, with prices that are in the moderate range. This is definitely a nice selection to the Boston area!

I love it here. Great mix of everything — local artisan crafts, food trucks, and farmers market. I went once last year towards the end of the year, and once so far this year. Can’t wait to go back, and right now I’m thinking of going again this upcoming weekend. There are different vendors each weekend at the arts and crafts area, not sure, but most likely the same for farmers market and food trucks too.
I bought a peppermint loofah sponge and 2 grapefruit lip balms at the Dr. Dandelion tent. Just looked on their website right now and noticed the items I bought are all 50 cents less online. Hmm. Conveniently, she isn’t there every weekend but I’ll look for her next weekend to ask about the price descrepancy.
Next stop was Union Square Donuts. My mom and I got a maple bacon donut each. Personally, I don’t much care for these donuts. I like what they’re trying to do with them but I didn’t get the taste of maple on my donut, it just tasted really sugary. There was also a hair on the underside of my donut stuck to the glaze. I’ll have to share that with them on their Unilocal page. Also picked up a Spindrift sparkling raspberry drink which was good but the girl that gave them to us at union street donuts shook them before giving them to us resulting in a quarter of our drink being lost once we took the cap off…
The food trucks have extremely long lines but from what I experienced yesterday, they go pretty quickly! The food was delicious and fresh. Ate at Moyzilla with my mom and we had the $ 9 dumpling boxes. they ran out of garlic noodles, but that was ok, we got the rice instead, no complaints. I got pork dumplings and my mom got vegetable dumplings, both good but I really enjoyed the pork. I am not one for slaw, but this box came with a side of it, and I ate all of it because it was surprisingly so delicious. We also added a spring roll for $ 1.00, all in all it was the perfect first food truck to try out. We followed up with dessert at Frozen Hoagies and split chocolate covered strawberry ice cream sandwiched between 2 soft and chewy snickerdoodle cookies. So yummy that we probably could have had 1 each.

Enjoyed a Sunday stroll through the Sowa Open Market — various vendors with clothing, jewelry, pottery, art, soaps, lotions, flowers, and food trucks. We walked through the stands on the Greenway the day before, and recognized a lot of the same vendors, although they were located much closer together at Sowa. Enjoyed walking through a few art galleries along the way, too. Lines for the food truck were much too long, and not much shade, so opted for a café nearby.

This is by no means a real «farmers market» in comparison to the one at Haymarket. There is barely any produce here. It is mostly artisanal things and there are a bunch of booths from local businesses with lots of bakeries. You can find things such as cheeses, meats, and flowers. But it’s not a place to pick up your weekly supply of fruits and veggies. Very busy on Sunday’s. food truck lines are long. Parking is hard on the street, you can park in a lot for $ 10. More of an activity than a place to pick up food.

We’ve been coming to SOWA for years. Since they only had the cookie monstah ice cream truck and no other trucks. SOWA has absolutely exploded since the addition of the food truck only parking lot and it’s only for the best. Now you can grab a great meal with all of the cool local art. My one gripe is the lines get so insane you can’t really check out the menus for each truck, you need to have a plan and just hop in line. Could easily take 30 minutes to get food and you’d be lucky to find a seat on the curb to eat. My favorite art is in the buildings where you see a lot of resident artists display some awesome work. Make sure to check these out!
While it can get insanely crowded, I usually like checking out SOWA annually for the food and art.
Tip: Their website has lots of great info, as well as parking info.

I love SoWa! Best Sunday activity and best reward for staying in on a Saturday night. All the food trucks your mouth could desire, fun & crafty artisan booths selling everything from paintings to jewelry to kitchen accessories, a year-​round indoor vintage market and farm-​fresh goodies to boot. Can’t be beat! Perfect place to treat yo ‘self or shop for gifts (weddings, birthdays, housewarmings, you name it).
Highlights of my favorite SoWa purchases:
— Vintage New Yorker magazine covers
— Turkish towel for all your outdoor lounging needs
— Perfectly delicate silver necklace
Bring your reusable shopping bags, come hungry, leave satisfied with heavy shoulders.
Tip: bring water. Tough to come by on the artisan side and long lines on the food truck side.

What a wonderful way to spend the last Sunday of summer!
There’s a farmer market and a food truck pit stop. The selection at the farmer’s market was extensive– and the vendors were generous with the samples! I ended up getting quite tipsy from the cider samples from Downeast (Fine, I admit I’m sensitive to ETOH.) We brought back some purple string beans, purple heirloom tomatoes, and cider which complemented dinner that night nicely.
It wasn’t too crowded at the food trucks when we arrived at noon. The space was expansive, which was a nice difference from Smorgasburg. The selection was smaller, however, but there were still a couple of gems in there. We tried some Cong you bing sandwiches from Mei Mei’s kitchen and some pork belly buns next door (gah what was it called?). It was fun watching the girls at Mei Mei torch up corn with a gas torch. Outdoor seating was available– all 5 us were able to snag chairs and eat off a table.
Stop by before Fall comes!

Pretty cool I must say. A fun activity for family, date, or just casual hangout. Food trucks parked in an area, tons of selections ranging from grilled cheese to burgers to tacos. Not much seating, but that’s expected. On the other side were the farmers market shenanigans. Fresh fruits and vegetables, homemade brownies, coffee, you name it. And to the other side were handcrafted jewelry, malted coffee, t-​shirts, and etc. May be pricey but that’s also expected. In one building area was a vintage market. Antiques, albums, shoes, utensils, jewelry, maps, you name it. Pretty cool things if you definitely take the time to explore.
Fun activity for a Sunday, will be back to explore.

Cool little market that I only recently discovered.
The food trucks are a couple of blocks away from the the other crafts and produce markets. It was the food trucks that interested me most. They get very busy, but don’t do what I did and leave the best for last, as they run out of all the popular food items. Remember it is a food truck so when they run out of something they cannot make more for you.

This market it really fun and pretty large. The food trucks are awesome and the artisan market is pretty cool. I wish the farmers market was a bit bigger, but it’s cool too. It would be nice if the market was held on some grass or at a park, but for a city market, it’s pretty solid.
Bring water cause it can get really hot standing out on the asphalt parking lot!

I’ve lived in Boston my entire life, and I’m sad that I only recently visited SoWa! Spent about an hour checking out all the food trucks and having a nice lunch on a lovely Sunday afternoon. Then my friend and I discovered that there was more than just the food trucks. There’s also a farmer’s market and vintage market with local finds which is pretty neat. Great way to start off your Sunday.
Only thing is that parking can be tricky. I had to loop around the BMC area for about 15 minutes before I could find street parking.

On Sunday with not much to do? then heading here to hang out and grab a bite would be a nice idea.
There are local crafts, farmers market, food trucks and plenty of other vendors.
It’s worth checking out and makes a fun day out of it.

A very hipster vibe, but if you don’t know that going into a place like this you’ve been living in a hole.
Parking can be a bit of an issue, but we parked over by the cathedral with no issues.
There was a great range of food trucks and our only wish was that there was someone selling drinks alone. You pretty much had to weight in line whether or not you wanted food or drink.
I went to the Bacon Truck because bacon, and also because for some unexplained reason there was almost no line. Hangover sandwich (eggs, break, bacon potato hash patty, add srirachi.) I almost wish I’d actually had a hangover, because I’m positive this combination would have knocked it right out.
The shops were a lot of fun and we look forward to the farmers market growing as things come in to season. We will definitely be back.

#200! Yeah!
SoWa Market encompasses everything I love:
–Arts and crafts
–Homemade, local products
–Food trucks
My good friend Chris L. raved bout this place and informed me that we were actually going to the first one of the season! Needless to say, I was pumped. We arrived around 11am and it was packed already. The market is separated with the food on one side and the arts & crafts on the other. (Which is a good considering the crowds would be chaotic.)
We headed towards the vendors/​artisans first. As soon as I saw all those tents, my heart fluttered. They had typical items such as jewelry, handbags, printed shirts, household decorations and more. And to the more unique selections — saw a stuffed animal taxidermy, I.E. (
)
I was so amazed and impressed at the talent these people have and how they honed their skills into a pretty successful small business! It definitely inspired me. After some deliberation, I bought a small gold bar necklace. Trust me… I wanted to buy everything but the kitchen sink. But my bank acct. would certainly feel it. Side note! One of the really neat programs they use for purchases is the «square» app for credit cards. So no worries if you don’t have cash!
Now for the food. Deciding on one food truck alone was a feat in itself. There were about 15 to choose from and each had lines with about 30 people, so I had to think fast. I decided on «Bön Me», a Vietnamese food truck. Their BBQ Pork Banh Mi was absolutely delicious. The portion of pork was big, bold, flavorful and nestled nicely with the pickled carrots, cilantro, mayo in a crispy baguette. Banh Mi heaven. All in all, I probably waited about 15 mins for my sandwich. Given the crowds and high demand… those people worked fast! They certainly had a solid system going on.
What else is there to say? I loved SoWa Market. If I lived in Boston, I’d be here every weekend during the season. Food, shopping and the beautiful weather made this a perfect way to end my weekend. It’s a must see!

I try to pretend that I have a life on the weekends when I really don’t, so when I get excited for the weekend, it’s not because of the drinking in which I plan on indulging — it’s because of the SoWa Market.
On a beautiful Sunday, this is THE thing to do. Taking over three separate parking lots in the area, the SoWa Market is home to small business owners and vendors, a farmers market, and a slew of all of your favorite Boston food trucks. Not to mention there are dogs galore! Adorable puppies… everywhere!
I digress.
I’m a huge supporter of small businesses, and the shops represented at the market are owned by some really talented individuals. Admittedly, they do cater to the hipster in all of us, but there’s nothing wrong with getting in touch with your inner scene kid, right?!
The farmers market has some great finds. It’s not as cheap as the Haymarket, but they do have a much better variety than the aforementioned marketplace. I’m tempted to indulge in some breads and olive oils every time I go, but I refrain.
And then there are the food trucks. Oh my gosh, the food trucks. Most of your time will be spent deciding as to what kind of food you want and then waiting on the respective line for that truck. If you have the patience, though, you will be rewarded. You could have breakfast, lunch, dinner, and dessert here if you wanted to, and everything will be satisfying and well-​priced.
I mean, I think I said it all. Food, goodies, and puppies. What more could you want?!

If you thought vintage market was cute, wait till you see this one!
Lots of homemade/​custom made/​small business made items. My friend got an awesome custom fit belt with the a seascape on it. Everything seemed to be concentrated on making things the best way they can – organic, certified, recycled, etc. Spoon for a necklace? Nice wood bottle topper? Yes.
A bit on the pricey side, but that is what you get in the south end anyway…:)

Tous les dimanches. une combinaison de marché pour producteur bio, de produits artisanaux avec une douzaine de «food truck» avec des menus très originaux.
Je me suis laisser tenter par un taco végé accompagné de guacamole et pour dessert un sandwich à la crème glaçée au nutella.

Easiest way to try a bunch of Boston food trucks. What better way than to visit a parking lot filled with a dozen of them every Sunday in the summer? Don’t be intimated by long lines-​nothing takes too long.
I like how SoWa is organized with food trucks in one lot, food items (farmer’s market stands, Corn n Co, salsa, etc) in another lot, and vintage items in another lot. This is beneficial for crowd control, and makes navigating much easier if you’re looking for something in particular.
Very dog/​bike friendly, great for families, friends, foodies… basically everyone, except maybe the antisocial or crowd-​phobe.