The Dallas Farmers Market has been at 920 South Harwood Street since 1941, which makes it older than most of the buildings around it and considerably more interesting than any of them. It is two things at once — a 26,000-square-foot indoor food hall called The Market, open every day of the week, and an outdoor pavilion called The Shed where regional farmers, ranchers, and food artisans set up on Saturdays and Sundays. Most people know one or the other. The ones who know both tend to spend their Saturday mornings there like it is a standing appointment.
Start with what is happening inside The Market, because the permanent vendors here are worth a dedicated trip on their own.
Hurtado Barbecue is the anchor. Brandon and Hannah Hurtado started at pop-up events in 2018, graduated to a food truck in a Division Brewing parking lot in Arlington, and built one of the fastest-growing independent barbecue brands in Texas in about four years. The Dallas location at 900 South Harwood is their fourth. The barbecue is Central Texas-style with a Tex-Mex twist — the Texas Twinkie is the dish that people talk about most, a bacon-wrapped jalapeño stuffed with brisket, cream cheese, and house pimiento cheese. The brisket is properly smoked, the ribs hold up, and they also have a concession inside Globe Life Field at Arlington if you want to know how seriously the Rangers take their barbecue. Open daily 11 a.m. to 9 p.m., 10 a.m. on weekends.
Scardello at Suite 131 is the best cheese shop in downtown Dallas and not by a small margin. Owner Rich Rogers built Scardello into one of the most respected cheese operations in the city — cut-to-order, focused on Texas and domestic artisan producers, with accompaniments that make a cheese plate feel like a considered meal rather than an afterthought. The staff knows what they are talking about, the wine selection is curated to match the cheese, and a wedge of something well-chosen from this counter with a glass of wine on the patio overlooking the skyline is a very good afternoon. Open Monday through Friday 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., Saturday and Sunday 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. We did a look at Scarpello’s last week.
The bakery line you will see forming early on weekend mornings belongs to La 57, open Monday through Friday 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., which is exactly what is happening — people are waiting for the supreme croissants. Owner Macarena Gomez is 29 years old, grew up between Grand Prairie and Ennis, and named her bakery after the highway that connects the Texas towns she knows to the Mexican towns her family came from. She started making supremes — the croissant shaped like a circular slice, iced and topped with fruit or cookie garnish — and drew lines, influencer attention, and frenzied sellouts every weekend. The flavors rotate. Lemon, Strawberry Cheesecake, and Nutella have all appeared. Whatever is on top of the case when you arrive is the one to order. She also does ricotta and truffle honey Danish, cinnamon roll croissants, and caramel pecan cruffins that disappear at roughly the same speed.
BellaTrino’s Neapolitan Pizzeria brings a 5,000-pound wood-burning oven to a food hall setting, which is either ambitious or crazy depending on how seriously you take pizza. The result is a proper Neapolitan pie — blistered, chewy crust, simple ingredients — in a room surrounded by produce vendors and cheese shops, which is approximately the correct environment to eat pizza in. Happy hour runs Monday through Friday 3 to 6 p.m. with 10 percent off any 12-inch pizza, which at these prices is a good reason to time your visit accordingly.
El Mero Mero has been making tamales at the Farmers Market since 1984. That sentence does not need elaboration. Family-owned, sourcing ingredients from the market itself, turning out tamales with properly seasoned meat, beans, and cheese in a way that has kept people coming back for 40-plus years. Happy hour runs Monday through Friday 3 to 6 p.m. with a 16-ounce beer special.
Ka-Tip Thai Street Food is the wildcard that earns its place. Pad Thai Goong Sod — sweet, sour, and savory in the specific way that good pad thai manages all three at once — is the signature dish and the reason the line forms. Beyond the Butcher rounds out the anchor vendors with farm-and-ranch-to-table butchering, hand-cut steaks sold by weight, and a butcher counter that lets you pick your thickness. For dessert, Cone Creamery runs a tax-free happy hour Monday through Friday from 4 to 7 p.m., which is the kind of promotion that requires no further analysis.
A note on what is coming: Rex’s Seafood, a longtime Farmers Market fixture, is being replaced this summer by Dock Local, the coastal seafood concept from chef Brett Curtis. Maine lobster rolls, a Lobsta Grilled Cheese, and seafood tacos at 920 S. Harwood Suite 150, opening summer 2026. If you love Rex’s, go now. If you have been waiting for a lobster roll at the Farmers Market, it is coming.
The Shed is the other half of the operation and the part that most resembles what people picture when they think of a farmers market. Regional growers, ranchers with naturally raised meats and eggs, food artisans selling bread, honey, and preserves — the vendors change week to week depending on what is in season and who shows up. In May that means early summer produce, local honey, and whatever the Hill Country is sending north. Saturdays 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Sundays 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Get there before noon on a Saturday if you want the best selection before it sells out.
The Dallas Farmers Market is at 920 South Harwood Street in downtown Dallas. The Market Building is open daily 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Free parking for the first two hours in the garage at 1112 S. Harwood Street. More at dallasfarmersmarket.org.
