Food halls upending commercial eating spaces

Many expect craze to grow as concept catches on

- TARA DESCHAMPS

The 50-vendor dining space called Wellington Market, in a pocket of the Well in Toronto, can hold 3,400 people and has everything from lobster rolls to ramen noodles and falafel on offer.Food halls are more affordable for entrepreneurs, and profitable for landlords.

For decades, Canada’s food courts were cookie-cutter spaces jammed with the same dozen or so chains hawking dishes ideal for lunch breaks or snacking at the mall.

But a new wave of dining spaces has thrown that playbook out the window, sandwiching dozens of lesser-known brands with growing followings into chic sites, where everyone from 20-somethings on dates to in-the-know grandparents have a dizzying array of cuisines to feast on at a table of their choosing.

The spaces, known as food halls, have turned Canada’s approach to commercial and communal dining spaces upside down as they spread from coast to coast.

These days, most of the country’s major cities have at least one food hall, if not several, and many think this is just the beginning.