Will Food Halls Be the Future of Independent Restaurants?

In March, Chelsea Market, one of America’s pioneering food halls with an average nine million annual visitors, stood empty, as Covid restrictions shut down New York City. Added outdoor seating brought neighborhood diners back to the hall in the summer, and takeout and delivery helped sustain vendors and their stripped-down teams during New York’s citywide shutdown. But that amount of business was only incrementally helpful to operators. “This [business] model isn’t built on...