Inside and Out: A Community Keeps Worcester Public Market Fresh
Photos by Michael Piazza
A cook from the funky Korean restaurant Ruby Doo’s has dropped a clear plastic bin of arugula, leaving a pile of greens in front of a busy entrance to the Worcester Public Market. The familiar rhythm of a midwinter lunch rush pauses at this vibrant marketplace near the infamous Kelley Square until Ruby Doo’s owner, Drew Day, an award-winning local chef, shuffles over to help with the cleanup.
“Well, there goes my salad,” jokes Tina Zlody, who watches the scene unfold from the foodie-haven Market Pantry, where she curates a vast collection of New England–made foods in a small, sun-dappled section of the market.
Light streaming in from wide windows facing Harding Street illuminates shelves stocked with coffees, syrups, hot sauces and wines, among a hodgepodge of other goods. Zlody spends her time tracking down locally made goodies to stock and tirelessly promoting her cadre of makers, who churn out everything from chocolates to cutting boards. A de facto market tour guide because of her chair near the entrance, Zlody often directs the daily flow of visitors to the market, who, on average, spend between two to three hours there each trip.
The Worcester Public Market turned six this winter. No longer the new spot in this bustling district—the fastest- growing in the city—the market nonetheless stays fresh as it continues to weave deeper into the fabric of the neighborhood, balancing its roles as a daytrip draw for out-of-towners catching a WooSox game and an essential stop in a local’s routine.
“We have a lot of people who come down who still never knew we were here, but then we have a lot of people from the neighborhood who I want to cater to,” Zlody says. “The market has its own hustle and flow.”
The developer, philanthropist and former newspaperman Allen Fletcher, took a $21-million risk in bringing the Worcester Public Market to his beloved Canal District, given the number of people who actually lived in and around the neighborhood in 2020 (that number has only grown with addition of about 1,300 to 1,400 new apartments in the area, including 48 above the market). His vision for a European-style food market did not foresee a global pandemic, and about five weeks in it would have to close for roughly four months. Still, that first month emboldened Fletcher, showing him that the market could succeed, as the crowds swelled and a constant buzz surrounded it right up to the point of the shutdown. When it reopened that summer, the market picked up exactly where it had left off, losing none of its steam.
That momentum has persisted. New restaurants, like the pop-up ramen spot Kuru Kuru Ramen and the tapas and wine bar TapaVino, arrived; empty stalls along the isles are never vacant long. And the market’s diversity remains the strongest asset: 30 vendors represent 14 different countries. And immigrants make up about 75% of the business owners.
“We set out to get people in here that had some diversity and didn’t overlap each other,” says Executive Director Domenic Mercurio, known outside the market as “The Wine Guy,” owing to his two-decades in wine importing. “They were interested in just doing one thing: bringing food from their country to this place.”
Most days, Mercurio strolls the market floor in his black Worcester Public Market baseball cap, a Mr. Fix-It for vendors, most of whom he knows intimately. He works with Fletcher to find interesting ways to enliven the market, including looking for new businesses to bring into the fold; this winter they have been searching for the best fit for the lone open vendor space. One weekday in January he had to tend to two snafus: the finicky heat in the Wachusett Brew Yard and an obstinate ticket machine at the gate to the parking lot.
“Every now and then we have a little mechanical glitch,” he says. “But most of the time I’m dealing with a lot of political stuff—that’s political with a small ‘p.’ In other words there’s a lot of diplomacy and taking care of people’s problems. We have 30 vendors here, and everybody has their own issues.”
Of the market’s diverse business owners and their food, Mercurio can talk endlessly: farm-fresh burgers at The Burger Bah; two-inch-thick cookies loaded with chocolate chips at the Jewel Cookie Factory; stracciatella gelato at Froze Zone; bright, succulent tuna slices and crisp veggies topping one of All In Poke’s bowls. They energize the market by always tweaking and adding to their menus.
They also grow. The market serves as an incubator, the perfect setting for businesses to experiment and ruminate on dreams of expansion. Pooja Vishal started her Indian restaurant Namaste Woo in 2021 in part by selling meal kits consisting of staples like chicken tikka from Zlody’s Market Pantry. She didn’t have a brickand- mortar, but she had her culture.
In 2022, Namaste took over a 96-square-foot booth, then outgrew it and set up in a 196-square-foot stall. Last year, Vishal moved into the largest space available, about 900 square feet, one that feels more like a restaurant. Her place at the market—and in the city—crystallized this past summer when Namaste’s version of a hot dog, prepared with a spiced chicken kebab, won Worcester’s version of the famous Hot Dog Safari.
“I have a platform where I can put myself and my culture out there,” Vishal says. “Food is one thing we can all bond over.”
Whether layering rice, pork, picked onions and plantains into one of his Cuban bowls at Little Havana or coming up with wine and tapas pairings at his 38-seat restaurant TapaVino, chef Kevin Comellas runs a minifood empire within in the market, where he has found chance after chance to stretch his culinary muscles.
Comellas joined the market in 2023 with Little Havana, bringing dishes from his Cuban heritage into a fast-casual format. Later he took on a management role with the Burger Bah, revamping its menu. When a wine shop closed in 2024, the opportunity arose for Comellas to build out a new, upscale restaurant, TapaVino. The menu—inspired by traditional Spanish tapas as well as Caribbean cuisine—includes a tapas-style pizza with grated Manchego, Marcona almond pesto and jamon serrano. Being in the market, Comellas says, presents its own benefits and challenges for an up-and-coming restaurant.
“We’re not a cutesy brick-and-mortar that people can seek out, but at the same time we have so much active foot traffic in the building it helps when you’re new,” he says.
Chefs like Comellas, coffee roasters, bakers, clothing designers, even a tattoo artist—the eclectic collection of people who keep the market humming form a community that has only tightened since 2020. No one does business on an island here. And many credit this collaborative environment for helping fuel the market’s continued growth and success.
Tony Tran counts his BubbleBee Cafe as one of the first businesses to set up shop in the market. He sells the popular Taiwanese drink bubble tea, along with waffles and ice cream. From the beginning, he said, the businesses in the market looked to work together, empowering one another through the coronavirus shutdown and vicissitudes of the economy.
“We’re all like a family here. We watch each other’s backs,” Tran says.
In March 2025, Steve Garcia brought his vegan coffee shop Spilled Milk Gang from Houston to team with Springfield coffee roaster Monsoon Roastery on a collaborative booth. Garcia’s coffee bar combines freshly made drinks with bottled coffees and teas, such as a dark chocolate spiced mocha cold brew coffee infused with cinnamon, nutmeg and a dash of cayenne. His partnership with Monsoon involves shared expenses like labor costs. After a year of collaborating, he says, it has become tricky to decipher where Monsoon ends and Spilled Milk Gang begins. And he has relied on those around him more than he anticipated, as one of the newest vendors in the market.
“All of these vendors, they’re my coworkers,” Garcia says. “We spend so much time not just talking about business, but also our lives. We support each other. I have this kind of business family to lean on and bounce ideas off of and share supplies. Sharing this space builds a community, not just for the customers but for the business owners.”
This story appeared in the Spring 2026 issue.
160 Green St., Worcester
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