Locals is delicious! Excellent oysters and their fish sandwich is made with the catch of the day is always amazing. Alimentari has some great sandwiches as well. Their spicy italian is 
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Benchwarmers is also sold out every time I go there. I feel like they could start selling at like 10am on the weekends and not whatever ungodly early time they actually do, and maybe their small supply would last into the day a bit.
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The explosion of food halls seems to be filling the gap left by more people abandoning shopping malls. I remember going to Crabtree back in the day to just go to the food court, but I’d never put myself in that situation these days since I don’t prefer to get in my car if I don’t need to.
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Them being open early is a godsend! Walk the dog, eat a bacon egg and cheese on the patio and look at the skyline, it’s a great way to spend a morning.
They just need to get a bigger oven.
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I like to spend my weekend mornings sleeping LoL
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I think part of it is cooler space for the long time frame for bagel / dough fermentation that plays into their modeling of supply…? Kinda like barbecue joints, selling out is a good thing but selling out ‘too soon’ is not the needle you want to be threading consistently if you want to grow your business…
Maybe it’s a profit / versus payroll equation and they seem to be comfortable with the math.
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***They just need to put a second location at Iron Works with larger prep / cooler area to bolster the business 
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Yeah, I actually reached out to them one time to ask why they sell out so early, after they sold out despite accepting my online order. They said it came down to cold storage space, like I think they make the bagels the night before as dough, and then cook them in the morning. I’m obviously not a bagel expert and that seems to make sense. But I just don’t like the idea that a Saturday breakfast item is sold from like 7 to 10 and not from like 9 to 12. I’m never going to be downtown at 9 am on a weekend, and this, honestly, should be all about me. 
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Didn’t your parents teach you that the early bird gets the worm?
Benchwarmers is packed at 8am on the weekends. Also, why would they want to start selling at 10am and compete with the lunch spots that open at 11am?
They. have an entire food hall to themselves from 8am to 11am with zero competition and they sell out during that time. Then they clean up and go home and rest for the remainder of the day.
If I were them, i wouldn’t change a thing.
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What phase is the stadium part of?
Unknown at this point when / if the stadium will actually happen
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If there were abel to continue bagel production they’d probably also make a killing with lunch bagel sandwiches and take more advantage of their space/lease.
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Look, these proposed “towers” are nice and all but are no different from others going up in various parts of the city. props to Kane for atleast getting something done but we need that stadium for this to be succesful. This is a city changing project and it needs to be impressive. With the clout he has i think Kane can push to be a little more bold. He tends to settle with what’s safe. Unless the other phases include actual skyscrapers, these little buildings will fill out space but without a stadium it’ll just be another north hills. The city needs to get behind the effort with Malik to get an MLS team. Reel in Mr. Goodnight if possible. The US will host the 2026 worldcup, we currently have the youngest and most talented team we ever had, many of those players will be peaking in 2026. Global superstars will continue coming to the MLS, with Messi the next in line next year. Imagine kids in our area getting a chance to witness that? Soccer momentum is bigger than ever and there is alot to gain from it
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This makes sense. The plus side is, food halls are generally more focused on local ownership than mall food courts were. If you’re trying to start your own restaurant in an American city in 2022, I imagine the cheapest ways to do it are either a food hall or a truck. So yeah, there will be duds, but you’re also giving aspiring restauranteurs a chance they otherwise may not have had.
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Agreed. Need the stadium to make this project impressive.
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This is my worry about DoSo; if the stadium/MLS doesn’t work out, then we have another North Hills taking away any momentum from downtown proper. I’ve always wondered what downtown would look like if NH’s momentum was all concentrated there. As much as I would like to see this whole development work, it doesn’t seem feasible IMO right now. No development connections to downtown, no transit, nothing really around it, and the main component (stadium) is still up in the air. It just seems like it would be a waste of money and a momentum vacuum if it doesn’t work.
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DoSo > Park City South > Downtown are all so close together that it’s pretty close to contiguous, and infilling the gaps shouldn’t be too tough. Plus, the bits in between are pretty scruffy and not politically challenging. It’s not like NH where there’s no way for it to ever be part of a walkable corridor to downtown, especially with those wealthy SFH neighborhoods on the quickest north/south axis.
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There are 5 cranes up at NH right now. I counted today as I passed on the beltline. A couple of the cranes seem like they are on top of each other, like they can’t spin full circle without hitting one another. At any rate, I don’t think downtown proper has 5 cranes atm. I think downtown has 4 right now.
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I agree with @RaleighFollower that there’s definitely a risk that DTS takes energy away from downtown. While I completely understand the DT>Park City South>DTS, it feels like it will take more than a couple of decades for it to actually be connected, and it’s still not guaranteed in my book because S. Saunders/MCDowell is a US highway route that comes together in this area instead of being a more pedestrian manageable couplet of roads in downtown. The same challenge is true on the north side of downtown. Once past Peace, it’s difficult to imagine any meaningful connection to downtown through that corridor, especially after one passes under the interchange at Wade.
I would rather see the energy start in downtown and migrate outward rather than planting a flag a mile south and wait for it to fill-in. To give it another reference, consider that the Bell Tower on NC State’s campus is closer to downtown proper than DTS is to downtown proper and NC State is already there and has more structural urban cred, and the corridor between it and downtown proper is more pedestrian and bike friendly. Other than losing the Charlie Goodnights building, I like the development energy in that corridor.
That said, DTS is still better than clear cutting edge forests to keep sprawling.
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Anyone ever been to Atlanta? Downtown doesn’t “take away” from Midtown anymore than Buckhead takes away from Midtown or Virginia Highlands takes away from Buckhead.
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