From punk rock to pickles, from blown glass to Bettie Page, downtown Lancaster offers not only fantastic shopping opportunities but an impressive and varied number of ways to blow an entire afternoon.

Any day trip to Lancaster city will involve Central Market in one way or another. The market itself, which offers produce, meats, pastries, coffee and other farmers’ market staples, is only open Tuesdays, Fridays and Saturdays; however, the 123-year old building that resides between King, Queen, Prince and Orange streets serves as the fulcrum for the variety of restaurants, galleries and shops that radiate from the brick center.

A lot of food is made in Lancaster County; as such, there is no lack of opportunities to eat downtown. Those fortunate enough to be at the market between 6:00 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. Tuesday and Friday or 6:00 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. Saturday can garner a satisfying and cheap lunch inside the market itself. Market fare is eclectic and authentic. The Amish and Mennonites spurn the use of alcohol, but apparently they make up for it with desserts; pastries are baked with sugar and rolled in sugar before being coated with sugary glaze.

Hot dog vendors dot every corner on the square and the dogs and sausages that pop from roaster to bun are cheap, juicy, fresh and totally delicious. The chatty vendors can probably tell more stories about the city than the Chamber of Commerce; everyone from stodgy suits to punks on skateboards line up for dogs and cans of Coke on sunny days. Benches and ledges abound in the square, providing a nice base for people-watching and pork-munching.

For a more traditional lunch, the Pressroom, across from the market at 26-28 West King St., offers sandwiches named after comic strips alongside fancy salads, quiches and pizza, and houses a well-stocked bar replete with microbrews. The pace of service at the Pressroom is somewhat, well, relaxed, but the food will make return visits inevitable.

Wish You Were Here, at 108 W. Orange St., is a secret breakfast and lunch spot that deserves to be exposed. The funky décor is reminiscent of summers at the shore, although the menu is more Cape May than Ocean City. Granola and bowls of oatmeal with raisins and bananas will please the crunchy crowd; the Swedes (Swedish oatmeal pancakes) will please everyone.

Galleries dot the square, and while many contain more traditional Lancaster County art, a few regularly house interesting contemporary work. The Central Market Art Gallery at 15 W. King St. currently features Rich Fenstermacher’s richly colored blown glass alongside Leonard Ragouzeos’ abstrach gouache and India ink paintings. Lancaster Galleries, at 34 N. Water St., will house the mechanical and somewhat surreal drawings of Bob Nelson alongside the illustrative paintings of Louise Schintz. The Lancaster Museum of Art at 135 N. Lime St. is always a good stop; its current exhibit, Assembling Memories, combines pastels by Paula Egolf, solar etchings by Conrad Nelson and fun found-object sculptures by Abe Geasland. Glass vessels and sculptures by Lancaster artist Ryan Blythe occupy the second floor. All of the aforementioned exhibits run through the end of March.

The Pennsylvania School of Art and Design, located at 204 N. Prince St., not only houses an interesting gallery, but is most likely responsible for fueling traffic to the more eclectic and unusual stores downtown. Angry, Young, & Poor, at 140 N. Prince St., has been doling out punk records, tee shirts, zines, Dr. Martens and bondage pants to students and assorted gutter punks since 1995. Stan’s Record Bar at 48 N. Prince St. is enjoying the resurgence of digital kids’ interest in vinyl. Crate upon crate of LPs and 45s line the store, which peddles used CDs and tapes as well.

Just down from Stan’s is another secret treasure, Here to Timbuktu. This spot has a fantastic collection of whimsical tin toys, cowgirl clocks, Andy Warhol wrapping paper and bottle-cap art, along with jewelry and clothing. For the vintage enthusiast, Pop Deluxe is close by. The small shop at 6 N. Prince St. offers clothing and kitsch from the 1920’s through the 1970’s; the tan, bare-chested velvet Elvis above the register makes the trip worthwhile.

Like other local downtown retail districts, most Lancaster shops keep daylight hours only; it’s hard to find a cup of coffee or an iron-on T-shirt after the sun goes down. Square One Coffee, at 145 N. Duke St., is the closest to a bona-fide coffee shop. Open until 11:00 p.m., the beatish java hut hangs new art monthly, has poetry readings and hosts an open mic night every Thursday. Square One is a good spot to kill time while waiting for Lancaster’s nightlife to warm up—jazz at Crazy Shirley’s, jam bands at the Historic Blue Star, punk and indie at the Chameleon. But that’s a story for another time.

Where to eat
• The Pressroom
26-28 West King St.
399-5400
pressroomrestaurant.com

• Lancaster Dispensing Company
33-35 N. Market St.
299-4602

Where to Stay
• The King’s Cottage
1049 East King Street, Lancaster, Pa.
800-747-8717
kingscottagebb.com

• Ramada Inn
151 N. Queen Street, Lancaster, Pa.
397- 4801
hotelbrunswick.com
Lancaster Pa 17603

Other Things to Do
• Mulberry Art Studios
21 N. Mulberry Street, Lancaster, Pa.
295-1949
mulberryartstudios.com

• Fulton Opera House
12 N. Prince Street, Lancaster, PA
397-7425
www.fultontheatre.org

©1990-2003 Copyright ScotGiambalvo.com. “MODE Weekly™”, and “MODEweekly.com™”  are trademarks of Scot Giambalvo.
All rights reserved. Copying content from this site without permission is illegal. Linking to this site as if it was your own is just plain rude.
Click here for usage/link permission.