Food Halls, a Hot Real-Estate Investment, Conquer the Suburbs

[eschaton]

As others have noted, food halls are basically just an upscale food court. Although with the online ordering post-pandemic and full table service, the logistics of ordering from multiple places is quite a good deal easier.

As a parent, I find they work pretty well when dealing with picky kids, as chances are fairly high they'll eat something across a collection of 4-8 restaurants, without compromising on what you'd like to eat.

[Steely Dan]

Originally Posted by Cirrus

Of course it works in the suburbs. There are tons of examples of basically the same thing. Every mall's had a food court for decades. Ever been in a Wegmans? How about a drive-thru court? The details of how it works in the suburbs will vary from the city, but food halls aren't really a new idea and have already been in the suburbs in various forms pretty much since suburbs were invented.

yeah, "food hall" was some pretty slick-ass rebranding.

And it worked, apparently.

[sopas ej]

I've been to a few food halls...

My issue with them, at least with the really popular/crowded ones, is that you aren't guaranteed a seat. They really are indeed glorified food courts. You line up at a place, get your food, and then you have to navigate finding an available seat/table, or are forced to sit near the restrooms or something, or there's nowhere to sit. And then there are the people or families that put their jackets on several chairs ("These seats are taken") or people just hanging out at tables not even eating.

It's not like the Spring Arcade in downtown Los Angeles, where it's actually a row of restaurants/eateries, each with their own seating and table service within the restaurant itself and/or in the hallway:

[homebucket]

Nothing wrong with food courts. They're booming right now in the Bay Area. Valley Fair in SJ is a mall but it's essentially rebranded itself into a giant food court with some high end shops. Same with Santana Row, Stanford Shopping Center, San Pedro Square in SJ. Even the malls in SF like Stonestown, Japantown, Hillsdale, Serramonte, etc are turning food court centric. San Francisco Centre, formerly known as the Westfield SF probably should do the same if it intends to survive. Although if you want to nitpick, I guess they're not totally food "courts" but more like a lot of restaurants in a mall setting. Most of the places there have their own designated seating rather than one large common area where you grab and go find a seat.