47 / 70
Eastern Market, Washington, DC
T
he historic Eastern Market has been serving the residents of Washington DC’s Capitol Hill
neighborhood since 1873. But while it has been through several incarnations over the
decades, its rebirth as a food hall began in 2007. Unfortunately, it was then ravaged by a fire
that destroyed much of the property. Two years later, Eastern Market re-emerged as a hip,
industrial chic food hall serving a neighborhood that itself was rapidly gentrifying due to an
influx of young professional millennials. Today, this 40,000 sf venue is home to multiple
sit-down restaurants and at least 12 independent food vendors. Outside, bargain hunters can
enjoy the Eastern Market Flea Market.
20
Market on Market, San Francisco
M
arket on Market is yet another project on our list that has also been honored by
Travel +
Leisure
Magazine in its World’s Best New Food Halls list for 2016. Not only is this a great
project on its face, but it is a prime example of a food hall as an amenity in a building that
otherwise is not retail. This 22,000 sf project at the base of the Twitter building in San
Francisco brings together local purveyors, specialty product vendors and a handful of
prepared food options in addition to a market cafe and grocery store. There are currently more
than ten vendors active in the space, with concepts ranging from the Hawaiian-inspired fish
salad known as poke to donuts, and from pizza to street tacos.
Market on Market began its life closer to Eataly's single operator model but has since shifted
(and thrived) to a more traditional plug-and-play food hall model. Currently, roughly half of its
space is grocery, but plans call for reducing the grocery footprint and adding more food
vendors. Ironically, while Twitter has its own cafeteria that provides free food to its employees,
demand from Twitter employees, other office tenants, neighborhood street traffic and other
visitors has been enough to warrant adding more prepared food options.
19
47
Cool Streets Report: Food Halls