Mercado Municipal

Most major cities in Brazil have central markets, but none is so well housed as the Mercado Municipal (Av. Nova Cantareira 686, Parque Dom Pedro II, Centro, tel. 11/6203-8850, 6 a.m.–5 p.m. Mon.–Sat. and 7 a.m.–1 p.m. Sun.) in São Paulo. The building itself is a historical landmark, erected in the 1920s and 1930s in a mixture of neo-classic and gothic styles with some beautiful and well-preserved stained-glass windows in the front of the building. The windows depict scenes from the coffee trade and it’s worth getting up on the mezzanine to get a better view of them. The huge warehouse has more than 12,000 square meters of space, more than 250 different vendors, and 14,000 visitors every day, with as many as 40,000 on busy days.

 The Mercado is one of the central distribution points for fish, meats, cheeses, olives, oils, wines, and other food products in São Paulo. At night, restaurants come to make their wholesale purchases until the early-morning hours. During the day, the Mercado is open to the public and you can partake of some traditional lunch spots. The Bar do Mané (stand E14) is famous for its thick, deli-meat sandwiches (mortadella, a type of bologna, is their most famous, but they also have turkey and ham), which you can get hot or cold for around R$7. The Hocca Bar (G7) is famous for its pastel de bacalhau (fish pastry), as well as a variety of sandwiches, each for around R$6. The line gets long at lunchtime and on weekends, but it moves fast. While writing this book, the city was in the process of adding a mezzanine with several new restaurants and bakeries, which should be finished by the time you read this. To get there, take the metro to the Luz station and exit at Avenida Sen. Queirôz (up and to the right). Exit the station and turn right, then left down Avenida Sen. Queirôz until you see the Mercado towers on your right.