When Mario Batali’s Eataly opened in New York just five years ago, it was the country’s first food hall. Restaurateurs and developers eyeballed its popularity and soon got to work.
“Now there’s a stampede to open food halls across the country,” said trend-watcher Michael Whiteman, president of international food-and-restaurant consultant Baum and Whiteman in New York.
Avanti Food & Beverage, which opens Monday in the LoHi neighborhood in Denver, is on a list of the 23 most anticipated food halls in the country — and offers its own twist on the trend.
Many of these food halls resemble their Asian and European forerunners, a mix of fresh-produce market and food mecca, but Avanti is more like a restaurant incubator.
In a city with a thriving and competitive restaurant scene, it offers chefs the chance to get in the game — or up their game — with minimal financial risk.
“We didn’t have to spend money on the equipment, and they built out the kitchen for us,” said John DePierro, who with Michael Nevarez is starting MiJo, a global noodle eatery with a focus on Japanese udon. (They are chefs at Frank Bonanno’s Bones.) “It’s pretty much perfect for an up-and-coming chef who wants to take that next step and see if they can open up a restaurant.”
No worries about front-of-house management, utility bills or hefty bank loans.
Chef-owners can lease their spaces for one to two years, testing out new concepts that, if successful, they can roll into brick-and-mortar places.
Avanti calls itself a “collective eatery,” with seven restaurants serving upscale cuisine at affordable prices: maximum lunch entree of $9 and maximum dinner entree of $15.
Like many food halls around the country, it’s housed in a vintage space, the Avanti Print and Graphics building at 3200 Pecos St. The neighborhood overlooks Coors Field, and its rooftop deck offers panoramic views of the downtown skyline.
The structure was built about 1898, and during renovation, workers discovered a turn-of-the-century sign — Dodson’s Variety Store — painted on the brick wall, advertising groceries, hardware, furniture and Pepsi-Cola. The sign has been carefully restored, which adds to the recycled chic that includes refurbished shipping containers that house the restaurants.
For chefs, synergy is a bonus.
“In the long run, it not only creates excitement for everybody, but I think we all win by bringing a bunch of high-quality purveyors together,” said Thomas Garnick of Brava! pizzeria. “It gives us that opportunity to feed on each other, and it lets Denverites come in and get some unique concepts.”
The partners behind Avanti are real-estate developer Rob Hahn and restaurateur Patrick O’Neill. Their vision is inspired by a fusion of food-truck roundups and European dining destinations such as the San Miguel marketplace in Spain.
“We referred back to European markets where people can walk in, go get their drink first, check out the space and then decide where they really want to eat,” said O’Neill.
The entire place has one liquor license, which means people can rove from top to bottom, a space that includes a lounge, two bars and communal seating.
Places on the ground floor include three names popular on the local food-truck scene: Garnick and David Bravdica’s Brava!; Venezuelan cuisine at Quiero Arepas, from Igor and Beckie Panasewicz; and a new concept — a fast-casual place called Poco Torteria — from Kevin Morrison of Pinche Tacos.
In addition to MiJo, there’s also Farmer Girl, which specializes in farm-fresh organic and sustainable food. It was created by Tim Payne, who took over Boulder’s Tasterie food truck after working as chef at Z Cuisine and Terroir Restaurant.
The top floor has two restaurants. Jon Robbins, chef-owner of Bistro Barbes, is testing a new concept called Souk Shawarma that features cuisine of the Levant region, and chef Marco Gonzalez is opening Bixo, which focuses on modern Mediterranean and Western European recipes with a Mexican flair.
A few days before opening, chefs worked on setting up their spaces. At Farmer Girl, Payne shelled peas that came straight from the farm. The peas were so fresh that their fragrance wafted up from the counter.
“It’s the first week of snow peas,” he said. “The growing season got a slow start because of the floods, rain and hail, but now the farms are really starting to explode.”
Dishes on his menu include Three Pea Salad, with snap peas, snow peas, English peas and house-made farmer cheese.
Over at Bixo, Gonzalez, who worked in Michelin-starred restaurants in Europe, whipped up a plate of seared watermelon with feta frost, pine nut sand and kalamata pesto, and another dish of tender Spanish octopus with squid-ink lobster paella.
And Bravdica took a minute from his wood-fired oven to reflect on the food-hall trend, and his recent trip to Gotham West Market, the culinary emporium in the Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood of New York.
“It was like a festival atmosphere,” he said. “Food halls are a great sensory experience, with the lights coming down and the kitchens lighting up, and all the smells going on. And here, with the view, it just adds to everything.”
Restaurant consultant Michael Whiteman has spent decades studying food halls around the world, observing their ability to attract consumers with displays of fresh produce and the allure of chefs preparing food in front of customers.
“The greatest food halls in the world are in southeast Asia — Japan, Singapore and China have sprawling food halls that are 40,000 or 50,000 square feet,” he said. “To me, Avanti is more like a food court, a cluster of local merchants.”
Avanti has no produce stalls or artisan food vendors. But unlike the earlier version of food courts, often centered in shopping malls and featuring chain restaurants, the latest upgrade reflects the country’s changing tastes.
“Americans have grown into a generation of foodies due to increased emphasis on celebrity chefs and TV cooking shows and awareness of food sourcing,” Annika Stensson, director of research at the National Restaurant Association, wrote in an e-mail. “A typical consumer today is much more sophisticated and knowledgeable than previous generations. … And food halls touch on these things.”
The evolution of the American palate happens more quickly these days, driven by a competitive marketplace of culinary connoisseurs. Avanti’s owners have factored this into their design, which is why leases are staggered and no longer than 24 months.
“We’ll have constantly fresh concepts,” said O’Neill, “so we can stay at the top of the trends in the industry.”
Colleen O’Connor: 303-954-1083, coconnor@denverpost.com or twitter.com/coconnordp
Parking is tight in Denver’s LoHi neighborhood, but Avanti has valet parking and the largest B-cycle station in the city.
