Food has been a staple ingredient of urban vitality ever since cities were established as market centers, trading posts and transportation hubs. With the big downtown department store on the endangered species list and most city center shopping districts long gone, restaurants, bars, public markets, food halls and entertainment venues have taken over as primary downtown destinations.
While it seems as if every vacant urban retail space of size will eventually become another farm-to-table food hall, several historic markets are surviving and thriving by blending their traditional fresh food offerings with a myriad of dining experiences as well.
The goal for these public markets is how to keep these two competing but complementary uses in balance as can be found in Philadelphia’s Reading Terminal Market, Pike Place Market in Seattle and the Eastern Market in Detroit.
Offering up a different course is the food hall that ate Nashville. Touted as North America’s largest, the 110,000 sq ft Assembly serves up over 20 eateries, 10 bars and three stages including a full service restaurant and rooftop entertainment venue seating 1,600.
As we were already shooting in these cities, we filmed at Philadelphia’s Reading Terminal as well as the Grand Central Market in downtown LA, and plan a full menu of food-related stories — from fresh markets to supermarkets, food halls to food trucks and outdoor dining as a public amenity as well as the restaurant business as an economic engine. Explore our episodes.
Meet David O’Neil, who transformed Philadelphia’s Reading Terminal Market from 1980 to 1990 and has consulted on over 100 markets around the world. Watch more videos.
Contact us — Check out our work and let us know what you think. We’re always hungry for more stories and refer us to people we should know about.
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