Grand Central Market keeps downtown Los Angeles hungry and busy

Grand Central Market is one of those downtown places where Los Angeles feels loud, close, old, new, and tasty all at once. It opened in October 1917, when downtown was the center of a fast-growing city.

At first, the market was billed as the “Wonder Market.” It filled the ground floor of the Homer Laughlin Building, a Beaux-Arts building that was an early steel-reinforced, fireproof structure for the region. The market has a nice old-Los-Angeles base before you even talk about food.

The market also tells a practical city story. Downtown workers, shoppers, visitors, and nearby residents have used it in different ways over time. Food stalls change. Tastes change. The city around it changes. The central idea remains: many small food businesses sharing one busy indoor market floor.

Today it has more than 40 vendors and sits near other downtown anchors such as Angels Flight, the Bradbury Building, Broadway theaters, and the historic core. That makes it a good stop when someone wants downtown Los Angeles to feel walkable for a while.

Go hungry, expect a crowd, and let the market do what it has done for generations: turn a city block into a meal.