One stall sells cheeses from around the world. Another stocks loaves of mass-produced white bread.
Such diversity of taste defines today's Cross Street Market. The 157-year-old city-owned institution straddles the line between what people think of as yuppie Federal Hill and the rest of traditionally blue-collar South Baltimore.
High-brow or not, the shoppers who jockey for space in its single corridor have one thing in common: They need a supermarket for the myriad items the nearly 30 stalls don't sell, and there isn't one nearby.
Now a local developer is hoping to add to the market's offerings. Patrick Turner wants to build a 30,000-square-foot grocery over the long and narrow one-story cinder block edifice. A skywalk would link it to the West Street parking garage.
Turner isn't talking about just any grocery. He says he has a letter of intent from D'Agostino Supermarkets, a gourmet market in New York that sells a dozen pear varieties and puts Rao's Di Pomodoro Pasta Sauce next to the Ragu.
Turner, who transformed the Southway Bowling Center into loft apartments and once planned a disaster-themed Crash Cafe, acknowledges that the deal is far from done.
"There are lot of pieces to make this puzzle look like a puzzle," he said.
The questions include: Where might the money come from? Will the quasi-public entity that runs the market sign on? Would a skywalk fit in the historic district? Most critical to city officials, could it be done without hurting merchants?
Mere talk of a supermarket, though, is stirring excitement around Federal Hill. The area boasts a new doggie bakery called Lucky Lucy's Canine Cafe but has gone without a grocery since Eddie's of Light Street closed in 2000.
"I swear, a day does not go by that someone doesn't come into my office to say we need a grocery store," said Bonnie Crockett, who runs the nonprofit Federal Hill Main Street Inc.
Convenience stores sell milk and other basics. But many residents drive to the Metro supermarket off Fort Avenue or loop around the harbor to Whole Foods or Safeway. Armed with survey results, Crockett has pursued grocery chains such as Trader Joe's, Safeway, Giant and Graul's, to no avail.
"They all had the exact same response," she said. "Not enough square footage, not enough parking, not enough customers."
The Eddie's site, now a dollar store, had 10,000 square feet. A vacant building that housed a Rite Aid is 6,000 square feet.
By Turner's estimate, D'Agostino could fit on a new second level with room to spare for a patio cafe. Nicholas D'Agostino III, a company executive, did not return calls.
"It's an interesting idea, and it's one we're pursuing," said Andrew B. Frank, executive vice president of Baltimore Development Corp., the city's economic development arm.
Frank said the idea needs support from the Baltimore Public Markets Corp., a quasi-public entity that runs Cross Street and four other city markets. Its chairman, bakery magnate John Paterakis, could not be reached for comment.
In addition, Frank said many issues need to be explored. Those include financing, the viability of building atop the structure, as well as the logistics of getting more deliveries to congested Cross Street. His top concern is the impact on the market, which was rebuilt after a fire half a century ago.
"It's an affordable alternative for many people who live on the South Baltimore peninsula," he said. "That affordability can't be lost in any kind of expansion or addition of a supermarket. At some point it doesn't become a public market."
Bill DeWall, president of the Cross Street Market Association, said many merchants question Turner's plan.
"Why would somebody want direct competition?" said DeWall, who runs the Flower Shop with his wife, Wanda. "We need a grocery store, not a high-end gourmet."
But Crockett and Turner say a gourmet market would increase foot traffic on Cross Street, benefiting existing tenants. Some seafood and produce vendors might face competition, Crockett said, but not those selling sandwiches and other prepared foods.
Customer Amy Stern said she usually sends her nanny down to the market but yesterday she swung by to pick up fruit and a baguette. A high-end grocery, she said, would be a big draw.
Tony Green, manager at Cross Street Cheese Co., darkly predicted that the wine and cheese stall likely would be forced to move as would many other businesses - probably before construction even ended. Only prepared foods would survive in his bleak scenario.
"It'll become a corned beef sandwich market," he said.
But Francis Youngbar, 81, doubts a gourmet market would catch on at all. "A fancy store?" he asked. "I don't think so."
Turner, a familiar presence in the market, has been doing development in Baltimore for 20 years. When he turned the Southway bowling alley into lofts, he called it "just part of the yuppification of South Baltimore." But many were saddened by the end of an era.
Turner had hoped to open Crash Cafe, complete with parts of a DC-3 plane, but he abandoned the idea after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
He said he sought out D'Agostino because of the company's familiarity with city operations. Two D'Agostino brothers set up shop on the Upper East Side in 1932. The chain now has 23 stores in New York City and suburban Westchester County.