Editor's note: This story was updated on Aug. 21, 2018, with news that Urban8 in The Colony has opened.
Let's call 2018 The Year We Decide If We Still Like Food Halls.
Whereas diners across the globe have been enjoying food halls in cities like Amsterdam and San Francisco for years, Dallas and its the surrounding boroughs got hip in 2017. Last year, what we called a "dining and drinking playground" in Legacy Hall opened in Plano; Uptown Urban Market (now called Cedar Springs Commons) sprang up in Dallas; Americado launched in Fort Worth; and Mitsuwa Marketplace made it to Plano.
Dallas' first food hall, The Market at the Dallas Farmers Market, opened in late 2015, we should note.
Do we need more food halls? Don't answer that, because they're coming.
The Colony's "free-standing food court" called Urban8 opened in August 2018, and Fort Worth is slated to open FOODHALL at Crockett Row at West 7th in fall 2018. And surely there will be more.
We'll report on each business as it opens. Today, let's talk about FOODHALL. And sorry for shouting.
The 16,000-square-foot building will house more than a dozen eateries. The hall announced a few months back that Dallas chef John Tesar will open a Knife Burger (which will also expand to Plano and Flower Mound this year, he tells me).
Some of the other tenants expected to open inside FOODHALL include Graze, a sweet and savory chicken and biscuits shop from Fort Worth chef Grady Spears; Tokyo Cafe, which will serve sushi; Not Just Q, a barbecue joint that (as the name suggests) serves other food, too; Press Waffle Co., a Belgian waffle shop that also serves at Plano's Legacy Hall; and The Dapper Doughnut, a mini doughnut shop.
FOODHALL will be open for breakfast, lunch and dinner. More to come.
