[Artynonymous]

Originally Posted by thlf

I understand what you are saying about the farmers market experience, but I can tell you the same vendors serve the farmers market on rampart and vegas just down the road on Wednesday nights and the prices are not nearly as high.
I also purchase numerous items from the various farmers markets that are much cheaper than the grocery stores and usually much better. Face it corn on the cob is corn on the cob. There are no subsidies going on with the stores. I can buy it at the store for anywhere from .25 each to .69 each. At the farmers market it was 1.00 each. The stand was from California, I don't consider that to be local.
As far as the bread goes I didn't pay attention if they were specialty's or not. There were several varieties and they went from about 5 bucks a loaf to 9 bucks a loaf.
I wonder if Tivoli is charging them for the stands being there and if maybe that is higher than normal.

You're right, there's probably a surcharge for higher visibility/traffic markets like Tivoli and the stall rental prices may be higher as well. The place I left when I recently moved to Vegas hosted the largest farmer's-direct market in the country. The prices were a bit higher than at the other, smaller markets that happened on the weekdays, even though some of the farmers are the same. By what you're saying, sounds like a similar pricing tier.

Don't let a midwesterner hear you say that about corn! I had a sublime experience once eating a sweet corn varietal raw right off the stalk in the farmer's field. I've never had anything quite so delicious in corn form and certainly not from the grocery.

Besides, you usually get GMO-free and less-intensive pesticide management from small farms, which is something that is important to me personally. Also, given the non-optimal growing conditions/soil of the valley area, I usually consider most products with less than 100-150 food miles to be local (again, subjective distinction).

As far as farm subsidies go, check wikipedia entry for "agricultural subsidies." It provides a list by region and crop of what crops are subsidized by the US government (thus we pay lower prices at the grocery for them, though the subsidies come from our tax dollars). Though you'd have do some more googling to find why some farmers and farm-advocates consider these problematic. Most farmers at the small markets don't qualify for the subsidies because they don't produce enough quantity of the subsidized product.

Either way, I'm glad that there are more options for farmer's markets popping up all over Vegas. It means we have choices.

[radraja]

Tivoli has a great look to it, and a great dining selection so far (Brio is a popular local favorite).

However, I was a bit disappointed by how few shops there are at this point in time. Hopefully they'll get some more stores in there soon.

(That being said, in the mean time, I suppose one can always wander across the street to Boca Park for more shopping...)

[Prosze]

I like Tivoli. We go often but usually I just grab a coffee from Leone Café & then take my daughter to the play area. Sometimes they have jugglers, strolling musicians etc.. which is fun for the kids. On Friday/Saturday they may have a band playing outside. The only store I really like right now (Not too many options) is Charming Charlie's. Nice store with way too many reasonably priced accessories. Brio I've been too- I want to try Petra one of these days.

Tivoli has a list of activites on their site.

[jhiker1o]

Originally Posted by radraja

Tivoli has a great look to it, and a great dining selection so far (Brio is a popular local favorite).

However, I was a bit disappointed by how few shops there are at this point in time. Hopefully they'll get some more stores in there soon.

(That being said, in the mean time, I suppose one can always wander across the street to Boca Park for more shopping...)

I really don't care much for shopping but rather on the dining places. Brio, Leone and Petra seem to have their own clientele going back on a regular basis. I'm not sure how the pizza joint is doing considering its location but anyway things are going to get better once the other tenants open.