Gone are the days of aimlessly wandering around the mall gazing at the complex's ensemble of food court options. Today, superior dining experiences seem to be everywhere you turn. But to have all of your culinary options available under one roof, you'd need to make your way to one of DFW's food halls. These European-style complexes crossed the pond and started popping up in metropolitan areas over the past ten years. Now, they have made their way to North Texas. And Southlake is in line to get its own in 2022 in the upcoming Carillon Parc. With all of the talk behind the trend, the boom of business and the sheer amount of locations coming to the Metroplex, we have to ask: What makes these developments special? And will their popularity last long enough to make these structures worth it? That we dive into as we learn more about the modern take on a classic tradition.
Channeling European Roots
Every development has its own definition of what a food hall is, but it basically boils down to an ensemble of chef-driven stalls each dishing out their own unique menus in one place. So guests can enjoy the offerings of a variety of locations while dining in a shared space. It also gives chefs a smaller space to try out new creations without the baggage that sometimes comes with restaurants.
While food halls are the new big thing to hit the U.S., these large projects have been all the rage in Europe for centuries. But it comes by a different name. High-end “food markets” are spread throughout the continent and are known for their range of artisan creations. But at the start of the millennium, more seemed to be introduced to different countries focusing on regional cuisine. Each had a specific sense of place highlighting the area's freshest ingredients and newest kitchen innovations.
According to the Cushman & Wakefield's Food Halls of Europe 2017/18 topical report, Europe has more than 100 food markets and currently double that number is currently in the pipeline. They credit younger generations of travelers as a key component in these complexes. These adventure-seeking consumers want to dine out while exploring an area, and these centers gave them one location where they can enjoy high-quality food and learn about the native culinary customs. That's exactly what American food halls want to provide on a local level.
“When you look across the globe, and when you are searching for inspiration, you go to those successful projects that have that look and feel that we want to accomplish,” former City of Southlake mayor and one of the current leaders for Carillon Parc John Terrell says. He was mayor when the development idea was originally brought to the city, and now he is using his business development experience to ensure it has a successful rollout.
American foodies started to see this trend trickling west earlier this decade, but now it seems like an avalanche of food halls have started taking over metropolitan areas. Big cities like New York City already have a few dozen food halls. And now, the Metroplex is inching closer to the double digits.
Expanding in DFW
One of the first came on the scene as an extension to The Dallas Farmers Market. The location's 26,000-square-foot food hall, The Market, opened up back in December 2015 with four anchor restaurants and an array of family-friendly food vendors offering everything from macaroons to domestic cheeses. They even have a few retail options like the Dallas-owned Bullzerk design and clothing stall sprinkled in – all of it reigning from the big D.
“People are attracted to food halls more now than ever because of the variety and convenience. It is nice to have various options all in one location,” says media contact for The Dallas Farmers Market, Ashley Tobar. “Most food halls, including The Market, give people the opportunity to support local and see what each local community has to offer.”
That can also mean the talent from the area, which is clear at Legacy Food Hall. The Plano complex opened its doors in December 2017 ready to be noticed. The 55,000-square-foot, three-story destination location was inspired by the Front Burner's, a Dallas-based restaurant management company, president's, Jack Gibbons, travels in Amsterdam. After seeing a “foodhallen,” he knew he wanted to bring that idea back to Texas. So he pitched the idea to the Legacy West development owner, and they never looked back.
They brought in an array of celebrity chefs and local restaurateurs to curate a diverse variety of food halls spread among the location's three floors. They learned from other successful locations to create a better overall environment for their customers.
“We drew inspiration from our visits to the best food halls around the world, as well as the top halls across North America,” Gibbons says. “The resulting environment is uniquely food-forward and energetic throughout the inside, with a distinct vibe on each of the three levels.”
The result is a spread of 22 food stalls serving up an array of cuisine – from barbecue to seafood and from German to Asian fusion. And their chefs include local celebrity restaurateurs chef John Tesar and chef Tiffany Derry.
While they used the success of the trend to build on the food hall movement, Gibbons is confident their food hall is here to stay.
“We don't believe that food halls are a fad,” Gibbons says. “They are the perfect adaptation to today's discriminating diners who are very much into discovering new things and enjoying shared experiences with their meals.”
But 2018 has been the biggest year yet for food halls in DFW. Stanley Rose opened Urban8 off Highway 121 in The Colony just last month. (Mind you it's less than five minutes away from Legacy Food Hall.) But he took a slightly different approach and based the stalls on the area's SEO traffic to gauge locals' interest.
He wanted to partner with nearby restaurants people had cravings for that also had great online reviews. This all translated into a formula to give diners what they wanted alongside entertainment opportunities like dueling piano nights and movie screenings. He plans to bring that same model to Allen, a project he has already broken ground on, and Fort Worth, which he hopes to move forward with sometime next year.
“We are building a bunch of them,” Rose says. “People should expect quality food, a smile on people's faces and a fun atmosphere when they come in.”
Fort Worth is getting its first food hall in West 7th next month, unrelated to Rose's location, with the opening of Crockett Row. Their 14 vendors will offer different categories of food along with a great deal of local art and music for their guests.
“We want people to know that while there will be a diverse assortment of great food. We also will be focusing on incorporating the local art and music communities in the food hall,” CEO of Hospitality Alliance, a development and management consultant on the project, Kevin Lillis says. “We will frequently rotate the art and music that are part of the programming so guests can always look forward to experiencing something new.”
Each one currently offers their niche, whether that is local finds, big culinary names or live entertainment, which makes every site unique in its offerings for their clientele.
Coming to Southlake
Southlake is known for bringing big national brands to the forefront for their citizens, but there's a hunger for more mom-and-pop options in town – especially when it comes to restaurants.
And that's why Carillon Parc will be an essential addition to the fabric of the local dining community. You may have heard about the 42-acre development off SH 114 when it was first approved by the city in 2008, but now its being fast-tracked to be a European mixed-use community that will offer cutting-edge amenities for locals.
“We believe Carillon Parc can be a true tourism destination for experience,” Terrell says. “The difference between our development versus many of the other complexes in the Metroplex is that we are focusing a lot on the culinary aspects.”
One of which will be a proposed 24,000-square-foot food hall projected to host 20-24 stalls. The original plan did not include this hip attraction – rather it had a four-story office building planned for the space. But current developer Hunter Chase Construction & Development knew they wanted to be apart of something trendsetting.
“We necessarily didn't need another office building in the middle of this space,” Senior Managing Director and co-founder of HCCP Laird Fairchild says. “We started to really recognize that we had the opportunity to create something a little bit more special here.”
And being locals themselves, they knew there was a need for a fresh update to the culinary scene.
“Being Southlake residents and talking with folks we saw that we were lacking in unique dining experiences,” Fairchild says. “We're local. We're not just interested in the bottom line, which is obviously very important, but we care about the long-term legacy and the community we are going to be serving.”
They toured local food halls, attended food hall conventions and conferences and met with culinary professionals to ensure they learned from these established projects. But they also saw potential ways to improve the experience. They are now theorizing opportunities to provide a fusion of sorts between food halls and sit-down service to provide a better customer experience.
“When you walk into a food hall, you want to see what each restaurant has so you go your different ways and you hope you can all congregate at the same time at a table that you hope is there,” Senior Managing Director and co-founder of HCCP Edward Chu laughs. “What we are looking at is saying that we understand the food hall concept and understand full [restaurant] service, so is there something of a hybrid that will give the customer a better experience.”
By offering innovative services like kiosks or tableside iPads to order from several food stalls in one transaction or reservation services that can save a table for a party looking through their options, they are building on the foundation of other food halls to refine the current ordeal behind visiting one of these developments.
By partnering with Las Vegas chef Brian Massie, they are curating a diverse set of vendors who will bring fresh bites to Southlake including cheese shops, butchers and much more. Carillon Parc will also be able to foster budding restaurant ventures by providing a variety of space options for their restaurant tenets. If a stall owner sees a great deal of success in the development and starts to build an immense following, they can move into one of the nearby incubator spaces to create a smooth restaurant transition.
“There are places in Carillon Parc that will be incubator spaces. We have some small restaurant spaces that will allow food halls to move into a bigger space as they become successful,” Terrell says.
The development is also talking about partnering with a culinary institute, both on the high school and college level, to inspire those interested in the industry to pursue their passion. Terrell even says there is a projected stall location where these students can learn how to work in the space and potentially open one of their own after they finish their studies.
“We want to grow them from training all the way to a restaurant,” Terrell says.
By its opening date, the location will add close to 100,000 square feet of restaurant space to the city says Fairchild. That's on top of all of the entertainment concepts they are currently considering to bring fresh experiences to town – everything from a dine-in movie theater to upscale ping-pong focused attractions are on the table.
They plan to break ground next year, so they are ways away from announcing their list of menus, but it's something we will all want to keep a close eye on. Not to mention the other food halls in town to see how their long-term success pans out. But one thing seems to be certain: Food halls aren't going anywhere anytime soon.