Small & eclectic – Wuppertal outdoor market / Germany

  • The market - view from the top
    The market - view from the top

Hipster next to Bratwurst, sophisticated spice stall next to filtered coffee, an award winning butcher – all this in a small place – leaves me surprised. A pleasant one, despite the rain.

The setting

The suspension railway, the zoo and internationally known, now closed, dance theatre Pina Bausch. Those are the highlights of the city of Wuppertal.

The market is framed by the old town hall and some other less interesting architecture. The market has maybe 20 stalls – count them on the picture in the gallery. The walking distance from the suspension railway is about 5 minutes.

When approaching the market it appears like a classic, standard one. Looking a bit closer there a few unusual stalls worth discovering.

The classic stuff

What do you want to buy? Fresh fruits & vegetables? Bread, Australian style banana bread (?!), cheese, fish, flowers? No problem!

Some street food? You like, Bratwurst, Currywurst, grilled chicken, Asian fast food, German style donuts, filtered coffee, fish rolls? You will not leave the place hungry!

So lets check the gems.

Gem I

The award winning butcher Sonnenschein (sunshine) seemed to be very popular as there were three sales ladies behind the counter. The Feinschmecker, a food & travel magazine considered him to be amongst the best ones in Germany. The fridge at home was full, I did not want to buy anything, but the sales ladies allowed me to take some pictures. The offering was not spectacular, so I expect that the basic product quality itself must be good. Next time a purchase is a must.

Gem II

The spice stall is owned by a Iranian who lives in the city for decades and runs the stall since 28 years! He gave me a brief tour of the history of Iranians in Germany during the time when the Shah was replaced by Khomeini. Politics plays an important role in his life. It was the first time at a market that I had such a political conversation.

The offering is quite sophisticated and huge. Good olive oil next to all kinds of spices, soap, rice, caviar – all very nicely displayed. Hard not to buy something. And so I did: a Wuppertal fruit bread with spelt based dough.

Gem III

A new kid on the block. Workeat – the name of the stall which adds to the market a hipster flair. Established since a few weeks by 4 sports guys who came up with the idea of creating some healthy food out of pure self interest: they always had hard times to find decent food after all their work-outs. So they decided to create something new and healthy with other sport guys in mind – always with a touch of protein on top. And what happened: the majority of the customers are women. Probably not a big surprise when the vegetarian or vegan items like currys, wraps, salads and chocolate bars are part of the offering. Still the curry is available with meat and the smoothies are protein rich as well.

I had the chance to eat a curry with mango and snow pea based on whole-grain rice. Helped me to get over the cold in style and joy. The unsweetened apple muffin was great, worth the money. The guys worked for very long on the recipe and now a friendly baker is preparing them.

Besides the food, the drinks had hipster quality as well, be it fruit juices or unsweetened ice tea (not common in Germany), etc. all with fancy labels.

I wish those guys good luck, as they take their experience on the market as a test field for a possible further expansion.

All in all: when you are in Wuppertal and have some spare time go for the market gems.

A little link list: