- [Bob] Hey, we're going to the West Side Market.

(accordion music) - I enjoy the West Side Market because they have the best quality.

Number one, I save money.

- [Bob] We'll meet some wonderful people, taste some great food and some weird delicacies.

- A fantastic place.

The most fantastic place in the world.

- [Bob] We'll go behind the scenes to see food being prepared and discover secret places.

(speaking in foreign language) - [Bob] We'll find out how a market built in the early 1900s prospers in the 21st century.

- It's the best place town, believe when I tell you.

- [Bob] So grab a shopping bag.

- I come down with $20 and I leave with four bags of groceries.

- [Bob] And let's go exploring.

It's the West Side Market story.

- That's for you, enjoy.

- [Bob] "West Side Market Story" is made possible in part by Jack Kahl in loving memory of his mother, Margaret Kahl, who taught him his earliest business lessons at the West Side Market.

- I compare the timid shopper to my experience - [Man] You want coffee?

- I'm over here doing this thing here.

(laughing) - There are all sorts of wonderful characters at the West Side Market.

Besides great food the market is about people, customers and vendors like Rita.

- Isn't the market a beautiful place?

Good food.

I been here for a long time, over 40 years.

- [Interviewer] What is this here?

- [Rita] Good sauerkraut.

- [Interviewer] That is awesome, how much sauerkraut is there?

- 550 pounds.

- [Interviewer] That is a lot of sauerkraut.

- [Rita] Oh yeah, new year, we sold the four of them like that.

- [Interviewer] That's more than I could eat in one sitting, you know.

- [Rita] (laughing) Yeah.

I like it from the middle, it always tastes better.

The market's a beautiful place to do shopping.

Good food.

Meat, the bread, everything is good.

Beautiful people come into the market.

All of them make a special trip for the summer time.

And apricot lekvar, prune lekvar, make them cool off easy at the holidays.

- [Bob] I Guess 40 years is about all anyone can take at selling sauerkraut and lekvar full time.

- No, I'm retired.

My grandson, you see, I give it to my grandson and I'm just helping out.

- [Bob] One of the newer faces at the market is Judy Khoury.

Who's introduced middle Eastern delicacies into the mix.

- Well, actually I began coming to the West Side Market as a customer about 10 years ago when I moved to Cleveland and I always liked the activity down here, the diversity, I love the products.

I got to know many of the vendors and always shopped here once a week, at least once a week.

All you have to do is warm these up, spread your houmous, fill it with bread and it'll be a great sandwich.

- [Customer] Thank you.

- This is fatoosh.

This is a garden salad that's made in addition to the vegetable is the green peppers, the onions and the tomatoes.

There is a middle Eastern spice with a lemon and olive oil dressing.

We have some specialty items at Judy's Oasis.

One of which is the Baba ghanoush, which I think is the best Baba in Cleveland.

We also have a traditional houmous made with middle Eastern spices.

We have a tzatziki, and several middle Eastern pies, both meat and spinach.

- Well, I've got fatoosh and tabouleh, both of which I make it home, but I don't make nearly as well as Judy does.

- [Interviewer] Is there a secret ingredient?

- Sure there's a secret ingredient and that will remain a secret.

- [Vendor] Now you come back again.

- [Customer] Thank you.

- [Vendor] Goodbye.

- [Customer] Excuse me.

- [Vendor] Good morning.

No it's afternoon.

- Thank you, honey.

- [Bob] One ingredient that's no secret is that the West Side Market is a family place for both customers and vendors.

Joe DeCaro's mom and dad bought the stand you see him at now in 1934.

He's worked it faithfully for six decades and like other families here, the tradition continues.

- [Joe Voiceover] We've have a strong family tradition here at this particular stand.

We're four generations across the way.

There's a five generation go around the corner down the aisle there.

And you'll find Calabrese down there and they're five or six generations.

And it just goes on.

If you go into the meat market you'll see the same tradition being carried on by a number of the meat merchants in sight.

- [Bob] For most of the vendors at the market it's more than just a job.

They like the day-to-day contact with people and truly try to please their customers.

- [Vendor] I got this fresh this morning.

- We've had nine kids at one time or another.

They have all worked at the stand and I can't believe that they're not better for it.

- [Bob] And one of those kids is Melissa.

- I'm a third generation and my children work here which means they're fourth generation.

And my one son seems to really take to it.

But I don't know if he wants to take over the business.

I'll probably take over the business.

- [Joe] You want this one, or this one?

- [Customer] I think I'll have the one there.

- [Joe] Un memento.

(laughing) As far as my dad, as I said, he hauled produce when I was a kid and our family, my sisters and my brother.

We all worked here at the stand because at that time working from and through the depression in the World War Two, you got a job anywhere you could paying anything in order to survive.

As a matter of fact that one time that the city wanted us to move down a whole section.

And I told them, "no, my dad had this section to start with and we're going to keep it.

That's it."

Thank you.

You have a nice day now.

- It's nice.

It's a sense of pride.

Do you know, since my grandparents were here and my dad I still work with my dad and I couldn't be luckier.

I got a great family.

- [Joe] A family group will come combine, whether it's the mother and a bunch of young children, anywhere from say teenage years down to maids babes in arms.

And they'll combine, you can see, obviously it's a large family.

Well, we always managed to put a few extra items into a bag to kind of help them out a little bit.

Sometimes they see that or they come back and say, "Geez, I got some cabbage, but didn't pay for it."

"I said, well it must've been put in there by mistake or something.

But I tell them not to worry about it."

(group chattering) (speaking foreign language) - Thank you.

(speaking foreign language) Bye-bye.

- I want you to take good care of this so that when your friends come in from out of town, you can say here's a souvenir shopping bag from the West Side Market.

It's the oldest municipal market in the United States right now.

- [Bob] Before the West Side Market.

In fact, before the Civil War.

There were these little markets all over Cleveland.

- Initially the markets were sites near the center of population where farmers would come in with their wagons along the main roads from the outskirts.

Pearl road on the west side being one of them.

Lorraine a secondary roads.

That brought farm goods in toward the center of settlement in Ohio city and on the east side on mainly Kinsmen or Woodland avenues, we know that farmers brought their goods in, found an area to set up stalls, barter, bargain.

Eventually it became a traditional site on both sides.

And eventually the civic authorities said "Let's build a shelter or a market house."

And the market houses were built on both sides.

And as time went on, those market houses got more and more elaborate.

- [Bob] So there were two big markets.

The West Side Market, and on the east bank of the Cuyahoga river, the central market.

No more veggies in poultry there these days.

It's now a free agent market for millionaire athletes.

Dave here works West Side Market now, but used to own a stand at the Old Central Market.

- Well, they're similar in the fact that they're both old world way of shopping.

Both markets were both were incepted back in the early 1900s.

Whereas this stand, this market here, is city owned that was privately owned.

It was a shame that the new market lost that particular market, you know, to the new times.

We had a large constituency at that market, a large constituency of customers that shop there.

Second, third generation were shopping there.

And now some of those people are coming to this market.

- [Bob] Here's something kind of cool.

Parts of the Old Central Market remain at the site.

These benches.

- They were tearing up a piece of the culture of Cleveland.

And I thought that was a lovely way to kind of reinstate at least an acknowledgement of some of that history by incorporating it into these benches that have a use, you can actually sit on them.

- [Bob] Akron also saw farmers and street markets pop up during this period but never developed a large European style market as Cleveland did.

Historians tell us it was because of the large Appalachian population that came to Akron in the early 20th century.

These kinds of markets were part of their culture.

In Cleveland at the end of the 19th century, there was this old kerosine lighted, one story wooden market, across the street from where the West Side Market is now.

It was called the Pearl street market and it was falling apart.

The city wanted a safer, cleaner building.

They actually wanted to build a complex which included a 5,000 seat auditorium and a two-story building with public baths and a flower market.

Back in those days, cities felt the need to provide toilets to the public because not many people had indoor plumbing but the voters vetoed the auditorium and the public potties and only the market was built.

The city pick architects Charles Hubbell and Dominic Benes.

We had a pretty good track record designing the central Y and the illuminating company building on public square.

- [Joanne] It's interesting to know that they were also the architects who designed and built the Cleveland Museum of Art.

And so that might be something to think about in terms of comparing those two achievements in life.

The Cleveland Museum of Art, which is a repository of some of the great elements of our culture and the West Side Market, which is still a living repository for lots of important things in our cultures.

- Hubbell and Benes had a lot of experience with European architecture and they combined some of that.

The clock tower along with symbolic representation.

But in some ways represents, I guess, some of the great cathedrals of Europe have a symbolic representation of animals.

And so you see what the market does in the freezes along the outside.

And, and you get a sense of the European origins of great markets in the architecture that Hubbell and Benes issues.

They designed a spectacular building that only enhances the nature of what goes on inside of it.

- [Bob] The West Side Market went gangbusters in the early days.

But changes were coming.

- Refrigeration began to replace ice boxes.

The daily trips to the markets, which were in necessity for most people, were now replaced by more infrequent trips to the markets or trips to the newer chain stores that were being established.

Fisher Fruits, for instance.

- [Bob] On its 50th anniversary, in 1962 the West Side Market was an important part of many Clevelander's everyday lives.

And they celebrated with a big bash that included such dignitaries as Bill Gordon, Captain Penny, and Jungle Larry.

They were there to extol the virtues of fresh rapini and custom cuts of veal.

By the 1980s business at the market was fair.

A lot of people took the place for granted but traffic picked up after a book by Joanne M. Lewis made us realize that this was a special place.

- When I got involved in doing this project.

One of the things that attracted me was that I felt that it was the stage upon which all the kind of history and drama of the community was really played out.

Not only just the diverse ethnic mix, but the whole variety of people who were gourmet esoteric cooks coming here looking for rare ingredients or people who were trying to carry out the traditions of their culture for holidays and so forth.

- [Bob] Today's West Side Market, like our own community is becoming even more diverse.

- Yeah, I was born and raised in Kuwait.

- He came all the way from Bulgaria.

- Palestine.

- I was born in Argentina, Buenos Aires.

But I spent 37 years and a half here, and 37 and a half years in Buenos Aires.

Therefore, I have Gaucho and I have Gringo.

- So I'm supplying, you know, from Caribbean or from Thailand.

- I'll always have a great love and feeling for this market because I keep repeating it because of the people.

- [Bob] You would be hard pressed to find a person who loves this place more or has spent more time here than Nate and Selma.

Also known as Nate the knife.

- Perfectly ripe.

The reason why they're cheaper is because they're ripe.

And we can't hold for long, so we pass that on to you.

Nate got his nickname because he's always cutting up produce and handing out samples.

- I would cut a pineapple cut anything I want to brag about.

If you want to brag about something, you know, then that's the best way to do it.

I've been here all my life and my brothers and sisters and my mom and dad and grandmother before me.

- Nate's family story is just like many other Cleveland families who came here anywhere from Alabama to Slovenia, looking for a better life.

And some of those grandparents came to America in the late 19th century leaving Italy and Sicily for an opportunity in Cleveland.

- And Cleveland has always been our place.

And we placed our roots here at the West Side Market.

And it's been very beneficial to us.

There used to be stands alongside of the market on the outside, on the street, on Lorraine avenue.

And we were one of them.

And I remember coming to the market and sleeping underneath the stands.

I was only five, six years old.

How, because she couldn't, you know, rightfully leave me home all the time.

It was a hardship on the market because we weren't on the outside.

At that time, we had cook stalls.

And we would be open like on a Friday or Saturday, late in the evening.

And we would pack up our horses and stance a wooden horses and stands, pack them up onto the truck at night and go back home and get up three, four o'clock in the morning the next day.

- [Bob] As he grew into a young man, he left the market to get a job as a truck driver.

But the market and his dying mother brought him back.

- [Nate] Later when she was sick in bed and I was talking and she said, "You're gonna promise me you'll keep up to stand, right?"

She says, "You're not going to leave the market."

I says, "No, I won't leave the market."

We managed to move on, and prosper in a way that we supported one another and grew up into a wonderful family in Cleveland, Ohio.

I was looking at my wife when I wrote this.

- [Customer] Aw.

- This customer gets in that car and that morning, and he comes down and knows that she's not just buying a product but she's buying a warm relationship.

That's lasting.

And that's what makes the market, different people from different countries and nationalities could all be under one roof and get together.

And if we could only hold that theme in this country and learn that that's how we prospered.

I think we could go on and be another 200 years of respect for the rest of the world.

- What do you think of the market, Adam?

God, they love to eat their way through it.

- [Bob] One thing for sure, a trip to the West Side Market is a trip most kids won't forget.

(slow jazz music) - [Fishmonger] Here's the eyes right here.

- [Boy] You could eat one of the eyeballs.

- [Interviewer] You wanna get some of those lambs heads there?

- No.

- [Interviewer] Why not?

- Because they look gross.

- [Interviewer] Emily, what about you?

You want to go ahead eat those lambs heads?

No, why not?

- The eyeballs.

- [Interviewer] What is that?

A pig head.

- [Interviewer] Aren't you gonna have that?

- No.

- A home ec.

Class will come down here and we'll do a tour.

You know, maybe it's just a small class at 12, but, you know, you always got to take them by the goat's heads and the lamb heads or the pig heads or the full pig.

You got to do it.

It's just, you know, they might've only seen this thing cut up in the pork chops or city chicken or something like that, who knows it might turn some of them into vegetarians but it may just help some of them to be, you know, aware of what they do.

Where their food comes from.

[Man] What is this?

- [Woman] It's a tongue, it's a beef tongue.

- [Man] You guys want to get some tongue?

- They generally ask that the tripe or mountain oysters.

Usually though I don't get a lot of this stuff till the weekend so the beginning of the week is usually tripe, tongues, you know, maybe kidneys.

- [Bob] So just what is tripe?

Think stomach lining.

- [Vince] You want to see some?

- I wanna see that, that looks Pretty different.

- Actually that's in a lot of different things.

They use it in lunch meats.

Your Italians will take it and boil it slice it up and in with pasta, or spread a sauce over it.

Other people make tripe soup.

It's fairly good.

It is good.

Then these are the brains.

And how they prepare, they dice them up, after they wash them, they clean them real good.

They dice them up and they cook cooking with scrambled eggs.

- [Interviewer] You like that brains?

- No.

- [Interviewer] Why not?

- Looks ugly.

- [Interviewer] I'm with you.

- [Man] Here's looking at you, really.

- When they come in in the summertime, the fish market smells and they come in and they hold their little noses and that they can't take it.

- [Interviewer] What do you think?

- Bleurgh.

Doesn't look good.

- [Interviewer] Why not?

- Just doesn't, and it smells.

- It's alive.

- [Interviewer] Would he be a good pet?

- It's sleeping now.

Rub him on the back they fall asleep.

- It's a miracle shark.

We cut it in steaks.

It's a number one shark.

They go this way, when you go this way it's very smooth, when you go back it's like a sandpaper.

Here.

Go backwards now, go back.

It's rough, see.

(Brass band music) - [Bob] Ilia, is kinda like the Mr. Science of the market when it comes to fish.

- [Ilia] It's a flounder.

It doesn't have no eyes on this side.

It has both eyes on this side.

And it swims like this flat.

- [Interviewer] Really?

- [Ilia] Yeah.

This side lays on the bottom of the ocean and the eyes are looking up.

And he swims flat.

That's where filet of sole comes from.

This is a stingray Stingray is a very popular fish, here in the West Side Market.

You know, this is only the fins.

- [Interviewer] Did it come like this?

- Two left fins, you know.

They're just the fin of the stingray.

And we cleaned it for the customers.

I'm going to show the customers how to clean the stingray.

And this is it.

It's clean.

It's ready to cook.

You bread it, and you fry it.

It's got a very sweet taste.

One of a kind.

This is called cusk.

It's an ocean fish.

It comes from Atlantic ocean.

It just came from Boston.

It's really fresh.

- I like it because of the freshness.

Yeah, basically that I find good deals here also.

- What I like, they provide the meat.

So they got some good quality meats.

- [Woman] Freshness.

- Fresh.

- [Interviewer] What kind of fish did you buy today?

- Catfish.

- [Interviewer] Catfish?

- Yeah, I love it.

- I like the people here.

I like the people and atmosphere, you know.

And just that's what I like to do.

I like to serve the customers.

For the last 28 years that's what I'm doing.

- Ilia's is my favorite fish market.

Great personality and people here are like family.

- Bulgaria was a communist country in 68.

So I just wanted to leave.

I wanted to come to United States.

So I escaped from Bulgaria on the train from Istanbul to Paris we hid in the roof of the train.

And I went to Italy and I stayed there for about 14 months in the refugee camp.

And then I came to United States and to the fish market.

A lot of different nationality comes to the market, including me.

And I came here with nothing and now I am at the West Side Market.

And I can speak about six, seven languages.

I can serve the people.

And I like it, I have a lot of friends here.

- [Interviewer] Do you speak Spanish?

- A little bit, yeah.

- [Interviewer] A little bit.

- A little bit Italian, Russian, Croatian, Serbian, Macedonian.

- [Bob] It's not stretching a point to say that the market is a United Nations of food and people.

- Just the names over the counters of the vendors.

It's such an education of cultural education.

I always used to kid around and say, there are no vowels in the names at the West Side Market because so many of them have kept their original ethnic names that are almost unpronounceable but they're still proclaimed with pride because that's who they are.

And those are their names.

- There's a hundred stands in here.

And every stand is vital and every stand has something great to offer.

- Black diamond, Tillamook, English, farmhouse English, Double Glocester, Winchester, Cheshire.

We get a five county, one it's layers of five counties.

You can eat one layer or eat them together whatever way you like.

And that is a real good seller.

- We have some from Africa.

And I have some from India.

Oh, I sell it, everything.

I sell Asian spices that is included Indian, Japanese spices.

I have Thai.

A lot of Thai because I'm Cambodian live close to Thai, Indians.

And of course, I have a lot of European and an American spices, like Rosemary's, basil, basic everyday use.

So I have a lot over 200 different spices.

It is $2.25.

- [Customer] I'll pay $2.24.

No I'm just joking, I know I'm harassing you.

- [Narrin] It's all right.

Which flavor you like?

- [Customer] How about the garlic?

Definitely, I'm on West 25th we must have garlic.

- [Narrin] Garlic, yes.

Every each of every customer that I have is I deal with them one on one.

How to cook?

Where did the product came from?

What's in there?

You know, what they taste like?

Hot sauce right now are really, really popular.

I have like nuclear waste, and I have the bomb.

This is the hottest sauce than anybody here.

And they come in a medicine drop.

And like they come in the child proof cap and then in a medicine drop.

And at this one you cannot eat direct.

You cannot put it on your skin either.

What do you use is like when you make an wing sauce, barbecue sauce, spaghetti sauce, to make it hotter.

You just put one drop to two drops to make it hotter.

So it's go along way.

- [Interviewer] What happens if you put it on your skin?

- Well it just burn your skin because it's so hot it can irritate it.

So try not to get your skin or your eyes for sure, because they're going to burn.

Even me, I eat a lot of I mean really, really hot sauce but I do not eat this because it's too hot.

(accordion music) - [Bob] With so many different kinds of food and such a different atmosphere from what you'd find in the supermarket, the West Side Market can be a little intimidating to the first time visitor.

Never fear though.

We asked a few experienced shoppers and vendors to share their tips for the uninitiated.

First off.

How do you find out what's good and who do you go to?

- Rather than diving in at the first thing that appeals to your olfactory senses or your eyes.

Walk around, scout out the prices, see what people are offering.

And, and the usual, I would give this advice to anyone find out where a lot of people are lined up buying because they know what they're buying and check with them.

Ask around.

Don't be afraid to ask people where you can get the best German sausage or who has the best vegetables, sample some opinions.

That's what the market's all about.

It's getting to know who has the best stuff.

- Well I always tell people if it's their first time in here that they should take a walk around the market first before they buy anything.

Because I think first time shoppers always tend to overbuy.

And then of course, when they get home, you have got a stuff that you don't even know what you're doing with.

- [Bob] Okay, number one: walk around the market and scout it out.

Remember, don't just walk the main building.

If you do you'll miss all the produce in the outside arcade.

Next question.

Will the people at the stands actually help me out?

- Okay, I got a white and I got a yellow $4.95.

The most out of New York and the white sharper because the yellow has a carrot juice in it, it tastes a little sweeter.

- Can you put it on the counter the- - White.

Chunk?

- [Customer] Yeah please.

- You give people, you could see the shyness in them, you know.

And you try to introduce them and relax them to this new environment.

- Mozzarella cheese, then another roasted red pepper with the garlic over the top.

Basil, and he tops it with mozzarella.

Puts it in the oven for 20 minutes, brings it out and covers it with a marinara sauce.

It's outstanding.

- [Customer] Yeah but $60 is a lot to charge for a mushroom.

(laughing) - You can make that meal at home for about $4.

Trust me, that's a beautiful recipe.

- You want to ask a question as far as cooking and stuff like that.

We do it all the time and you don't have to hunt for somebody to answer a question for you.

- The fact of the matter is, you know the guy who's selling you a steak or a pork chop.

I mean, this is his business.

And that's what he does.

And just like myself.

I mean, this is what I do.

I make this pasta.

You're talking to the guy that made it.

You're talking to the guy that cut it.

- My suggestion to everybody is come down, take a good look at all the stands and all the products.

And if you find a stand or a product or an owner that you like, stick with them.

And the more the owner sees you, the better he's going to take care of you because he gets to know you personally.

And then you become a friend and he'll make sure you get the right stuff when you need it.

- Really wafer thing, that's the where gonna cut it.

- A lot of people generally learn by other friends.

You know, we have, we tell people to bring friends down and friends usually bring out their friends around and show them where their shop, where they shop and where they get good deals.

- [Customer] Who would I go to for Italian sausage?

- At the other side of this bakery (indistinct), there they make a lot of sausage.

- [Customer] Thanks.

- [Bob] Okay, number two.

If you've got a question talk to the vendors they're friendly and they want to help you out.

But what about prices?

I know you can't haggle at the grocery store but will they negotiate here?

- Sometimes people, particularly those that are have immigrated recently or not even recently from other areas still love to haggle and negotiate.

If there's room to negotiate, you do it.

If not, you just say, "Sorry.

Yeah, thanks for your offer.

But I can't reduce my price."

- [Customer] Fruits and vegetables I always buy here.

They're basically half price here compared to going to a supermarket.

- Saturday afternoon, late in the afternoon from four to six, the last two hours of business.

If you're a bargain hunter, that would be the best time to come in for bargains.

But then again, your selection is limited and it's primarily cash, but cheque and plastic is good.

- What's different than the chain stores is, and I do it, I'm not saying every vendor does it, if it comes to $10.7, I just say, give me $10.

- Well, okay.

Gimme, $5.

At the grocery store they don't do that, they charge you what's on the scale.

$5 I save you money.

- Okay, number three.

Yeah, with some vendors you can negotiate a little bit.

Next question.

I noticed there aren't any shopping carts around here.

So do I have to bring my own bags?

- Shopping bags are always provided to customers just to carry, but if you're going to buy a quantity it's always good to bring maybe a cooler in your car, especially in the warmer months.

- [Bob] Okay, shopping tip number four.

Bags are provided, but B.Y.O.B.

You can bring your own bags too.

(knife chopping) - [Bob] Now what about a little taste test?

- Oh, absolutely.

Absolutely.

Yeah, we give out samples.

If you want to taste something we'll be more than glad to let you taste.

- Which pickles pickles do you want?

- [Female Customer] What kind of pickles are those in the corner?

- These?

- No.

- [Male Customer] No, the ones in that.

- [Female Customer] Oh yeah.

- You Know we have a lot of people want to eat the noodle raw just to get a taste for it.

And by all means they can do that.

And anything that they want to check out they're more than welcome to it.

- Do you wanna taste this, here?

Taste it.

- [Interviewer] Can I taste it?

- [Rita] Yeah, go ahead.

- [Bob] And tip number five, just ask you can taste the stuff, it's easy and everyone is pretty friendly.

Oh, by the way, the West Side Market is open every Monday and Wednesday 7:00 AM to 4:00 PM and Friday and Saturday 7:00 AM to 6:00 PM.

- This place is a super special place.

- I feel that it's one of the few places left in our local society, and maybe even in our country, which is a traditional meeting place where people come and go, you don't have to have an appointment or a reason.

And I feel that one of the things that people miss in contemporary society is that easy place to come and go.

And that's what the West Side Market still is.

- What we have in this market.

You're not going to find any place else.

It's a great place.

I just love this place.

- I come to the West Side Market religiously because it's my favorite location on the entire planet.

- Thanks hun, I'll see ya, happy new year.

- I think that the people who work at the market and those who shop there frequently, and myself included, feel it's a special place because it is a reminder of what we used to be in terms of a small community where people came together at the market house to do something very common, very necessary, which is buy food.

It's a special place because it has the continuity of ownership.

It has deep roots within some families in our communities.

- Well, to me, from a vendor's standpoint this place seems a lot like a neighborhood.

And, you know, these aisles are like the streets and the stands are, is your house.

You know, and you wanna get along with your neighbors, you help your neighbors out.

- Well yeah, it is in the blood.

It's a lot of fun.

You work with the customer.

We're our own boss.

And it's a lot of headache at times and a lot of work and a lot of paperwork, but we have to answer to ourselves.

- [Customer] Thank you so much.

- [Vendor] Have a great week - They're very friendly.

Most of the stands even try to learn your name.

I've just found that it's a friendly place to be.

And I love to hear all the different accents, all the different languages spoken down here and see all the different foods that some I had never even heard of before.

- Great people watching, excellent food, really good value.

You can look at the food, you know what you're getting it's not wrapped in plastic.

- These are very fresh, I love it and it's clean.

Prices.

- You're going to find things that you just have to have something that you maybe haven't eaten since you were a child or something that someone told you about.

And as far as like cheeses, we have cheeses from all over the world.

You're gonna find fresh poultry, fish.

And like, we specialize in lamb.

People if they want to come down they want to make haggis.

We have everything for it.

- [Man] We have such a diverse culture.

The chaps here, they just like to cover everything.

We pretty much cover everything.

- The only thing you don't find a wide variety over here is cans.

Because we don't get anything.

- Say we're shopping at the West Side Market.

Say hi everyone.

We're shopping at the West Side Market (Meat Cutter Machine Whirring) - [Bob] At the West Side Market a lot of the way your meats are prepared is right out in the open.

If you want those pieces cut thin or extra thick, just tell the guy and he'll customize it.

(laughing) - [Bob] You can even see what some of the pieces parts look like before these masters of the hacksaw on the bandsaw gets started.

Steve Vasdekis spends the better part of his day cutting lamb.

- [Interviewer] Did you ever think of becoming a surgeon?

- Yeah, I wish so, So we can make some real money.

(machine whirring) - [Bob] Steve is Greek and lamb is big in his culture.

- Lamb is big everywhere except America.

I mean the people that come down here, I think I've seen every race.

Every culture come past my stand either to buy lamb or to buy goat.

It's just the Americans haven't really embraced lamb, but the rest of the world that's a staple.

Morning Russ'.

(speaking foreign language) It's my mother.

- [Bob] Yup, can't interrupt a call from mom.

It's time to move on.

Not all the meat is cut upstairs.

A lot of it is cut under the West Side Market.

Let's take a look.

Our guide is Diane Dever.

- This is where they cut all the meat, make the sausage.

This was like the big basement, the cooler space.

We'll see some guys cut some beef, pork, lamb, down there.

So that's what we're going to go down and look for.

- [Interviewer] Can the public go down there?

- No, no, they're not allowed to.

- [Interviewer] Every poultry and meat person's got a place down here, a cooler?

- Right, everybody has a cooler space.

And this is where all the work goes to be done.

- [Bob] The coolers are a constant 34 degrees.

Each vendor has their own space behind these wooden slats.

- Okay today we're going to go see Hans and he's gonna cut some bacon for us, hopefully.

Come on in, it's right here, Hans.

- Okay, are you ready?

- Yeah, we're ready.

- You're ready.

I'm ready.

Where does bacon actually come from one part of the pig?

The belly?

right here.

- [Bob] He slaps the pork out of this contraption and out come strips ready for the frying pan.

(machinery whirring) - [Hans] Okay, here's what you have.

What you call a little suckling pit.

Now, what I showed you a minute ago is this piece comes off at his back leg.

Of course, when it's a lot bigger, it comes right off of here.

This little piece here comes off of that front shoulder, right there.

Of course being a much bigger animal.

These, you can buy down here anywhere from probably 20 to however big you want them.

- [Bob] This kind of personalizes pork chops.

And there are plenty more where they came from after the chops, roasts and bacon are cut, it's time to make sausage.

- [Hans] And we're gonna put that in here.

And then we got to mix it up.

- [Interviewer] Is making sausage an art?

- [Hans] Well, yeah, otherwise everybody is doing it.

- [Bob] Hans is mixing and seasoning to make hot Italian sausage.

The secret is in those spices.

Hans takes the cleaned pig intestines, puts it on a sausage grinder and a way we go.

(laughing) (chattering) - We'll take it upstairs.

Just the way this is and then people can buy however much you want.

- [Bob] When people come to work at the West Side Market, they stay.

Steve Wartko cuts beef for Tayse Meats.

He's been doing it since the days of poodle skirts and Chuck Berry.

- I think I started up about 1956, - [Interviewer] Really?

- I was just a little kid, you know?

I was about that big.

- [Bob] Jack Sabolik is busy cutting these gigantic Brontosaurus type slabs.

When he gets done with these marbleized beauties he takes the excess to make hamburger.

(machine whirring) - [Jack] That's a quarter ponder.

- [Interviewer] How long have you been here?

- 26 years, four months and a day.

- [Interviewer] How much meat do you think cut up in that time?

- Farms of beef.

- [Bob] Speaking of farms of beef, they're here in the basement, whole cows ready to be carved up for the dinner table.

Bruce Tayse breaks them down.

- Your hacksaw.

(sawing) Just like the Flintstones.

- [Bob] What do you like about working here?

- A little bit of everything.

You work at your own pace.

You got no one breathing down your neck.

- [Bob] However, there are some occupational hazards like this bandsaw that's designed to cut meat and bone.

Bruce cut his thumb in half a few years ago, but it's healed.

And only one other thing irritates him now.

- Breeze from the blower hits you in the back of the neck, that's why I wear my collar up.

It's not just a fashion statement.

(piano music) - [Bob] From down below the market, let's head above the ceiling.

In the late 19th and early 20th century this type of ceiling at the West Side Market was a new innovation in construction.

Most new visitors to the West Side Market usually find themselves gawking at it because it's so different.

- What I find fascinating as they always look at the ceiling and tell us how beautiful it is.

And we've had people ask us on occasion was at a train station at one time, but it never was.

And it always will be the market.

- [Bob] The ceiling is a Mediterranean style of vaulting called Guastavino.

It's actually two roofs.

This vaulted tile inner roof in a pitch tile outer roof which serves as a protective and fireproof umbrella.

In between the roofs is a six foot high crawl space.

When you crawl up into the ceiling, you can look through the light fixtures to see the floor below.

What's amazing is this vaulted ceiling is so well-designed that there are virtually no supports.

It's the bricks and mortar that support themselves.

They tell us it stays rigid because it's curved in two directions like the surface of an egg, which makes sense, I guess, since this is a food market.

From the ceiling let's go right to the top of the thing that symbolizes the West Side Market.

The clock tower.

We're told you can get inside the clock and that the tower was designed for a couple of different uses.

Someone who knows about all that stuff is the market's Linda Essai.

- The clock tower was originally built as for show as a landmark for the West Side Market.

But it was also built as a reservoir to hold water, to flush out the market in case of fire.

That particular water reservoir was dismantled prior to the war and used as scrap metal.

We're all set, we have a radio.

- [Interviewer] Why do you need a radio?

- [Linda] Well with 180 steps they need to be able to find us in case we have a problem.

- [Bob] Even though Linda works for the market she's never taken a 150 foot trip to the top.

So I guess we're in this together.

- [Interviewer] We're ready.

- [Linda] Okay.

- [Bob] This is where the water reservoir used to be for putting out fires.

As far as we know, it never had to be used.

There was a person who knew these steps very well.

His name was Charlie Bessessi who walked up here every week for 36 years to wind the famous Seth Thomas clock.

One of those trips almost killed him.

- [Linda] You know, one of these broke?

- [Interviewer] Oh good.

- [Linda] Prior to the new staircase being built and luckily little Charlie fell inward instead of outward.

- [Bob] As we get near the top the steps become a little more challenging.

We've made it to the level right below the clock where there are actually a little balconies you can step out on.

On a clear day you can see downtown Cleveland.

Oh, I guess you can see that on a cloudy day too.

The final trip into the clock tower is up another ladder.

These clock faces have been telling time for Clevelander's since 1912.

If you use your imagination you can almost see Charlie Bessessi winding the old clocks.

(guitar music) - It's just the whole atmosphere.

It's like stepping back into pages of time.

- [Bob] In fact, when the West Side Market was built, William Howard Taft was president and words like bathroom were not used and words like bathroom were not used So how can a place, that still has the original comfort station sign, be successful in the 21st century?

- We're looking forward to the renovation where in climate weather such as this will no longer be a factor.

- Initially when the arcade was built it was not intended to be a year round facility.

The elements just makes it in some cases unbearable.

We feel that enclosing the arcade will bring the ability to take the elements out of people shopping at the facility.

- We're taking them the outside.

We're giving a partial enclosure so that in the winter it'll be more attractive to come here.

We'll never have a very down period.

- [Bob] Enclosing the outdoor stalls is just one part of the Millennium Project.

A $5 million market renovation plan championed by Cleveland mayor Mike White.

Other planned enhancements include improving the street scape around the market and along west 25th street, expanding nearby parking and updating the vendor's counters and stands.

So why is all this so important?

- The West Side Market is gonna be a tremendous catalyst for the neighborhood aspect of the market district, the market area and the west 25th street area.

It also helps some of the small commercial businesses to go up and down Wes 25th street as well.

The market, you know, we hope and plan that it will bring a lot of people to visit.

To visit the community, to visit neighborhood and what will happen, it will inspire a lot of people to see a lot of the development that either has gone on will be going on.

To see that, you know, this may be a nice neighborhood.

I'd like to live here.

- Everyone shops at the market.

And it just seems like there's people here that, you know, came back that used to shop here when they were younger.

There's the new suburbanite, the urbanite, you'll find all walks of life and find the restaurateur here who purchases from the vendors.

So it's all walks of life, all types of people, all type of nationalities.

- I like the quality.

I like the prices and I love the people.

- It's still the same as it looked 40 years ago and the stands are still the same, some of the people working behind the stands is still the same.

It's just a good time, it gives me a good feeling when I come here.

- [Bob] The West Side Market is a mix of new and old with both being part of the future of the market.

Nice people like Bud and Carol Leu have been selling wonderful meats here for decades.

Old fashioned service with an old fashioned cash register which they've had for 30 years.

- But it serves our purpose down here.

It's Y2K compatible.

- [Bob] Couldn't you use one of those new fangled electric ones?

- Eight, nine, 10, and 50, thanks.

Have a great day.

- [Customer] Thank you.

- You don't need the tape and there's only my husband and myself using it.

So it fits our convenience.

- [Bob] Then there are these new computerized machines they're used by some of the new breed of market entrepreneurs like Gary Thomas of Ohio City Pasta.

Gary, and his crew sell all this cool looking pasta with new flavors like squid ink, and wild porcini mushroom or gnocchi.

But they also sell the regular stuff.

- [Gary] I get a lot of the traditional Italian clientele.

So we cater to them with the basics.

We also get a lot of a gourmet type of customer that wants to try something different.

- [Bob] And like they told us earlier if you're coming to the market, learn the lay of the land.

The good place to do that is from the balcony.

You can get a bird's-eye view and map out your plan of action.

Find the food in the peaking of light and enjoy the whole West Side Market experience.

- You know, there's a lot more personal contact with all the vendors here.

A lot of them know you by name.

They'll say, here's a good deal.

Here's not a good deal.

Go here, go there.

- The interaction between the customers and myself.

I can't go without it.

It seems like.

- Oh, there's India, Kashmiri.

- [Interviewer] Where's Cleveland?

- [Woman] Well you'll have to look, it's back there somewhere.

- [Bob] There are over a hundred stands in the West Side Market.

And I wish I can tell you about all of them because there's so much good food and so many great people here, like Cameron's bakery which has this herb Parmesan bread that is to die for.

- They're walking up saying what are you putting in that bread?

You know, they're addicted to it.

I mean, that's pretty good.

- [Bob] The list goes on and on.

Great sausage from Euclid sausage.

Traditional Lithuanian and spicy Cajun.

Then there's these super broths from Frank's bratwurst.

They've got people lined up three and four deep on a good day.

- It's nice and brown and slowly done - [Bob] As are the dogs at Johnny hotdog.

Oldest hot dogs stand in Cleveland.

How have they been able to survive so long?

- The taste, the taste.

And with them being all beef and the spices.

- [Bob] Trust me.

Take it with the works mustard, onions, and chilli.

Check out some of the best gyro's in town at the gyro stand.

- Homemade sauce.

- [Interviewer] Yeah.

So what are the secret ingredients?

- Can't give that away.

- [Interviewer] Why not?

- Because then they won't be a secret.

- If you want to go veg, try Maha's falafel's.

- I'm making the falafel patties.

I deep fry them, I put them on a pita bread with lettuce, tomato, tahini, and hot sauce.

- [Bob] The patties are made from chickpeas.

They're good and good for you.

Great cheese and dairy products from: Wince, Meister, Fox, Endeavor.

All the great produce from: Chupa, De Carroll, Paradise, Calabrese, and more.

Other meats from Kaufmann, Ehrnfelt, Pinzone.

I can't name them all.

You're just going to have to come down here and see for yourself.

- It's so wonderful.

The bustle, the crowds and the produce is always fantastic.

- Oh, I love it.

I love the people.

I love the characters.

and I have all different kind of ethnics people shop here.

- It really is a compressed Cleveland so to speak.

- There was one woman I interviewed who was very old who is still at that point, every Saturday, took the bus or took three buses from where she lived to the West Side Market because she said, "I am expected there."

And just the whole notion that the butcher or the egg man would acknowledge her and would greet her.

And so that's part of, I think what we, when you asked about the shopping mall, that that is one of the main differences is being acknowledged.

Or be recognized or being expected.

That means a lot to people - At the market it's families, serving families and that's the whole bargain.

(jolly violin music) - West Side Market Story is made possible in part by Jack kale in loving memory of his mother, Margaret kale who taught him his earliest business lessons at the West Side Market.