Last season, Kimberly Truong poured Vietnamese coffee under a tent she shared with other first-year businesses. She named her company Ba Café after her father; "Ba" is the Vietnamese word for dad. According to WFLX's September 2025 season preview, she had just finished the Mayor's Jumpstart Academy and joined the GreenMarket through its new shared-tent program for emerging businesses. This fall, the City of West Palm Beach lists Ba Café as one of the five new vendors in the market's 32nd season.
That change, from a shared tent to a vendor listed in its own right, explains how the waterfront fills up every Saturday from 8:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. The GreenMarket is set up as a ladder. Booths start in a shared tent, earn a place in the regular lineup, keep it long enough to earn a permanent one, and in several cases open a storefront a few blocks from the water. Each of the roughly 150 vendors at 100 N. Clematis St. this season sits on one of those rungs.
A Smaller Door Than Last Year
The size of this year's new class shows how narrow the entrance has become. In 2025, WFLX reported that the market grew to 150 vendors, the most in its history, with 45 newcomers. When the 2026–27 season opened on Oct. 3, WPBF reported about the same count, roughly 150 vendors from more than 20 countries. This time the City's season announcement named five new vendors.
A market about the size of last year's took in a ninth as many newcomers. Most of this season's waterfront is made up of businesses that came back, so a new name on the vendor list represents a spot someone else did not keep.
The same announcement shows how far the market has grown from where it started. Mayor Keith A. James put it this way:
"What started with just 13 vendors in a small parking lot has grown into a Saturday morning tradition for residents and visitors alike."
The City puts an average Saturday at 10,000 to 15,000 visitors. Earlier this year the market won back the No. 1 spot in the USA TODAY 10Best "Best Farmers Market" Readers' Choice poll, the same top ranking it held in 2021, 2022 and 2023. With that much traffic and that ranking, few vendors give up their spots, which is why the class of newcomers is small.
Who Came In This Season
The five new vendors fit the season theme, "The World, Right Here," in very different ways.
- Ba Café serves Vietnamese-style coffee. It moved up from the shared tent described above.
- Truffle Smiles sells artisan truffle products imported from Italy. Owner Robert Hurbanek told WPTV in an Oct. 10 profile that his booth carries oils, pasta, sauces and truffle chips. He recommends the truffle mayonnaise, and he said Parmesan Reggiano is the product customers come back for.
- Arya Tea Bar serves matcha and tea drinks, including fruit-forward blends, along with light bites. It already runs a shop at 508 Clematis St., a short walk up from the market.
- Macaroner makes French macarons, six of them vegan, and lists a pickup kitchen at 230 N. Congress Ave. in Lake Park.
- Sayblee Products is the one new vendor that doesn't sell food. It offers hair- and scalp-care products, from shampoos and conditioners to oils and styling products.
Hurbanek told WPTV, "I mostly sell at farmers markets," and said he likes hearing how people cook with what he sells. For a business like his, a spot at the top-ranked market in the country is the main storefront.
The Rung Where Competition Stops
At the top of the ladder are the Legacy Vendors, businesses that have been at the GreenMarket for 15 years or more. The City's release says that status means they "no longer need to compete for their spot." In other words, every booth below that rung competes for its place. In 2025, WFLX counted 14 vendors with more than 15 years at the market. This season, four more were named:
- Leila, the Middle Eastern restaurant at 120 S. Dixie Highway, whose menu runs from hummus, tabouleh and falafel to kibbeh, shawarma and baklava.
- Makeb's, a family-run bagel café that dates to 2003, serving fresh bagels, omelets, sandwiches, soups and coffee from 300 S. Dixie Highway.
- Mozzarita, a family-owned cheese maker founded by Vito Volpe, who learned the craft in Puglia. It makes fresh mozzarella, burrata, ricotta and scamorza at its Pompano Beach facility and also sells through retailers including Whole Foods.
- Macy's Smoked Fish Dip, now listed among the market's permanent fixtures.
Two of the four have restaurants on Dixie Highway, within a few blocks of the waterfront. The new Legacy class shows that a business can run a storefront downtown and keep a market booth on Saturday at the same time.
Where the Ladder Leads Off the Waterfront
Some businesses keep climbing after the market. The clearest example comes from the GreenMarket Master Chef Showcase, a separate ladder for cooks. Chef Rasheed won the West Palm Beach MasterChef competition in 2020. According to the City's Showcase page, the business he and his mother, Ersilia Moreno, founded in 2008, Olive Oil of the World, opened its first brick-and-mortar gourmet food store and gift shop in North Palm Beach in November 2024. The shop hosts cooking classes, tastings and chef demos.
The Showcase is a head-to-head competition in which Palm Beach County chefs cook for a panel of judges. Restaurants, caterers, food trucks and private chefs can all enter. Last season's field shows who signs up. Eirene Quinto cooks at the Four Seasons Resort Palm Beach. May Aungthet runs Ahmay's, a mobile kitchen serving Burmese food. Christine Munoz owns Let Her Cook Private Chef Services. Aaron George, founder of the caterer Plate Palm Beach, won the 2025–26 title in the waterfront final on May 9, 2026.
The City lists four Showcase Saturdays this season:
| Showcase date | Where it falls in the season |
|---|---|
| Saturday, Nov. 14 | Opening round |
| Saturday, Dec. 19 | The Saturday before the holiday week |
| Saturday, Jan. 30 | One week before the market's February closure |
| Saturday, April 10 | Spring round |
The City hasn't named this season's chefs yet. Its page still invites chefs to apply by emailing [email protected].
Planning Around the Saturdays That Change
With about 150 vendors and up to 15,000 visitors, the market shapes downtown every Saturday morning. The City's Oct. 7 Road and Dock report shows the standard closures:
- 5 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.: the 100 blocks of North and South Clematis Street, the 200 to 400 blocks of Clematis, and Lantana Avenue between Banyan Boulevard and North Clematis.
- 7:15 a.m. to 2:15 p.m.: Flagler Drive, South Dixie Highway and South Olive Avenue between Banyan Boulevard and Datura Street.
- Through Oct. 19: a single-lane closure on North Dixie Highway between Clematis and Datura while the Clematis loading zone is relocated.
The City Center, Clematis and Sapodilla garages are free during market hours. The Banyan and Evernia garages are closest to the market and charge the City's $5 all-day weekend flat rate.
The season runs through May 22, 2027, with two Saturdays off. There is no market on Feb. 6, the opening day of the Palm Tree Music Festival's Feb. 6–7 run in West Palm Beach, or on March 20, during the Palm Beach International Boat Show. If you head north by boat, note that the Currie Park ramps at 2400 N. Flagler Drive remain closed through spring 2027, along with the east sidewalk on North Flagler Drive in front of the park.
The first Master Chef Showcase is Saturday, Nov. 14, and it falls on a regular market morning on the waterfront at 100 N. Clematis St.
The Jennifer Kilpatrick Team follows West Palm Beach week by week, including the Saturday mornings on Clematis. If you own near the waterfront and want to know how your home compares in today's market, we would be glad to prepare a discreet, data-backed assessment. Request a Private Home Valuation.
