Food Halls, The Country's Biggest Food Trend, Are Finally Making Their Way To Dallas

The food hall, or a collection of small restaurant concepts all housed under the same roof, is one of the restaurant world’s biggest emerging trends. As (former Eater Dallas editor) Whitney Filloon wrote at Eater last year, nearly thirty food halls will open their doors in cities like Portland, Seattle, and Charleston over the next several months. Now, you can officially count Dallas as part of that list.

CultureMap Dallas reports that Uptown Urban Market, Dallas’ first food hall, will open its doors in Uptown Dallas this spring. The concept will take over the space formerly occupied by Sfuzzi on Cedar Springs Road, and is large enough to house eight individual stalls for food vendors.

As for who will fill those stalls, that remains to be seen. Brezinski told CultureMap that "each stall will specialize in a specific food offering, from pizza to tacos to grab-and-go-sushi and great salads." Diners can also look forward to a coffee shop, fresh juice bar, and a "speakeasy-type bar."

It's worth noting that Uptown Urban Market isn't technically the first food hall to announce its arrival to Dallas. Los Angeles restaurateur Tony Rivera has long been in the works to bring his Seattle-based Market Hall to Dallas-Fort Worth, with plans to open the first Texas outpost at some point in 2016. One could also argue that The Market at the Dallas Farmers Market, a collection of small, independent concepts is also a food hall, though it hasn't billed itself as such.

It appears, though, that Uptown Urban Market is moving much more quickly. Some stalls have already been filled, but the owners are actively seeking operators with a concept that’s ready to open. No word yet on which vendors have already inked a deal with Uptown Urban Market, but the city is practically littered with small operators in need of space to sell their wares.

The concept is the brainchild of Mark Brezinski and Jonathan Tobolowsky. Brezinski is a seasoned restaurateur who’s opened such notable concepts as Tin Star, Velvet Taco, and Pei Wei Asian Diner, and Tobolowsky is a seasoned real estate developer. The pair anticipates that Uptown Urban Market will open by "spring 2016."