Food halls have popped up across Central Florida as well as South Florida amid the spreading popularity of common dining rooms with multiple meal vendors.
Just north of downtown Fort Lauderdale, for example, Sistrunk Market and Brewery, a 40,000-square-foot development with a 12-stall food hall, is scheduled to open in November.
In Central Florida, a new hotel called Aventura is scheduled to open next month at the Universal Orlando Resort with a food hall instead of a signature restaurant. The hotel’s food hall, called Urban Pantry, will have vendors in stalls serving hamburgers, Asian dishes and pizza.
In downtown Orlando, Market on Magnolia has a three-stall location, and at least three more Orlando-area food halls are set to open in Lake Nona, Sanford and Winter Park within the next year.
In Tampa, a former cable-car repair building houses a food hall called Heights Public Market, featuring 13 vendors from local restaurants including the popular Ava pizzeria and Astro Ice Cream Co., which uses liquid nitrogen to make desserts.
The Heights Public Market in Tampa Heights is near another food hall called Hall on Franklin, where the seven vendors include a bakery, a coffee bar and a fish camp-style seafood outlet.
Across Tampa Bay in St. Petersburg, a 20,000-square-foot food hall called Locale Gourmet Market has vendors serving ice cream, baked goods, sushi and noodles and hamburgers.
In West Palm Beach, Grandview Public Market opened in April and houses stalls for such restaurants as Latin American fusion specialist Zipitos, Ramen Lab Eatery, Crema, a Thai-style rolled ice cream shop; and Corners, which serves Detroit-style pizza.
In Miami, food halls come in special flavors. At Brickell City Centre, for example, 40,000-square-foot La Centrale is an Italian-themed food hall. Vendors at another Miami food hall called 1-800 Lucky serve ramen, soup dumpling and other Asian-themed cuisine
A more classic Miami food hall called El Palacio de los Jugos has operated at a Calle Ocho location for more than 20 years, serving such Cuban dishes as ropa vieja, croquetas and empanadas.
Set to open later this year in Miami is a food hall called Time Out Market, which will have 17 food stalls and seating capacity for 440 guests. [Travel Weekly] – Mike Seemuth