In the 1950s and 1960s, more than 500 vendors packed La Marqueta's stalls under the Park Avenue tracks. They sold everything from vegetables to traditional medicines, music and fresh fish, according to Uptown Grand Central. Today the market supports more than 20 small businesses and about 120 workers, according to NYCEDC. On the first three Saturdays of December, the Harlem Night Market brings the count back up. Last year about 50 uptown vendors filled the stalls, Patch reported.
This December carries more weight than past ones. In April, the city named La Marqueta as the first site for its public grocery stores. That plan would bring back the job the market was built for, selling everyday food at prices working families can afford, on a lot just up the avenue. The Night Market runs for three Saturdays. The grocery plan is meant to run every day.
What the market was built to do
La Marqueta began in 1936 as the Park Avenue Retail Market. Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia opened it to bring East Harlem's pushcart vendors, mostly Jewish and Italian, under one roof and to give working-class New Yorkers access to fresh food. From the 1930s to the 1950s, Puerto Rican, Dominican, Cuban and Mexican families made the neighborhood El Barrio, and the market's name changed with it.
Here is how its scale has changed:
| Moment | Measure | Source |
|---|---|---|
| 1950s–1960s | More than 500 vendors | Uptown Grand Central |
| At its peak | 25,000 customers a day | Mayor Mamdani, April 14, 2026 |
| 2026 | More than 20 small businesses, about 120 workers | NYCEDC |
| December 2025 Night Market | About 50 uptown vendors | Patch |
The 25,000 figure came from the mayor at the April press conference. 6sqft quoted him saying the city hopes "to make a similar impact in this very neighborhood, continuing LaGuardia's legacy." The Night Market gets closer to that old density than any other week of the year, and that is where December starts.
Three Saturdays under the trestle
The 2026 dates are Saturday, December 5; Saturday, December 12; and Saturday, December 19. Each night runs from 3 to 8 p.m. at La Marqueta, 116th Street and Park Avenue, per the Harlem Night Market's site and the East Harlem Community Alliance listing. Last year's market closed at 7 p.m., so this year's listing adds an hour of evening.
A few practical details from the organizers' FAQ:
- Cost: It's free and open to the public, with no RSVP needed.
- Setting: It's held in a large event space under the Park Avenue Metro-North trestle. The space is covered and walled in, but it gets as cold as it is outside, so dress for the weather.
- Pets: No pets are allowed.
- Address: La Marqueta's address is 1590 Park Avenue, and the market's regular entrance is at 115th Street and Park Avenue.
Uptown Grand Central held the first Harlem Night Market in December 2019. That first run was a three-weekend party with sweet and savory food, a makers' plaza, a beer garden, twinkly lights and DJs including TedSmooth, Stormin Norman, Agujita, Tony Touch and D-Nice. Since then it has grown along the viaduct. In 2025, Patch described the market spreading from the indoor hall at 115th Street to outdoor spaces on 112th and 111th Streets. It had colorful stalls in Lot 2, local makers at Urban Garden Center, live graffiti at 111th Street and sets by DJs Ted Smooth and Uptown Vinyl Supreme. Organizers said the vendors that year sold food, gifts, art and handmade goods from Harlem, El Barrio and the Bronx.
The organizers are now taking applications from local makers, artists and food vendors for the 2026 dates. The 2026 vendors will be from uptown again, but they won't be the same group as last year.
The stalls that stay open after December 19
The Night Market sits on top of a market that runs all year. La Marqueta's general hours are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Tuesday, 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday, and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Sunday. These businesses appear in the NYC Public Markets directory:
- Cocotazo serves traditional Puerto Rican food with a twist. It's open 1 to 9 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays, an hour past the Night Market's close.
- Black-Eyed Peas NYC cooks Southern vegan soul food with a Caribbean twist at Stalls 36 and 37. It's open noon to 7 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday.
- Mama T at Stall 38 calls itself an Amer-Asian café-teria experiment. It serves pastries and dishes based on family tradition.
- Maruka Café Galería at Stall 3 is the studio of artist Carmen Ayala, who shows work inspired by her Latina background and teaches art classes.
- Will Love Designs at Stall 32 is an art studio that makes souvenirs and personalized items.
- Urban Garden Center fills Lot 1 with a 20,000-square-foot outdoor garden center that sells locally grown and organic plants and garden supplies.
- Yesi's Bookstore & Gift Shop and X-Square African Caribbean Foods are also in the directory.
Some of La Marqueta's busiest space is behind closed doors. e.terra Kitchen runs a shared commercial production kitchen at 1580 Park Avenue for food and beverage startups, with 24/7 member access. Little Green Gourmets uses Kitchens 1 and 2 to make healthy lunches for schools. So La Marqueta already makes food on site. What it no longer does is sell groceries at scale the way it did in the 1950s and 1960s.
A grocery store a block or two up Park Avenue
The city plans to fill that gap. On April 14, 2026, Mayor Zohran Mamdani, Deputy Mayor Julie Su and NYCEDC named La Marqueta as the first site in the city's municipal grocery store program. According to NYCEDC's announcement, the store will be 9,000 square feet, built from the ground up and expected to open by 2029.
The store won't go inside the market hall. amNewYork reported that the mayor described a vacant city-owned lot one or two blocks away. 6sqft, citing The New York Times, reported that it will not displace any current vendors. NYCEDC's program page describes the store as using one of La Marqueta's many spaces.
Here is how the plan works, according to NYCEDC:
- The city owns the land and pays overhead such as rent and construction.
- A private operator, picked through a request for proposals, runs the store each day. Its contract requires it to pass savings on to shoppers for a core basket of everyday staples.
- Operator proposals were due October 16, 2026.
- The city has set aside $70 million in capital funds for five stores, one in each borough. 6sqft noted that the plan needs City Council approval.
La Marqueta was named first, but it won't open first. The first city-owned grocery is expected in late 2027 in a different borough. amNewYork reported the mayor's explanation that the East Harlem store has the longest timeline because it has to be designed and built from scratch and coordinated across several agencies. NYCEDC calls La Marqueta one of six public markets it operates. The others include Essex Market, Moore Street Market and Arthur Avenue Market.
Uptown Grand Central, the group that runs the Night Market, spoke at the April announcement too. According to amNewYork, director Carey King pointed to the closing of the old Pathmark on 125th Street. She said the neighborhood has relied for years on a farm stand model that federal cuts now threaten. So the group that fills La Marqueta's stalls each December is also among those asking for a store that would sell staples there every day of the year.
Through 2029, the Night Market remains La Marqueta's busiest stretch of the year. The first market night is Saturday, December 5, from 3 to 8 p.m. under the trestle at 116th and Park.
At Phyllis M Mehalakes, we follow places like La Marqueta because a public market changing over several years shapes the blocks around it. If you'd like to talk about how plans along the Park Avenue viaduct fit with your own time in Harlem, let's connect.
