by Katlyn Smith, Daily Herald
Of all the well-established French markets in and around suburban downtowns, the one in Lisle is on the petite side.
The market has a pretty setting near PrairieWalk Pond, but the Garfield Avenue location can only support up to 20 vendors. By comparison, Wheaton’s French market has become a see-and-be-seen event, with bustling lines, especially outside the Hahn’s Bakery doughnut stall, on Saturday mornings.
“I know a lot of patrons are interested in a larger market,” Lisle Mayor Chris Pecak said. “I think the public is looking for farm fresh foods and being able to shop at a larger farmers market.”
Bensidoun USA, the operator responsible for a series of markets known for their colorful canopies, has proposed moving Lisle’s to a commuter parking lot along Burlington Avenue to accommodate a larger market for the 2026 season and beyond.
“That would be our 20th anniversary in Lisle, and we've had a great working relationship and really love the community,” Leslie Cahill, market manager, said at a committee of the whole meeting last week.
Bensidoun would continue operating the market at its current site on Garfield Avenue for the upcoming season. Before the market would make the move, the village is scheduled to resurface and re-stripe Commuter Lot B this summer as part of the annual street rehabilitation program. The lot could support a maximum of 36 to 40 vendors.
“Although we have a great variety and the people that come out to the market are lovely and really enjoy it, I think we can only do better in a bigger site,” Cahill said.
Trustee Thomas Duffy said he’s been to other markets “with a lot more energy, a lot more people there, better vendors.”
The village conducted a feedback survey of the 2023 market season that received a total of 261 responses. Nearly 50% of respondents attended the market one to two times, while 18% did not attend at all. According to the results, 50% of attendees indicated they don’t spend longer than 10 to 20 minutes at the market.
“We have more than 20,000 residents in Lisle. We had 261 respondents to this survey, 18% of them didn't even attend it. So it's not well connected through the community right now,” Duffy said.
Cahill told the village board there are not a lot of specialty farmers in the state.
“I am confident that you'll see the change in ‘26, and also, I believe that we have extremely good vendors at that market,” she said. “We need a great farmer there. That's been, that was the difficulty for me this year at the market, but we're working on that.”
In addition, village staffers and Bensidoun are proposing a new Lisle “Food Truck Market” on a weekday evening once a month during the summer in the commuter lot.
“I love the idea of having more events to bring people into downtown Lisle, give us more reasons to come downtown,” Trustee Meg Sima said.
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