Tacos. Poke. Handmade baked goods. Take a look at what’s inside Columbus’ new food hall

Columbus’ first food hall is ready to offer a different kind of dining experience to downtown.

Banks Food Hall, located at 1002 Bay Avenue, held a soft opening Friday and follows in the footsteps of Atlanta’s Ponce City Market with a variety of food and drink vendors housed in one warehouse-style building, complete with both indoor and outdoor socially-distanced dining.

Different culinary categories are catered to by five local vendors — coffee and pastries at The Bakeshop, veggie-packed poke bowls at Poke Sun, beer and wine at MaltiTWO’d, frozen treats at Jeremiah’s Italian Ice, and an array of authentic Mexican food at El Primo Tacqueria. The hall has space for up to 10 total vendors.

The food hall design encourages browsing, munching, and mix and matching. Visitors could piece together a multi-hour dining experience with a taco dinner from El Primo Tacqueria, followed by a soft-serve dessert from Jeremiah’s and a crispy lager from MaltiTWO’d.

Many of the vendors are expansions of already established Columbus eateries: the owners of Fountain City Coffee, Maltitude, Nonic and Jarfly, Mikata Japanese Steakhouse and Sushi Bar and El Primo Mexican Grill all have new ventures housed within the food hall.

Expanding a business

For Edy Richardson, The Bakeshop is the culmination of a decade of studying and experimentation with her baking. Richardson, who co-owns Fountain City Coffee with her husband Judd, has dreamed of opening a full bakeshop to complement the couple’s more coffee-focused establishment.

“It’s definitely a dream come true,” Richardson said. “It’s not one that I expected to happen so soon in my life or career, but it did and I’m really happy that it did.”

El Primo Tacqueria is also a gamble for owner Melissa Gonzalez, who said the ongoing coronavirus pandemic caused some uncertainty for her business. Gonzalez and her husband started their brick-and-mortar restaurant in nearby Hamilton, Georgia, several years ago after moving from Mexico.

“We were just kind of hoping that everything will get better. But then I guess we’re starting to live with the COVID and just taking precautions,” Gonzalez said. “We were thinking of doing and not doing it. But then we decided, you know, we need to bring something authentic Mexican food to town.”

Another downtown revitalization

Banks Food Hall is housed in a former warehouse that once stored cotton until it was ready to be loaded onto steamboats for transport down the Chattahoochee River. Exposed brick, steel beams and lofty ceilings hint at its industrial days.

Each eatery is housed in its own space in the hall, which combines modern industrial pieces with the unique style of each vendor. Exposed wood and brewery decor reign at MaltiTWO while an enormous beachy, graffiti-style mural dominates the walls of Jeremiah’s Italian Ice.

The food hall is sandwiched in between 11th and Bay Southern Table restaurant and Whitewater Express on a stretch of Bay Avenue facing the river. It’s the latest building to follow a larger pattern of downtown revitalization that has transformed several old mill-era buildings into modern spaces. Just a stone’s throw away are the modern condos and apartments at W.C. Bradley & Co.’s Eagle & Phenix Lofts and The Rapids.

“I think it’s going to be awesome for Columbus and we’re looking forward to it being incredible,” Miles Greathouse, co-owner of MaltiTWO’d, said.

‘Social distancing is going to be more natural here’

Vendors hope to draw in foot traffic from the Riverwalk, just across Bay Avenue from the food hall, as well as other downtown pedestrian areas, like the Woodruff Riverfront Park and the Broadway commercial corridor.

First announced in December 2018, W.C. Bradley developers hoped for a spring 2020 opening date but delays pushed the launch of Banks Food Hall until September. Some vendors are waiting on specific licenses or pieces of equipment, but are otherwise ready for business and cooler-weather patio season just a few weeks away.

As the coronavirus pandemic pushes more people outdoors, vendors expect that foot traffic may actually be heavier — and better for business. The food hall’s open setting and three patios also give customers room to space out.

“I think the physical building and the size of this place is such that social distancing is going to be more natural here... kind of setting the tone that this is a facility that takes the pandemic seriously and that people should act responsibly while they’re here,” said Greathouse.

Sanitization stations and public health signage are located at multiple points around Banks Food Hall. Fountain City’s Bakeshop also has an outdoor walk-up window connected to its kitchen to streamline ordering and make the process easier for those who don’t want to come inside.

Banks Street Food Hall is open 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. weekdays and until 11 p.m. on weekends.

This story was originally published September 11, 2020 at 6:36 PM.