The Founder of the New Amsterdam Market, Rob LaValva sat down to share his inspiration and experiences thus far in launching the market:
What inspired you to start the market?
I had been working as a planner for the city for a local time. I was interested in local food issues. I left my job with the city government and volunteered with Slow Food and that’s where I learned about what was going on in this food movement and met many key people such as Alice Waters who have been supportive of this project. I was looking for a way to bring together my various interests and at one point I thought I might want to have a shop, but realized it would be interesting to find a way to bring together all the shop owners in one place. I learned that New York City has such a deep tradition of markets. And this sight [South Street Seaport] was a succession of markets for four centuries. We lost that thread , almost, but we don’t have to lose that all together, we can bring that back together.
Why did you locate it at South Street Seaport?
South Street is a really interesting place in terms of the history of New York. It began with a ferry boat coming back and forth from Brooklyn to bringing farmers and farmed goods. And since that time, there has been a continual progression of markets. The last of which was the Fulton Fish Market which was here for almost 200 years and four years ago was moved to the Bronx and left behind this old market site. Our feeling is since this is such a rich place we shouldn’t lose that continuity, and we could this empty space to grow a new market – what better place to put one than in such a historic location in markets for the city.
How did the market get its start?
New Amsterdam market is looking at how can we tap into this need for other sources of local food, and how can we support local farmers and businesses who are selling food and for whom a market is a good way to start and incubate their business in an affordable space. And how to bring back a sense of food culture that was once very prevalent in this city where public markets were very much an institution and a part of daily life. As people have come to re-appreciate what food is, they appreciate all the different ways where you can experience different foods and public markets are one of those settings
What merchants are featured at the market?
One core group of vendors who are here from market to market are the purveyors the small mostly NYC businesses who are in the business of sourcing and selling local foods. They purchase what they sell from local farms and for us those are the vendors we want to cultivate because that ishow the markets used to be. The main criteria for them is in a region roughly 500 miles from New York because we are hoping to support a regional economy –this region produces a tremendous amount of food and it could have a home in a market this like. This could become a center for that understanding
What has been your proudest moment thus far?
It’s always a really wonderful moment when we’ve been here since 5 or 6 in the morning and then the vendors all arrive and you wonder if it’s all going to get done and then suddenly the people start coming in and it gets very crowded and you know it all worked out….and then you wait for a while before cleaning up.
