Casa Tua Cucina
Batali’s Eataly, an Italian food hall in New York’s Flatiron District, inspiring marketplaces in Atlanta, Chicago, Portland and Los Angeles.
If the concept sounds familiar, know that food halls are a hybrid of two American classics: the shopping-mall food court and the public outdoor market. The number of food halls in America was 105 in 2016 and is predicted to double by 2019 in the U.S., according to a July Wall Street Journal article.
The beauty of a food hall is choice. Craving Taiwanese hand-rolled ice cream, poke bowls and Chinese barbecue in the same place? Try 1-800-Lucky, an Asian food hall in Wynwood. On the hunt for a 48-day dryaged rib-eye, bottles of Pinot Grigio, espresso and a cooking classroom? They’re at La Centrale, a three-story Italian marketplace in Brickell.
“This is the democratization of fine dining,” says Didier Souillat, CEO of Time Out Market Miami, a food hall opening summer 2018 at Miami Beach’s touristy Lincoln Road Mall. “It’s what millennials are asking for now. They want variety, change and great quality food at low prices. We take a lot of the financial burdens away from chefs who can’t afford big retail spaces, because our kitchens are small and affordable.”
Belly up to these 10 South Florida food halls. market. “It ought to be an experience, evoking emotions, which you can’t get at other food halls,” Kiehm says.
The cuisine: The ground floor features the rustic fast-casual Pizza E Pasta and the Sicilianinspired Caffé, while the second floor houses a trio of sit-down restaurants: the seafood-themed Pesce, meat-friendly Carne and the vegetarian Stagionale. They share space with Venchi, a chocolate and gelato shop. The third floor holds a wine shop and enoteca with 4,000 wines, mostly from Italy.
Hours: 7 a.m.-midnight daily
70 SW Seventh St., Miami; 305-755-0320 or CasaTuaCucina.com
Who they are: Unlike other food halls bearing a motley of food purveyors, Casa Tua Cucina is all about Miky Grendene’s Casa Tua brand. The owner of the Miami Beach boutique Casa Tua inn, private club and restaurant opened this touch-of-Italy outpost in December, attached to a Brickell Saks Fifth Avenue.
The cuisine: Prices vary from moderate ($11 for pizza) to ultra-expensive ($140 for Tomahawk steak), offering dishes such as Wagyu rib-eye and cacio e pepe with pecorino-andpepper sauce. Other vendors bring bakeries, a juiceand-salad bar, a charcuterie station and crudo and grill area. “I consider myself an eater around the world, so if I can allow food from Italy and Spain, I’ll do that,” Grendene says. “People stay for hours here because there’s so much cuisine. You can’t overstay your welcome.”
Hours: 8 a.m.-11 p.m. daily shawarma and Hawaiian poke bowls. More highlights: A grab-and-go market called Petit Marché, and a future third-floor hydroponic farm supplying 1,000 pounds of produce to the food hall weekly.
Hours: 11 a.m.-7 p.m. (tentative)