A thousand stimuli charge your senses when you enter the González Market in Costa Mesa.
Dragon fruit, colored in lucid pinks and greens, stacked in a wooden container among dozens of other fruits and vegetables displayed with the discerning gaze of a gallerist. The smell of doughy sun, perhaps mixing with the penetrating aroma of carnitas slowly bubbling in lard. Voices that sound like applause across 70,000 square feet, or maybe they're actual applause for the mariachi trio playing on the food court stage. Your brain registers colorful signs for fresh waters, seafood, and chicharrones, but you start by reaching for a stack of packaged tortillas near the entrance. They are still warm.
Customers shop at Mercado González, which is both a supermarket and a food hall. A thousand stimuli charge the senses as soon as you enter, writes our critic.
(Bill Addison/Los Angeles Times)
Don Miguel and Doña Teresa González founded the Northgate Market chain in Anaheim in 1980; The company currently operates more than 40 locations throughout Southern California. The opening of Mercado González in November marks a new level of ambition for Northgate, now led by generations of family members: the enormous space seamlessly weaves a Mexican supermarket with a food hall anchored by more than a dozen stalls ( permanent stalls) and a finer shop. dining restaurant called Maizano.
Its scale at first overwhelms and delights, but the market has quickly settled into useful everyday life. Customers stroll leisurely at all hours, tossing (among a million or so options) bunches of cilantro, dried chiles, coffee creamer, and containers of pre-seasoned meat into their carts. Some loners wander around with tacos or cakes in their hands. Many more couples and families try to camp out at the tables in the muraled food court or on the adjacent shaded patio. Competition for seats gets fierce on weekends, when the place is packed and parking is a nightmare (valet starts to seem like a practical option after driving around for the fifth time), but the live music at The interior helps dissipate the initial discomfort.
Half a year later, the crowds show no signs of slowing down.
As I have returned again and again over the past few months, with my stomach trying to sift through the stalls' hundreds of culinary possibilities, I have been moved to witness the almost instantaneous civic acceptance throughout the market. The selection reflects decades of business savvy, to be sure, but no amount of marketing or messaging could inspire Saturday night's multigenerational scene, a parade of dancing souls, patrons downing a third shot of tequila or singling out the most immaculate lettuce. under a roof. The community, it seems, has quickly chosen this place, giving it life as a third living space.
Here are 10 favorite ways to get a taste of the market. It's just the beginning, and I didn't ignore the tamales, adobo chicken, and strawberry and cream popsicle. I took them home (or ate them in the car before they melted). Here I focus on the dishes I most enjoy eating within the ever-resonant walls of the market.
Shoppers walk in the crowded parking lot of Mercado González. The valet stand is starting to look like a practical option after going around for the fifth time
(Dania Maxwell / Los Angeles Times)
