Hello Everyone:
Welcome to a fresh week on blog. We begin with some impeach-palooza news with the release of the first set of transcripts from the House of Representatives Intelligence Committee. The release was a calculated response to the Republicans' demand for more transparency in the process, despite the fact that committees are bipartisan. The transcripts are from testimony by former American Ambassador to the Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch. Ambassador Yovanovitch told committee members that she learned that she was perceived as a threat to the shadow diplomacy spearheaded by the president's personal attorney Rudy Giuliani. During communications with former American Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sundland, she was advised to tweet praise for the president. This reminds Blogger of the famous saying, "Be careful of what you wish for, you may get and you may regret it." More on Wednesday. Now then, anyone hungry?
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| Ice Cream anyone? Gallery Food Hall Santa Monica, California yelp.com |
However a few years ago, the seaside mall food court, like everything else in Los Angeles, had some work done. When the work was completed, the food court was renamed and reopened as Gallery Food Hall (galleryfoodhall.com; date accessed Nov. 4, 2019) and features a curated selection of food establishments to satisfy anyone's hunger including a small restaurant run by a Michelin-starred chef. Reservations are required.
This past summer, the Gallery Food Hall premiered a "food discovery platform" (latimes.com; Sept. 12, 2019; date accessed Nov. 4, 2019) called thesocialeats.com, "a sort of food hall within a food hall billed as 'modern cuisine meets a one-of-kind community experience, all built upon a foundation of stellar culinary concepts'" (latimes.com; Sept. 12, 2019).
Food halls, the more glamorous cousins to the workman-like mall food courts, have been having their moment for the past decade, with more to come. Los Angeles Times staff writer Roger Vincent observes, "Downtown Los Angeles alone has enough to look like commissary central" (Ibid)
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| Rendering of Citizen Food Hall Culver City, California urbanize.la |
Food halls have been on the radar of commercial landlords as a way to make their buildings stand out from the jostle of merchants. As more food collectives appear on the market, operators must keep a very sharp eye out for the unique--local farm-to-table organic fare and pop up delights. Now there are signs that the Los Angeles market has become over saturated.
Mr. Vincent reports, "The number of food halls in the country will nearly quadruple from 120 in 2016 to about 450 by the end of next year, a recent report [cushmanwakefield.us; May 16, 2019; date accessed Nov. 4, 2019] by real estate brokerage Cushman & Wakefield" (latimes.com; Sept. 12, 2019). The report noted that "There were 10 'notable failures' of food halls in the last four years,... and it is likely that the failure rate will creep up as more project proliferate (Ibid)
| Grand Central Market Los Angeles, California dornsife.usc.edu |
Retail property broker Greg Briest told the Times,
Amazon changed everything,... Locations that at one point would have been easy to fill are not anymore. Food halls are alternate route (Ibid)
While landlords contemplate food halls, brokerage firms like Mr. Briest's firm JLL are assembling a useful guide (us.jll.com; date accessed Nov. 4, 2019) for them. The successful 100-year-old Grand Central Market in downtown Los Angeles is the inspiration for many of the would-be food hall operators. Grand Central Market draws about 2 million visitors every year, from office workers to tourists (latimes.com; Sept. 12, 2019) Mr. Briest said,
Everyone in L.A,... wants a replications of Grand Central Market [Ibid; Oct. 27, 2017] (Ibid; Sept. 12, 2019).
Grand Central Market is more than just a run-of-the mill food hall with delicious ready-to-sink your teeth into food. It offers a variety of produces, spices, and flowers. Insider tip #1: check out the basement level dry good section. Insider tip #2: spend some real time at Grand Central Market. Find a stool at the counter or a table to people watch. You will be rewarded.
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| Grand Central Market Los Angeles, California; lamag.com |
Rick Moses, the real estate consultant who oversaw the recent renovation of Grand Central told the Times,
You can feel that it has a lot of history whether you about it or not,... Part of the draw of a food hall is the place itself (Ibid)
Mr. Moses is developing the Citizen Public Market (citizenpublicmarket.com; date accessed Nov. 4, 2019) inside a Beaux Arts and Art Deco-designed former newspaper office, completed in 1929, and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The food hall takes its name from the now-defunct Citizen, previously housed there. Mr. Moses is using the knowledge gained from Grand Central Market to lease to local vendors, no Subway or McDonald's. He said,
We want folks born and bred into the food scene here in L.A.,... people who are social built for working in a cooperative environment. They have to be willing to work together and accommodate each other (latimes.com; Sept. 12, 2019).
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| Taste Food Hall Los Angeles, California yelp.com |
Other downtown food halls, like Taste Food Hall, mix national chains with with local vendors. The smaller Corporation Food Hall has room for a selected group of nine vendors. Real estate developer Izek Shomof installed Corporation into the ground floor of a 1916 office building, in a space formerly home to a sewing machine sales and repair shop (Ibid). The shop was a holdover from an era when empty ground floor commercial space was filled with garment industry businesses.
Spring Street, one of downtown's main thoroughfares, in the middle of a recovery period with new residential units, offices, bars and restaurants creating the kind of density food hall developers crave, prompting Mr. Shomof to look for other downtown locations (Ibid). Mr. Shomof said, It's working for use here,... why not (Ibid).
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| Are you hungry? eggslut.com |
People wait in line for an hour to get an egg (latimes.com; Sept. 12, 2019)
Go figure.
Eggslut is such a draw for the Grand Central Market and business is booming with seven outlets, including London and Dubai.
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| Dialogue Gallery Food Hall Santa Monica, California galleryfoodhall.com |
Even stranger is the background of the chef-owner of Dialogue, James Beard Foundation winner David Beran. Mr. Beran opened the exclusive 18-seat restaurant two years ago. It is worth noting that late Los Angeles Times food critic Johnathan Gold loved Dialogue and not easy to find. The late Mr. Gold described finding the restaurant,
To get to Dialogue, you walk out of a city parking structure, acorss an alleyway, an into an ice cream shop whose sticky perfume may remind you the Santa Monica Pier on a hot July afternoon,... You take an escalator to the second level. And you will miss the restaurant the first two or three times you walk by it--the scratched gray door looks like the entrance to a utility closet, and you manage to get into the place only if you remember to pull that will have been emailed to you that morning and punch into the door (Ibid)
Other restaurants in the Gallery Food Hall are more upscale casual fare such as raw sheep's milk cheese platters. There are still the ubiquitous mall food available for shoppers and tourists. It is worth noting that the Gallery also has a reservation-only restaurant--complete with a 20-course tasting menu--is not exactly typical mall food. Greg Briest said that this type of restaurant "illustrates the trial-and-error aspect pf composing a successful food hall" (Ibid)
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| The Santa Barbara Public Market Santa Barbara, California santabarbaraca.com |
Developer Marge Cafarelli estimated that she experienced as 35-percent tenant turnover in the five years since she opened the Santa Barbara Public Market (Ibid). Her first misstep was creating the place as a European-style public market where people could do their grocery shopping and anything else at upscale prices. Ms. Cafarelli realized that locals wanted to do their grocery shopping at all their familiar places. She said,
We had to pivot,... and become a bona fide food hall (Ibid).
She converted the grocery store into a beer garden and looked for the right mix of purveyors food and beverage. Ms. Cafarelli's plan was a mix of tenants that would appeal to both locals and tourists. The turning point came in 2018 when storms and catastrophic mudslides, which displaced hundreds from their homes. Ms. Cafarell saw an opportunity to change the course of the Public Market. Marge Cafarelli reckoned,
The one thing we could do feed people (Ibid)
Ms. Cafarelli hired a local barbecue truck operator to prepare meals for the first responders and the displaced. She added,
More than the food really, it was about having a place for people to come (Ibid)
Getting the food hall secured has been a tortuous process, including assisting tenants learn how to prosper. She told the Times,
In my career as a real estate developer, it's the hardest thing I've ever done and also the most gratifying,... It's like you've got to raise this kind. You have to do all the things to set that kid up for success and then the kid has to go out and do it on it own (Ibid)
Rick Moses added, "It's so hard to put together a successful food hall that developers should think twice before trying to make..." (Ibid) This is particularly true when the competition included the upscale Italian cafe and market Eataly. He said,
There is very little room for more [food halls],... They have to be very special places to be successful. We are past the peak (Ibid)
Bon appetite
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