Photos by Ashley Richards

   People searching for bargains and eclectic collectibles can probably find them at the Westport Flea Market and Bar and Grill. With more than 30 booths to search, treasure hunters can find anything from cowboy boots to glassware. But the most talked-about find is also the easiest: The restaurant sits right in the center of the Westport, Mo., establishment.
“They have the best burgers,” John Shaughnessy declared from his perch at the bar.
And he should know – his relationship with the Westport Flea Market extends back 15 years.                     “There’s a lot of regular clients,” he remarked. “Not just regulars who hang out at the bar, but [regulars] who come here for lunches, [and] businesses come here, plus it’s a neighborhood bar.”
Shaughnessy reflected on why the Flea, as many call it, is so successful at creating return customers.
“It’s not pretentious like some of the other bars in Westport,” he said after a pause. “Look at the people. You’ve got a family there, and there old people, young people,” he noted, pointing around him at the nearly full restaurant.
Part of the Flea’s appeal is its refusal to be pigeonholed into attracting a certain clientele. It offers the traditional amenities of a bar – lotto game machines, electronic darts, grubby bathrooms and a vast array of neon beer signs – but also boasts 10 flat-screen televisions, arcade games, a shuffleboard table, Wednesday night trivia and live bands on Sunday nights. The result is a place where businesspeople in suits sit next to 20-somethings in cut-off jeans, while they each struggle to eat their burgers before the buns break down under the pressure of the juicy meat.
Even the restaurant’s setup strikes an individualistic tone. To order, patrons must go directly to the register and give their name along with their order. One customer, dressed as Elvis, gave his name as “The King.” After finding a table, customers are greeted by a waitress who takes their drink orders. When a customer’s name is called out over the loudspeaker, they go to pick up their food at the kitchen window and add desired toppings from the nearby condiment bar. The casual process befits an establishment that places second-hand goods and first-rate burgers within feet of each other.
Several of the flea market booths encircle the restaurant, providing customers with scenery that includes pouting mannequins and vividly colored furniture. The flea market is only open on weekends, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., offering everything from vintage clothing to paintings and antique spoons.
Rod Hartle – contractor by week, flea market vendor by weekend – opened his booth April 1, 1995, and sold Beanie Babies and baseball cards.
“My wife was a pack rat, and so we decided to open a small booth,” he explained. “Now I have the largest one.”
Hartle expanded his stock by buying out other dealers and acquiring their goods. He estimates that he now has about 16,000 pieces of jewelry and more than $70,000 in sports memorabilia. He increases his inventory by purchasing items at estate sales and auctions.
“I’ll tell you the truth about this flea market,” Hartle added with a conspiratorial air. “I sell a lot of stuff, but I have more friends that come in here. We visit for hours and hours and hours. It’s kind of a family deal. That little kid in there,” he pointed out a young boy, “He bought some cards, and I told him ‘That’s a fake quarter you’re giving me, [but] I’m going to have to give you the cards. So, you see, it’s more a hobby to me than anything else.”
Carl Jenkins is one of the friends Hartle sees every weekend at the Flea.
“Yeah, this is my favorite spot,” Jenkins admitted. “I don’t know what I’d do if I didn’t visit this place at least once a week.”
Jenkins has been a regular visitor to the Flea for two years.
“I like visiting flea markets, and someone told me there was one here, and I came out, and I’ve been coming here ever since,” he said. “ … [The Flea has] nice people, they treat you fair, and I’ve met a lot of friends here at the flea market. You don’t only get fleas – you get their friends, too,” he added with a grin.
Although Jenkins enjoys the camaraderie that the Flea offers, he doesn’t forget what brings him to flea markets in the first place.
“I like old coins, rare coins, baseball memorabilia, anything old,” he said. “There’s a lot of old ladies that come through, I like to try to do them a favor, do my Boy Scout deeds ... ” he joked.
A couple of booths down sits William Lane. This is the second time Lane has operated a booth in the Flea. He owned one for a couple of years and then left, returning February 2006.
“When you start something, it’s kind of hard to get out of it,” he explained.
When he first moved back into the Flea, Lane dealt primarily in LPs records – about 30,000 of them, in fact.
“I started with albums, and somebody approached me to buy books,” he said. “I ended up with about 10,000 books.”
Although records and books fill much of the booth, Lane’s background is actually in fine antiques. His love for what he calls “the finer things” is apparent in the $800 set of Shakespeare volumes locked in a glass case and the museum-quality paintings, worth $30,000, hidden in the back of one of his booths.
And even though Lane would rather be dealing solely in fine antiques, he says the vendors are at the flea market for the same reason visitors come to it: the unexpected nature of the business.
“Every day you come here you never know what’s going to happen, what’s gonna show up, what’s gonna sell, what’s gonna walk in the door, who you’re gonna meet, who you’re gonna run into.”