Some things have changed, but there’s still muskrat at Lexington Market

Faidley’s Seafood has packed up and now occupies its showcase space in what old-fashioned Baltimoreans think of as the new Lexington Market. The tenants initially relocated in 2022.

The venerable seafood house, home of the jumbo lump crab cake (and a lot else), took a while to exit the neighboring 1950 market house and be outfitted about a half block south.

It joins dozens of other vendors.

The question has to be asked. Is the new market, now that it’s got all its working components, a worthy successor to the old?

My personal experience of the Lexington Market stretches back to the days of paper cups of buttermilk, all you can drink for a nickel. It was once this gustatory delight, where my family went for food exotica that never showed up at a neighborhood grocery store.

You went to Lexington Market for a beef tongue sandwich, easy on the mayonnaise.

We bought cow’s stomach lining, called tripe, or parts of a pig most people shunned. We also went to Lexington for the Berger’s cookies, but not the chocolate ones. There were once strawberry, vanilla and lemon iced Berger cookies.

And yes, there were condiments like yellow greenish chow-chow, and molasses taffy so powerful that you took one bite and went directly to a dental office.

There were loose Utz potato chips, which somehow tasted better than the prebagged and sealed variety.

The noisy and crazy Lexington Market was — and is — an exhilarating people place. It fit hand and glove into the once-bustling department store crossroads and five-and-dimes downtown. These stores are gone and the market has to make it on its own merits.

You went there before Orioles games and the circus for peanuts. You definitely dropped by in late November to be ushered into a holiday spirit.

You stood patiently in line at the Rheb’s candy counter for a hand-packed pound box that included raspberry jellies, almond paste and orange creams.

Just inside the Eutaw Street door, the old Konstant stand (there were definitely no seats at this real, unperfumed city  experience) offered hot dogs and perhaps the best cardboard cup of coffee that 50 cents could buy.

So, after the architects created a new market, designed with a nod toward the old market — the one destroyed by fire in 1949 — would it still be the hooting and hollering place Baltimoreans remember? Would the food be dumbed down? Would you need a bank loan for lunch?

The first question I asked the fishmonger at Faidley’s was, “Do you still sell muskrat?”

He replied, “How much do you want and we’ve got plenty of raccoon too.”

The oyster and crabcake eating tables made the move and you still stand at these raised platforms to enjoy the fruits of the Chesapeake Bay. I noticed throughout the market a small concession has been made and there are tables and chairs scattered around.

In the last 25 years, Asian food made a strong entry into the market with numerous stalls selling takeout meat and vegetable sauces over rice. The counter selling Asian food at the new market had the longest lunch line.

I liked the new market’s lunchtime hum and buzz. The surroundings have changed (it’s brighter than the old market hall) but the crowd was there, perhaps buying a slice of pie or a single piece of cake.

The economics are not all that changed. A grilled hot dog was $3.25. A slice of a Berger bakery cake was $3.50.

I missed the pyramids of oranges and apples. The fresh fruit now seems to go into smoothies. And customers equate the new market with a place to get chicken and waffles or a takeout bagged lunch of fried fish or empanadas.

But there’s still scrapple, ham hocks and pig tails at the butcher stall.

Some things never change. Want a pound of Maryland jumbo lump crabmeat? That will be $62.50.