I heard about the Market Club from my neighbor in Land Park a year or so ago but never got around to going there until recently. The restaurant is within walking distance from my house, too. It's a little scary looking for some people's tastes -- nestled in the middle of the produce shipping yard between Broadway and McClatchy on Fifth Street. This is an area filled with industrial buildings and dusty parking lots. Not the sort of place the public typically wanders around.
However, if you go there at lunch, you'll find business guys in suits mixing with truck drivers, produce workers and people who look like they could be homeless. The Market Club also serves breakfast. Its lunch specials change from day to day, and whether you dine there for lunch or breakfast, your plate will be piled with food bigger than your head. To say the portions are generous is an understatement.
To get there, you'll head south from Broadway and make a right into the second gate for the produce yard. If you cross the railroad tracks, you went too far. Drive past the rows of produce trucks and modular buildings about halfway into the yard. Stop, look to your left, and you'll see it. The place features a shoehorn counter with bar stools and tables are over to the left. The restaurant is packed every day with customers, and looks like it hasn't changed one bit for the past 40 years. It's a blast from the past.
You can order hamburgers, cheeseburgers, broasted chicken, pork chops, short ribs or corned beef and cabbage for lunch, depending on the day. Breakfast is the usual greasy spoon affair -- omelets, eggs any way you like 'em, potatoes and toast, sides of bacon, ham or sausage or, on certain days, fried rice. If you're dying for Spam, that delicious canned creation (Yuck, I had to eat that stuff as a kid and ick) from Austin, Minnesota, you might want to order spam and eggs.
I ordered the four-egg cheese omelet with a side of bacon and my husband ordered corned beef hash. We arrived about 11 AM on Sunday and managed to squeeze into the counter crowd. By 11:45 AM, our food had not yet arrived. I waived at the waitress who brought me a plate piled high with bacon. Shortly before noon, my breakfast omelet was delivered. My husband's, however, was missing.
"Sorry, hon," the waitress said, "But we're out of corned beef hash."
My husband was livid that he had to sit there for an hour without being informed that his breakfast choice was unavailable.
"I can get you something else," the waitress offered. She did not offer an apology.
My husband replied that he'd just as soon sit there {and fume) while I ate my omelet. I don't blame him for being irritated, but I probably would have ordered something else than go without breakfast.
The omelet was great, buttery smooth and extremely cheesy, almost too much cheese. In fact, it was like eating a pound of cheese, but I happen to like cheese. I would go there for lunch, too, but I'll have to find somebody else to be my lunch date because my husband won't go back.
- The Market Club is located at 2630 Fifth Street.
- 916.498.9953
- Open 5:30 to 1:30 Monday through Friday
- Sunday: 6:30 to 11:30 AM
- No credit cards.
Photos: Elizabeth Weintraub
The Short Sale, by Elizabeth Weintraub, coming from Archer Ellison in January 2009.
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Certified HAFA Specialist
My Sacramento Real Estate Listings
Elizabeth Weintraub is an author, home buying columnist for The New York Times-owned About.com, a Land Park resident, and a Land Park real estate agent who specializes in older, classic homes in Land Park, Curtis Park, Midtown and East Sacramento. Weintraub is also a Sacramento Short Sale agent who lists and successfully sells short sales throughout the four-county Sacramento area. Call Elizabeth Weintraub at 916.233.6759. Put 35 years of real estate experience to work for you. Broker-Associate at Lyon Real Estate. DRE License # 00697006.
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Elizabeth - That's a funny story. I guess, if your husband had written this post, he'd tell us not to go there... By the way, I like lots of cheese, too - My kind of omelet! :)
Hi Debi: Yeah, he wasn't overly thrilled, to put it mildly. When he receives bad service, he can be very stubborn and won't give the place a second chance. I'd go back, though, so if you're ever in town, we know where to go for breakfast!!!
Elizabeth - That sounds good to me! Sacramento, here I come! :)
I will admit that this greasy spoon looks a little scary. But, the less than apologetic waitress is par for the course when you visit an eating establishment of this sort.
Elizabeth- I'm just not sure if this is an endorsement or NOT! LOL I'm more like your husband, I do usually go back... eventually, but it takes me a LONG time. My husband would have ordered something else. Wonder if the waitress would have apologized if she knew you'd be posting about this on your blog.
Elizabeth, we husbands can be very demanding at times, especially when we are trying to impress our wives with special meals out, like this one. :-D Sounds like good food, but service definitely could improve.
Oh, I dunno, Sabrina; I believe everybody deserves good customer service. We don't treat our $100,000 clients with any less respect than our million-dollar clients. I've been treated worse in four star restaurants. I imagine the waitress just had a bad day, and the place was swamped; perhaps she was overworked to the point of exhaustion, so her manners and service attitude flew out the window. Not that it's any excuse, but it's understandable.
Hi Tammy: It's possible that waitress has no idea what a blog is so it wouldn't have fazed her one way or the other.
Hi Fred: Hey, I had offered to pick up the tab, so my husband wasn't treating me. If he didn't want to eat, well, less money out of my pocket. :)
Elizabeth: It's great to find a good place for a quick bite to eat, though from the sounds of it, might be best to visit in the off hours.
Elizabeth - I love this piece featuring the menu of available dishes at this place. I am what my family and friends describe as a "serious cook." I worked with people from all over the world (Asian, Indian, Persian, Pakistani, Italian, Spanish, Mexican, Hungarian). When I rub elbows with these folks, I always want to know what they believe, and what they cook. I've been fortunate enough to learn how to cook many of the dishes popular in their homes. BUT, I must say, I have an affinity for Poor White Trash Cooking, that borders on the ludicrous. I'd be right at home in that place.
Elizabeth, this sounds like Siskel and Ebert. Thumbs up from Elizabeth, thumbs down from hubby.
Hi Gary: Well, I don't think Siskel is giving any thumbs up or down these days . . .
Hey Myrl: Wanna go there for lunch someday? Seriously? It would be fun! We'd probably have to go early to get a seat, though. Like maybe around 11:30, but I'd be up for it. We could meet at my house, and I'll drive us there because it's a little hard to find.
Elizabeth - I'd love to go to lunch with you. Do you suppose they would share their secret recipes?
LOL @ Myrl. Now wouldn't that be something. :-)
Elizabeth, I must say I will be curious to hear about how well they do lunch. I do so love foodie paradise spots (LOL).
I do love local places that don't have the chain restaurant menus. They are so much alike with different names for the offerings.
Elizabeth, I'd have been angry for having to wait the 45 minutes that it took you to get the omelet. I agree with Adam. I'd give that place up for life! In Arkansas you can tell where the good food, served rapidly, is found. The parking lot is filled with pickup trucks!
See, Barbara, you and my husband think alike. Which is why you and I are unlikely to have lunch at the Market Club . . . but guess what? Myrl and I will be there next Tuesday. :)
waiting can be fun with the right person.... and sometimes good things are worth the wait - but the part of your hubby not finding out about the lack of his food until yours arrived.... would he have had another hour long wait?