CONFIRMED: Food Hall Coming to Downtown Orlando

Update July 6, 2016: 

  • CONFIRMED! On June 22nd we wrote about a rumored food hall coming to Creative Village. Our owner Mark Baratelli was a part of an invite-only food brainstorming meeting at City Hall. He brought up food halls and how they can incubate the restaurant scene. Someone in the room said a food hall was coming to Creative Village. Others verbally confirmed it but no one revealed who was behind it. On July 6th, downtown developer Craig Ustler revealed that he was building the food hall in an Orlando Sentinel article. It will be located in one of his apartment buildings in Creative Village. No further details were provided. 


THE RUMOR
  • A food hall is coming to Downtown Orlando

WHAT WE KNOW: 
  • Not much frankly, but enough to warrant the writing of this post. We were in a meeting in City Hall led by the Mayors office. The room was made up of faces from the local Orlando culinary scene: restaurant owners, Chefs, developers who own restaurants and us representing our Food Truck Bazaar 5-year-old community dinner event. The topic of the meeting was figuring out what can be done to make Orlando more of a "foodie city." Food halls was a topic that got brought up. One person said that a food hall was coming to downtown Orlando as part of the Creative Village. Multiple people immediately verbally confirmed it. Nothing more was said about it in the meeting however. No one will go on record about it. So it's a rumor... for now.
WHY IS THIS GOOD FOR ORLANDO? 
  • If Orlando wants to grow the food scene, it needs to incubate it first. A food hall does just that. Think of it like a food truck. Both a food hall and a food truck have lower entry costs (Not low. Lower.) than throwing money into a brick and mortar place. Small businesses can experiment in a food hall and see if what they have to offer is something people want. Also, in a food hall, as long as the space is over 3,000 square feet, in Orlando it can have a beer and wine license. Third, the food hall can be a destination for locals and tourists. One restaurant isn't an attraction. Forty in one building is. 
WHAT TO DO: 
  • If you know anything about this project, text me at 407-308-1417 or email me at mark@thedailycity.com. 
Used for illustration purposes only (Photo Credit)