Art, food market, à la midtown

Like the first daffodils of spring, details are emerging about the new outdoor art and food market planned for Midtown Crossing.

The Outdoor Market at Midtown Crossing will be open 9 a.m. to noon on Saturdays from May 29 to Sept. 4. It’ll take place in the east half of the circle drive near 31st and Farnam Streets, overlooking the revitalized Turner Park.

Midtown Crossing marketing director Molly Skold described it as an “upscale” farmers market with live music and activities like cooking and gardening demonstrations and as many as 50 booths for vendors of art, jewelry, news, food, flowers and plants. The market also is reserving one of the booths for a different local non-profit group each week.

A third of the 24 booths secured so far for the inaugural Saturday have been booked by Midtown Crossing merchants whose storefronts haven’t yet opened.

Delice, set to open in the new development in mid-July, has reserved two booths for coffee and pastries. Wohlner’s, the local grocery store set to open in mid-August, has reserved six booths throughout the market for the season and will offer a primarily local mix of meat, fish, breads, cheeses, fruits, vegetables and pottery.

Other booths feature roasted soybeans from Lee Seed Co. of Inwood, Iowa; cut flowers from Guynan Family Farm of Schuyler, Neb.; produce and bedding plants from Wenninghoff’s of Omaha; cucumbers and tomatoes from Garden Fresh Vegetables of O’Neill, Neb.; grass-fed beef from L & L Jacobsen Farm of Marquette, Neb., and grass-fed lamb from Dakota Harvest Farm of Jefferson, S.D.

Skold said the market plans a mix of vendors and activities that will be more art-centered in the first five weeks, more food-centered the following five weeks and more wine-centered come August.

“The fact that we have so much space enables multiple things to be going on,” Skold said. “There will be music playing. People can come and look at some art and produce, but they can also enjoy the park.”

The development also has about 3,000 parking stalls nearby that are free to shoppers for the first three hours.

Vic Gutman, director of the city’s oldest and largest summer market, said he doesn’t think the new Midtown Crossing market will affect the Omaha Farmers Market, an Old Market tradition now entering its 17th year.

“We have so much to offer, 107 vendors this year,” he said. “I think we’ll still maintain our customer base. I’m sure they’ll get a good crowd as well. And I think that’s just great.”

Local event-planning company planitomaha inc. is managing the new market for Midtown Crossing. For information or to request a vendor application, contact event and vendor manager Katie Dischler at 333-3062 Ext. 208.

Contact the writer:

444-1069, nichole.aksamit@owh.com

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