While I'm a fierce advocate for the Morgantown Farmers Market, there's another market not too far away. My friend Kayla and I decided to check out Bridgeport's Farmers Market recently to see what vendors are there and what new goodies we could get our hands onto.

It was a super rainy day, and most of the vendors were hiding under their tents. One of the first tents we sought refuge from the rain was "My Little Cupcake." I hadn't heard of them previously, but they made an impression. The set-up is cute with a burlap runner and chalkboards noting the day's flavors. Chocolate covered strawberry, orange, almond ... mmm. They also had homemade ice cream for sale! I snagged an almond cupcake. I can say it's one of the best ever. Moist, sweet, nutty. Amazing. Absolutely amazing. Most cupcakes, they're good enough. They're fine. I mean a bad cupcake is still not that bad. This one? I would travel for this one.

One really nice thing about Bridgeport's market is they serve hot food! So you can come down, get your groceries for the week plus have lunch while you're doing it. They have Hash Browns & New Grounds on site, plus the Conference Center has a lunch menu available. There's a covered table for seating so you can be comfy while lunching (or breakfast-ing)!

Lots of veggies available, plus some sweet treats AND a hot meal while you're there? #winning, as the kids would say.

There's a new grocer and bubble tea shop on High Street: TK's Fruit, Produce and Bubble Tea. With the exception of the Mountain People's Co-Op (now on Pleasant Street) and Vonson, there aren't many options for fresh groceries downtown. Lots of restaurant options, yes, but for the folks who live downtown, this should be a welcome addition.





There's everything from bright, leafy greens and coconuts and ginger to watermelon, grapes and garlic. It's a small space, but they have a good variety of produce and organic options.





While I don't necessarily need to buy my groceries downtown (I'll stick to the farmers market + bougie Kroger for that), I'm always open to trying bubble tea!


In the back of the shop, there is a bubble tea section where you order your drinks. There are a few different options. First of all, you have to figure out if you want Milk Tea with Tapioca or Fruit Black/Green Tea with Tapioca. I ended up going the milk tea route and chose the caramel black tea with milk. 

The bubble tea is pretty good - I love the tapioca balls with the flavor of the caramel tea. It was pretty tasty. I think I'll try a fruit one next time, though. This place is a nice addition, but it's a tad rough around the edges at the moment. There were a lot of boxes and things that were a bit haphazard. Plus I think some finishings need to be in place just so it looks more put together. But that's OK, there's plenty of ambiance around town once you get your drink to walk around and see High Street. Some chairs outside would be lovely!

Grade: B

The Mountain People's Co-Op has moved into its bigger and better location on Pleasant Street. Just to recap, that means there's a pretty bangin' burrito shop, a kickass music venue, a healthy juice bar and now the coolest grocer all on one street. Don't worry, I won't blame you if you never leave that street again.

The co-op has an incredible selection of organic, fair-trade, vegan and all other sorts of alternative diet products available. Read about my first visit here. I swear I'm not quite as stupid as I was three years ago. But since my first visit, I've made many trips here. They carry products you can't find at the local grocery stores, and the container aisle has become my very favorite. I love getting granola and dried fruits here.

This new space seems to have even more area for them to display all sorts of delicious goodies. If you haven't gone, go. Everyone is super friendly, and you're pretty much guaranteed to find something new, different and maybe a new favorite.

The West Virginia Three Rivers Festival has lived in various forms since its inception - starting as a festival called Septemberfest and lasting just two days. It evolved to becoming a festival celebrating coal and then to river activities. Finally, it has settled upon The West Virginia Three Rivers Festival and has evolved to celebrate the pepperoni roll culture. Considering the pepperoni roll's birthplace is most often credited to Fairmont, it only makes sense to have a festival celebrate it. The WV Three Rivers Festival is as close as it gets. The Three Rivers Festival happened at the end of May, but I haven't had a chance to upload photos until recently.



There are two main pepperoni roll events: the amateur pepperoni roll bake-off and the pepperoni roll eating competition.

The bake-off had 10 entries from area businesses, and a panel of judges (yours truly included) received scorecards and scored each entry according to taste, appearance and texture. Taste counted for double points. The winner ended up being Firehouse Cafe by the judges, and the pageant queens chose Abruzzino's Bakery and Hank's Deli in a tie. Firehouse Cafe gets to hold the trophy until next year. I'm not totally sure which ones I liked and which ones I didn't because it was a blind taste-test, obviously. But I do remember one having a sweeter taste with ground pepperoni that was awesome.

The other major pepperoni roll event is the eating contest. When I was a reporter, I wrote about this event, but I hadn't attended. This isn't an amateur eating contest. No. This is with professional competitive eaters - the best in the world. You know Joey Chestnut? The guy who eats all of the hotdogs? This is the organization he's part of - Major League Eaters. And the guy who is quickly overcoming Chestnut for the #1 ranked eater in the world? That's Matt Stonie.

Stonie broke a world record at this festival by eating 34 Country Club pepperoni rolls in 10 minutes. That's him in the center. Miki Sudo, the #4 ranked eater in the world, to the left came in at 28.5 pepperoni rolls. And Adrian Morgan, to the right, ate 23.