Applicable for this thread as well.
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How are the food halls in Raleigh doing? Durham Food Hall is having issues, apparently. I always thought both Raleigh food halls are doing fine they just need a more diverse selection of vendors.
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regarding this; I’m still wondering what’s going to happen with the HUGE space left behind by Locals Seafood at Transfer Co. It’s such a big area that theoretically they could house 2 separate vendors there (even if perhaps they’d have to share the vast kitchen space).
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Oof. Never found that one to be a very pleasant place to eat - cavernous, cold, and loud.
Food halls are tough in general - the only regional one I actually like is Transfer Co.
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Funny, I was just debating posting this. Mostly cuz I have a lot of thoughts about this place and didn’t feel like typing them all out. But since you did post it, I’ll just share 1 thought that they did touch on.
During the pandemic, most other places were open in some capacity. This food hall wasn’t, and then did only takeout, which doesn’t bring the food hall community experience people were looking for. The spots didn’t (and maybe still don’t) keep regular hours, and the bar wasn’t/isn’t even open half the time. And this was after like 2 years of delays opening. I expected it to fail honestly and I’m glad that it hasn’t. But it sounds like a lot more problems than I would’ve even guessed.
The 2 in Raleigh seem to be doing fine. Even if Transfer did lose the coolest tenant. Curious to see what goes in there eventually. The generic beer at the bar is stupid expensive but Burial makes up for that. I just feel like this is something Raleigh has done better at, and Durham just got a little too caught up in their “Durham ways” on this one.
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speaking of this, while I’m glad Transfer Co spots (mostly) keep pretty regular hours (and sticks to them)… I do really wish Benchwarmers would at least stay open later for even just coffee orders. I get that when they sell out of bagels, that’s it - but hell, I’d love to be able to grab a coffee from them past 4PM on weekends!!!
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It surely (tongue-in-cheek) can’t be for a lack of foot traffic? My wife and I always meet our Durham friends at Fullsteam and it seems there’s new residential development everywhere over there
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Hahaha that is also my other pet peeve with Transfer, but I’ve complained about that on here before. Lol
They open way too early for a weekend and then run out of bagels. I just am not a morning person, especially on my days off, and I wish they would run their business around my schedule.
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I think if they can hold on 12-24 months, they’ll have enough density to survive > thrive. There’s a lot happening, but not a ton already in place.
I saw that The George expensive condos down the road from them are indefinitely on hold because of finances/uncertainty/etc. Meanwhile, like you said, there’s a ton (of rental) in the pipe for that area of downtown Durham. Oddly, a lot of the established businesses seem really unhappy with the current situation, as if it’s not gonna be a huge guaranteed customer base for decades to come after maybe 1 more year. Meanwhile in Raleigh, we have all this ground floor retail sitting empty as if no one in the apartments and offices would be customers. Maybe I just don’t understand this kind of thing.
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Yeah there’s for sure tons of condo/townhouse/apartment looking developments all in various stages of development. Not sure if you’ve seen it recently, but the footprint the Geerhouse development will take up there will be substantial for sure.
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Yeah the Fullsteam owner made a lot of comments on the parking situation. Understood his pain working across from an active construction zone for sure. But like you said, one year of dealing with mehh in the long run isn’t the worst when a brand new building of customers is staring at your brewery all day/all night.
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Parking=key to life.
Me and 5 dudes met at Morgan St last night for dinner and drinks. It was surprisingly busy for a Tuesday night, and always packed on the weekends.
Then today I visited Transfer for Lunch, also very busy for lunch on Wednesday.
Neither seem to be struggling in any fashion each time I’m there.
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Did you and @ahops0428 read the article? 
The woes are unrelated to foot-traffic – it’s more than busy enough. It’s just poor management.
Did not. Guilty.
If it’s mgmt, that sounds much easier to fix than conjuring up customers.
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That’s good know! Still think there’s room for more food hall like places in the region if done right.
I did read it, hence why I included the tongue-in-cheek part.
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I’ve never been to Durham Food Hall (BTW, what an inspiring and original naming concept), but the space shown in the photos doesn’t look inviting or interesting. In fact, it looks quite sterile and ordinary to me. You gotta give it to the two Raleigh food halls. They are both adaptive reuse and have some warmth and personality. Transfer is actually beautiful.
As for their names, I’m gonna suggest some changes to follow Durham’s hip lead. I want them renamed Raleigh Food Hall 1 and Raleigh Food hall 2.
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East Coast Electric Speed Shop opened up their Raleigh location yesterday with a ribbon cutting. Check them out! Right across from Peace St Apartments adjacent to the future entrance to Smoky Hollow Park.
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