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While McDonald’s and KFC will always be busy, the recent food hallÌýboom is an indicator of how developers are responding to changing consumer tastes, and pushing to attract shoppers. For diners, food halls offer the chance to try the city’s greatest culinary hits under one roof. For retailers, they can serve as a way to attract foot traffic, and for restaurateurs, they provide an opportunity to establish a presence in a bustling location at a lower cost.

A hub for Toronto’s independent restaurants

At Waterworks about 20 vendors occupy the 55,000-square-foot space. Most of the stalls are offshoots of existing independent restaurants in the city, such as Roncesvalles’s Musoshin Ramen, Bloordale’s Island Oysters and Dave’s Genuine Deli in Bedford Park.Ìý

“We’re not looking for the big franchise chains. We went to the operators who are the best in their class,” said commercial real estate broker Avi Behar of The Behar Group, who approached vendors like Musoshin Ramen to open at Waterworks. He also rallied vendors for another food hall, Table Fare and Social at CIBC Square by Union Station,Ìýthat opened last fall. There’s a Thai street food concept from the owners of Pai and Sukothai, alongside a cocktail bar by the former owner of the now-closed º£½ÇÉçÇø¹ÙÍøTemperance Society in Little Italy.

“The food court experience, you can get anywhere, (but as for food halls) that’s where the curation comes in,” he said, giving the example of Time Out Market in Lisbon, a food hall that opened in 2014 in a historic building in the Portuguese capital and features two dozen restaurants and bars curated by the travel magazine after which the market is named.

Behar adds that it’s common for a food hall to have a liquor licence,Ìýas well as different seating options like booths and barstools to get more people to stay longer than a traditional food court, which hopefully drives traffic to surrounding businesses and creates a vibrant atmosphere beyond the lunch rush.Ìý

Diners can sample different º£½ÇÉçÇø¹ÙÍørestaurants in one place

For diners who can’t agree on one cuisine, food halls offer the opportunity to sample a variety of local restaurants all in one place. For vendors, signing up to operate within a food hall provides a way to open a restaurant without taking on the venture solo.

Dave Isen opened a second location of his Jewish-style deli, Dave’s Genuine Deli at the Waterworks, and said having property managers relieves him of the duties the public don’t think of when it comes to running a restaurant such as managing air conditioning, garbage disposal, lighting, maintaining entrances and pest control.

“My current building (the other restaurant is in) is about 100 years old, so you have to deal with the pitfalls there,” he said. “Nothing is free but at the same time, there are things you don’t have to worry about” here.

One floor above Isen’s stall as part of the food hall will be Civil Works, a cocktail bar by Nick Kennedy of west-end cocktail bar Civil Liberties. When completed later this summer the bar will have a machine that can change the minerality of water, so that a Kentucky bourbon can go with water that tastes like it’s from the state it was made.

“To find a space (like this), I could never afford to build in a location like it ... It’s a management service agreement, (the developers) own the facility and the liquor licence, we bring the team, the menu. We get a percentage of sales, they make it accessible because we would have never been able to afford a quarter of the budget,” he said.

“Our capacity to be downtown is a great opportunity for lateral tourism,” he said. ”ÌýThey can come in here and then branch out to other neighbourhoods.”

‘They don’t work everywhere’

Last year, food halls such as theÌýEast Asian-themed SuperfreshÌýand the Pusateri’s food hall inside the Bay at Sherway Gardens shuttered. Superfresh’s co-founder previously told the Star its closure was due to reasons such as high operating costs, its student customer base cutting back on eating out, and not having an outdoor space in the summer.Ìý

When determining whether a location is fit for a food hall, Behar’s firm looks at factors such as the neighbourhood demographics, foot traffic, public transit access, if diners can also eat and drink outside, and whether the infrastructure and space is there to fit multiple kitchens.

Some food halls require more grocers if they’re in a residential area — think the St. Lawrence Market —Ìýwhile one in an office setting needs more grab-and-go meals — thinkÌýÌýthat opened last year at Union Station.

Anthony Casalanguida, general manager with The Well, agrees with Behar in thatÌýcreating an environment where people would want to meet up and stay is paramount to sustaining a food hall. For him, having dessert and drink options means people will stay longer than a half-hour lunch break. He adds that they also allow pet owners, a demographic that is often ignored, to bring dogs.

The city is seeing a rise in food halls lately, but slapping that label on just about anything won’t guarantee success.ÌýThe term “food hall” is “a name at the end of the day,” Casalanguida said.Ìý“Food halls, food markets, food emporiums ...ÌýYou can have the greatest place settings but it’s also about what’s on that plate.”