# New "food court" type places that are popping up around here **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** beer, wine\ **Created:** [November 19, 2025, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-food-court-type-places-that-are-popping-up-around-here/1024973 "2025-11-19T00:25:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Crafter\_Man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crafter_man/32/458_2.png) [@Crafter\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crafter_Man)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2025, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-food-court-type-places-that-are-popping-up-around-here/1024973/1 "2025-11-19T00:25:53Z")
It’s a new concept, at least around here: medium-sized, indoor areas that feature around half-a-dozen restaurants in close proximity. Similar to a mall food court, except that some serve beer, wine, cocktails, etc. Two are near me: [this](https://piquasocial.com/) [one](https://www.facebook.com/piquasocial) just opened in Piqua, Ohio, and features a large bar open bar in the center of it. And [this one](https://myers-market.com/) just opened in Springfield, Ohio. I like the concept. Will soon be visiting each. ---
**Author:** ![dolphinboy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dolphinboy/32/330_2.png) [@dolphinboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dolphinboy)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2025, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-food-court-type-places-that-are-popping-up-around-here/1024973/2 "2025-11-19T00:30:51Z")
I’m surprised that nobody has thought of opening a bar in the “food court” before. I can only assume that mall management would frown on it because of their “family-friendly” shopping experience. Also, having intoxicated shoppers doesn’t sound like such a good idea to me. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2025, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-food-court-type-places-that-are-popping-up-around-here/1024973/3 "2025-11-19T00:34:33Z")
I think both of those are very good reasons why they haven’t. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2025, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-food-court-type-places-that-are-popping-up-around-here/1024973/4 "2025-11-19T00:38:38Z")
> [@dolphinboy](#): > > I’m surprised that nobody has thought of opening a bar in the “food court” before. Portland’s midtown food cart court has a brewpub on-site. ---
**Author:** ![WildaBeast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wildabeast/32/6_2.png) [@WildaBeast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WildaBeast)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2025, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-food-court-type-places-that-are-popping-up-around-here/1024973/5 "2025-11-19T00:59:45Z")
There aren’t any in my area that I am aware of, but I have been to a few in other cities. I can see the appeal – if you’re going out for a meal with a large group and can’t agree on a restaurant, you can just go to the food hall and everyone can get what they want. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2025, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-food-court-type-places-that-are-popping-up-around-here/1024973/6 "2025-11-19T01:03:19Z")
> [@dolphinboy](#): > > Also, having intoxicated shoppers doesn’t sound like such a good idea to me. Intoxicated shoppers buy a lot of random stuff. Amazon _et al_, live on drunk shopping. I’m sure most of the tenants would love that. The mall management itself, not so much. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2025, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-food-court-type-places-that-are-popping-up-around-here/1024973/7 "2025-11-19T01:15:40Z")
A year or two ago, I was in Long Beach, California with co-workers. We were doing a project in the area. A couple of nights, we had dinner at a place called the [Long Beach Exchange](https://thelongbeachexchange.com/the-hangar). Big building near the airport designed to look like an airport hangar with a variety of restaurants offering food (including a bar). I think the shared seating helps lower the operating cost for the restaurants themselves. And yes, everyone in your group can get something different but you can all sit and eat together. And actually, it’s not a new concept. I remember visiting [Faneuil Hall Marketplace](https://faneuilhallmarketplace.com/dining) in Boston decades ago. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2025, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-food-court-type-places-that-are-popping-up-around-here/1024973/8 "2025-11-19T01:19:37Z")
There are a number of (relatively) new “food halls” in downtown Chicago, many of them in older/vintage office buildings, which largely feature local restaurants rather than the chains that one would find in traditional mall food courts. ---
**Author:** ![Si\_Amigo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/si_amigo/32/2877_2.png) [@Si\_Amigo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Si_Amigo)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2025, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-food-court-type-places-that-are-popping-up-around-here/1024973/9 "2025-11-19T01:19:52Z")
Isn’t that just the old Piqua Mall location? My cousin mentioned checking it out for something different to do last Saturday and it didn’t sound appealing to me. The malls where I live outside of Detroit already have places that serve alcohol, including the theaters. I don’t see people going there to get drunk, but then we have many more options. Maybe the draw is that it is getting cold outside and walking around an old mall with a drink is the new game in town. I’ve been drinking in Piqua, its pretty boring. That used to be a decent mall a long time ago. ---
**Author:** ![Horatius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/horatius/32/3572_2.png) [@Horatius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatius)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2025, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-food-court-type-places-that-are-popping-up-around-here/1024973/10 "2025-11-19T01:31:59Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > And actually, it’s not a new concept. I remember visiting [Faneuil Hall Marketplace](https://faneuilhallmarketplace.com/dining) in Boston decades ago. These are pretty common in some Asian countries. Singapore in particular has built a big part of their food culture around them. > **[Hawker centre](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawker_centre)** > > A hawker centre (simplified Chinese: 小贩中心; traditional Chinese: 小販中心), or cooked food centre (Chinese: 熟食中心), is an often open-air complex commonly found in Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, and Indonesia. They are intended to provide a more sanitary alternative to mobile hawker carts and contain many stalls that sell different varieties of affordable meals. Tables and chairs are usually provided for diners. > Such centres are typically managed by a governing authority that maintains the facility... ---
**Author:** ![ParallelLines](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/parallellines/32/3575_2.png) [@ParallelLines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ParallelLines)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2025, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-food-court-type-places-that-are-popping-up-around-here/1024973/11 "2025-11-19T01:39:44Z")
Hmmm. The closest I’ve seen locally are local bars (drinks only) that have a pair of rotating food trucks in their lots on a scheduled basis, normally 2-3 nights a week. Seems to work really well for both - keeps people going back and forth between drinks, stepping out for a semi-substantial meal (which they can eat in the bar) with _more_ drinks, and then maybe over to the second food truck for another meal/snack and then back to the bar for a last drink drink to wash it all down. ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2025, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-food-court-type-places-that-are-popping-up-around-here/1024973/12 "2025-11-19T02:00:25Z")
> [@Horatius](#): > > These are pretty common in some Asian countries. There’s one in the basement of the New World Mall in Flushing, Queens, featuring the cuisines of a dozen or so Chinese provinces: > **[How to Eat Your Way Through Flushing’s Most Famous Food Court](https://ny.eater.com/2019/2/25/18236951/best-food-new-world-court-dishes-flushing-queens-nyc)** > > The top stalls to try at New World Mall’s sprawling dining destination — from tacky hand-pulled noodles to a bouncy, savory ham pancake ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2025, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-food-court-type-places-that-are-popping-up-around-here/1024973/13 "2025-11-19T02:09:04Z")
We have one of these, called I-Square, in Rochester. They’ve been running for about a decade now. They have four restaurants, a bar, a coffee shop, and an ice cream stand that all share a common dining area. Like the OP described, it’s basically a mall food court, except without the rest of the mall. ---
**Author:** ![JohnGalt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johngalt/32/184_2.png) [@JohnGalt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnGalt)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2025, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-food-court-type-places-that-are-popping-up-around-here/1024973/14 "2025-11-19T02:18:37Z")
The _other_ Rochester also has a food hall named The Workshop. It also has four restaurants with burgers, pizza, chicken, etc., and a dessert/malt shop. There’s a full service bar as well. ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2025, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-food-court-type-places-that-are-popping-up-around-here/1024973/15 "2025-11-19T02:52:32Z")
[Time Out Market](https://www.timeout.com/time-out-market) has 13 locations around the world. They’re quite fun. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2025, 12:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-food-court-type-places-that-are-popping-up-around-here/1024973/16 "2025-11-19T12:34:35Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > I think the shared seating helps lower the operating cost for the restaurants themselves. The model lets each restaurant operate as just about a take-out place, with almost nil front-of-house staffing. So you take a real restaurant kitchen and menu, but convert it to Chipotle style walk-up: order, carry your own food away, etc. For the customers there’s the corresponding reduction in pressure to tip for services not rendered that in effect gives a 10%+ discount over the sit-down version of the same order. But you still get to sit. The sharing also means a pooling of excess seating. 10 separate restaurants each end up with lots of chairs never occupied. The same 10 sharing a single seating area can cut that excess down by 80% and still never run short. > [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > And yes, everyone in your group can get something different but you can all sit and eat together. With all the threads we’ve had on friends and co-workers with fussy palates, I genuinely wonder how many people actually manage to go out to eat these days in a group without drama. > [@kenobi\_65](#): > > which largely feature local restaurants rather than the chains that one would find in traditional mall food courts. Yes. IME you’re far less likely to encounter anything that looks like a fast food franchise. Or at least a mainstream well-known FFF. Around here we had one of these open just at the opening acts of COVID. Oops. Anyhow, they staggered on until early 2022 then died. Damned shame. But while they were there it was a good fun experience. This place was near a well-established multi-block “Restaurant Row” that was thriving long before and long after COVID. Still is, and in fact is still slowly growing. But this venue was a block-plus off to the side in the wrong direction. They were forced into that location since it was the only big box barn nearby. But IMO they were just far enough off the edge of the established fun zone that they were “out of sight out of mind” for most people. Oops^2. It also wasn’t an area loaded with workers who’d create a built-in lunch crowd. Oops^3. I’m not aware of any other similar attempts around here. Time for me to do some digging; I’m always up for a new and different eating venue. Does anyone know if there’s yet an industry accepted standard term for these things? IMO “food court” isn’t it. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2025, 12:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-food-court-type-places-that-are-popping-up-around-here/1024973/17 "2025-11-19T12:48:38Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > Intoxicated shoppers buy a lot of random stuff. Amazon _et al_, live on drunk shopping. Are you suggesting that I order stuff on Amazon while drunk? I resemble that remark! 😉 I have, however, ordered many useful things from Amazon while under the mellow influence of Caesars, the prevailing philosophy in that state of mind being, “why not?” As to food court type places, it depends very much on the location. I love my suburban neighbourhood and the nice shopping mall nearby, but the food court is predictably crappy. In the urban area where I used to live, there was a huge mall with a food court that had a lot of interesting variety with ethnically authentic food outlets, and it included an Asian place that had absolutely the best Pad Thai I’ve ever had! It was produced by a couple of Siamese (not cats, I shoulda used the modern term “Thais”) on a smoking-hot wok. Damn, that stuff was good! ---
**Author:** ![SanVito](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sanvito/32/2805_2.png) [@SanVito](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SanVito)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2025, 12:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-food-court-type-places-that-are-popping-up-around-here/1024973/18 "2025-11-19T12:48:54Z")
I’ve been to a few of these over the years, and whilst I can see why large groups of young people gravitate towards them, I’m personally not a fan. Always seems like a scramble for tables, and without table service, there’s often used plates left around. Not conducive to a relaxing dining experience. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2025, 12:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-food-court-type-places-that-are-popping-up-around-here/1024973/19 "2025-11-19T12:53:32Z")
Food hall. That’s what I call them and what I’m most used to hearing them called. As mentioned above, we have a handful of them here in Chicago that have mostly started showing up about a decade or so ago. (Though the French Market had been around for a little longer than that, 2009—I don’t remember the term “food hall” in popular usage to describe it as that back then. I don’t think it was until the Revival Food Hall in 2016(?) that I remember the term being established.) I’ve also seen this in Milwaukee over the last three years (3rd St Market Hall, although the public market also fulfills a similar purpose.) Plus a smattering of other cities or towns, though I can’t remember exactly which ones. I know there was one in Pennsylvania— maybe Harrisburg? Broad Street Market, I think. But that advertised itself as a market, so not a food hall in the purest sense, but there’s a good bit of overlap between the two. As far as I see, a market has both plenty of dining options, but also raw ingredients, cheeses, preserves, stuff like that, but a food hall is strictly prepared food. ---
**Author:** ![Great\_Antibob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47c2d/32.png) [@Great\_Antibob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Great_Antibob)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2025, 1:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-food-court-type-places-that-are-popping-up-around-here/1024973/20 "2025-11-19T13:05:59Z")
They also represent an in-between opportunity. Around here, at least, a fair number of the businesses involved started out as food trucks that went semi-permanent. Some of the very successful ones go further on to open their own full service standalone places. Likewise, restaurants that want to expand but not necessarily want to deal with an additional full standalone site. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-food-court-type-places-that-are-popping-up-around-here/1024973.md?page=2)