How Calgary’s newest food hall aims to stand out from the others

Upon hearing the term ‘food hall’, one might picture a food court at a shopping mall.

However, while food courts typically house fast-food chains that are a dime a dozen, food halls tend to feature more upscale local restaurants and vendors.

They can also showcase bars, breweries, retail stores, live music, and other social activities.

The food hall concept isn’t new in other parts of the world and country, but it is relatively new to Calgary.

The growing trend

It wasn’t even Toronto or Vancouver that started the trend in Canada, according to Globe and Mail columnist and food writer Dan Clapson.

He says the county’s first food hall that followed the current, contemporary concept opened in Winnipeg about five years ago.

“The Common at the Forks was sort of the first Canadian venture where they worked with local chefs and they had a cool bar with cocktails and craft drinks and whatnot,” Clapson explains.

“And from there, you saw food halls pop up in cities like Toronto, and then Montreal, and they finally came to Calgary.”

Food halls in Calgary

Avenida Food Hall & Fresh Market was the first, opening in late 2018 in south Calgary. It has since changed its name to Fresh & Local Market & Kitchens.

First Street Market Food Hall & Bar followed, celebrating its grand opening in the Beltline in late August 2021.

Then, in March of this year, the District at Beltline opened its doors just two blocks away.

Clapson says the latter two are getting the most buzz around the city.

“Those two are really, I would say, great examples of what a major city’s food hall should look like and operate like,” he says.

Dining and entertainment hub

Despite being in such close proximity to First Street Market, the District at Beltline aims to stand out.

In fact, the food hall is just one piece of a broader project to redevelop the former IBM Corporate Park.

John Moss, senior vice president at CBRE Limited, says they took a disjointed, disconnected corporate campus and turned it into something with flow, interaction, and vibrance.

“We needed to take the opportunity to expand our vision and make this an amenity not only for the office building but for the community as a whole,” Moss explains.

He describes the result as an “entertainment and lifestyle hub”.

Taking a holistic approach

The District at Beltline includes the food hall, three full-service restaurants, a brewery, and a coffee shop.

Moss says they are trying to do something holistic and augment services.

“It’s not just entertainment, it’s just not food and beverage. It is personal service, fitness, retail,” he explains, adding they want to continue working with the community to understand the needs and wants.

“We want to continually evolve the programming with pop-up retail, farmer’s markets, concerts, and community events right inside those courtyards. That’ll help draw more traffic, more attention, and really, in the end, more cohesion within the community.”

A collaborative passion project

The District at Beltline has seen early success and Moss credits that to the collaboration between his team, the landlord, architects, and tenants.

“If it wasn’t for all of us firmly believing in the overarching vision and the overarching service to the city and the community as a whole, this would have never panned out.”

Moss says all of the individual entrepreneurs operating in the food hall understood the vision and bought into what he believes will be a winning concept.

“The chefs have the creativity, the licenced restaurant operators have the rooms and the experiences. I think with all this collaboration between all the people involved in the District, it will continue to be a hotspot for a decade to come.”

Something for everyone

The food hall provides a way to experience fine dining from some of Canada’s top chefs including Duncan Ly, Darren MacLean, Roy Oh, and Adam Ryan in a less intimidating and more casual environment, says Moss.

“You don’t have that quality and calibre of a chef under one roof anywhere in Canada. If you were to go to the number nine restaurant in Canada, you might go in there and be a little bit intimidated, because it’s hard to get into,” he says.

“But now you’re having the opportunity to enjoy those flavours, enjoy those textures, enjoy those colours through the food hall experience, where you might not have been able to get that without spending hundreds of dollars and waiting several months to get it.”

Clapson says one of the great things about food halls is they cater to all taste buds.

“You can mix and match different foods and you’re not under pressure to have a full meal from one place. You can also have small bites from a few and enjoy a bunch of different foods,” he says.

Will Calgary see more food halls?

Clapson says it will be interesting to see if and how the food hall trend grows in Calgary.

Admittedly, he was a bit surprised when the District at Beltline opened so close to First Street Market and he has heard rumours that a third might open downtown along Stephen Avenue.

“I do think having two in the core of the city is a lot already for a city our size,” says Clapson, adding that oversaturating the market could be troublesome for future food halls.

“If you’re the fifth person with the concept in the market, you better be the best out of all of them. Otherwise, what’s driving people there, right?”

In the meantime, Clapson plans to enjoy the atmosphere of Calgary’s existing food halls.

“[They] are always good for people watching as well,” he muses.