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Restaurants had a particularly rough time over the course of the COVID pandemic. One of the few elements of the food industry to weather that time well, however, was food trucks. Seems their micro-sized staffs, lack of enclosed dining spaces and ease of mobility made them the perfect food trend to survive that challenging (and hopefully bygone) era.
Now that we’re past it, though, those fast-on-their-feet food providers are discovering new and innovative ways to keep up their businesses and engage with customers. Food truck parks and food halls are the trend of the future, offering budding restaurateurs, innovative chefs and local breweries/distilleries an opportunity to get their grub in the gullets of hungry foodies with far less square footage or capital outlay than a traditional brick-and-mortar, stand-alone restaurant would require.
These communal dining experiences — sort of a hip updating of old shopping mall food courts — have exploded in the last few years. According to The Food Institute, there were 321 food halls operating around the country last year. More than 150 more are currently in development from New York to Los Angeles.
Albuquerque is no outlier and may actually be ahead of the curve for a change. Just last weekend THE BLOCK, an 18,000 square foot compound in the Plaza @ Enchanted Hills Shopping Center, opened after more than two years of construction delays. Built from repurposed shipping containers and featuring a food truck alley, an upstairs bar, an outdoor stage and 22 vendor spaces, THE BLOCK held its grand opening ribbon cutting ceremony on Sunday, Sept. 15 with yoga, live entertainment, face painting and, of course, plenty of food and drink.
This list of bars/restaurants dishing it up on opening day included El Chamo Arabe Express, Stackers, KūKri, Los Tacos del Rey, Umami, Suga Suga, The Boba Lounge, Lotus & Lemongrass, Thicc Pizza Co., The Crepe Corner, Tavern on the Green, Link Link and The Mini Bar. It’s an indicative sample of what food halls do best — offer a wide range of cuisines from a variety of world cultures. This trend actually stands in stark opposition to corporate America’s recent surrender to “decision paralysis,” the idea that consumers are terrified of making decisions and appreciate when companies limit our choices — be it shrinking the catalog of movies available to subscribers on Netflix or trimming the menu items you can get at McDonalds. Diners at THE BLOCK can pick up burgers, tacos, shawarma, pizza, curry and more — all on the same tray if they want.
Initially, when the project was first proposed back in 2019, THE BLOCK (originally dubbed The Boardwalk) looked quite different. It was much more of a traditional retail space. But as Tiffany Gravelle, chief operating officer of THE BLOCK, says, “COVID knocked the project solidly out.” TDA Investment Group, builders of the Plaza @ Enchanted Hills, rallied, retooled their ideas for the food-based expansion and realized COVID provided them a roadmap to the future.
(Roberto E. Rosales / The Paper.)
“What you’ve seen with this rise in food halls and food truck parks and why we’re doing it, is because we wanted people to have this fast casual dining experience that allowed an easy indoor/outdoor transition,” Gravelle says. “So that, should something like that ever happen again, we had outdoor safe space available that would allow people to still gather together and eat and shop and have a sense of community.”
In recent years food halls have become more than just open-air spaces with a diverse menu selection. They have grown into incubators for up-and-coming local chefs to experiment with a mash-up of world cultures and cuisines. KūKri, which has added THE BLOCK location to its already extant 505 Food Hall, Green Jeans and Tin Can Alley locations, is a perfect example. The restaurant serves up spicy chicken, like good old Southern American chicken and waffles, but with a hot hit of Indian tikka spice. El Chamo Arabe, another founding food stall at THE BLOCK, boasts “Venezuelan and Mediterranean food.” Baba ghanoush and arepas? Why not?
In addition to the unique food and drink on offer, THE BLOCK is also eager to establish itself as a multi-use community space. Among the regularly scheduled activities are free yoga at 10 a.m. Tuesdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, live music on Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays and Brain Gang Trivia on Thursdays at 7 p.m. In the future Gravelle promises a seasonal pumpkin patch, outdoor movie nights and, when the weather gets cold enough, a synthetic ice rink.
But THE BLOCK is not alone in its philosophy of diversity and entrepreneurial spirit. THE BLOCK joins a surprising number of well-established communal food spaces in the Albuquerque metro area. Local developer Roy Solomon opened the doors to his innovative container park Green Jeans Food Hall (3600 Cutler Ave. NE) back in 2016. In 2018 the old El Vado Motel (2500 Central Ave. SW) reopened, centered around a brew pub and outdoor food court. Sawmill Market (1909 Bellamah Ave. NW), built from the shell of the old Paxton Lumber Co., followed in 2020. Downtown’s 505 Food Hall (505 Central Ave. NW) and the north side’s Tin Can Alley (6110 Alameda Blvd. NE) also broke ground in 2020. Up in the Northeast Heights, Asian Food Park (6901B San Antonio Dr. NE), which opened in 2022, recently transitioned to become ABQ Food Park.
(Roberto E. Rosales / The Paper.)
Earlier this month it was revealed that the Highlands Project, a multiuse live/work development under construction on Central Avenue across from Presbyterian Hospital, would be adding Highlands Central Market. The website of Maestas Development Group describes the 15,000-square-foot project as an “urban food hall and artisanal market.” Approvals have yet to be finalized, however, and the company has not officially announced a start date for the project, which would only add to Albuquerque’s growing food hall landscape.
Not that the food hall scene is without its perils. Roy Solomon, developer of Green Jeans and Tin Can Alley, was working on a third food hall, Margarita Hill in Rio Rancho, not far from the current site of THE BLOCK. Rising construction costs and delays, compounded by the pandemic, put that project on indefinite hold. In September of last year Solomon sold his two parks to the Texas-based commercial real estate firm KM Realty — although both remain fully occupied by New Mexico tenants.
THE BLOCK experienced its own delay in construction. “A little bit of a string of bad luck,” as Gravelle puts it. TDA Investment Group first announced construction of THE BLOCK back in 2019. Ground was officially broken in November 2022. But delays with electricity, gas, internet and a slowdown in the construction supply line thanks to COVID dialed progress back to a crawl. Even with the end in sight, troubles lingered. A proposed August opening date was moved thanks to a defective concrete pad that had to be removed. But, Gravelle says, even with the delays, “We had zero tenant turnover. In fact it almost worked out in the end insofar as allowing us to identify more viable tenants and fill out the park.”
The extended construction time also allowed some finishing touches to the location, including additional tree plantings and some extensive murals by local artists. It also afforded tenants more time for building out their spaces and “really making the containers their own.”
“Ironically now we’re opening on Friday the 13th,” adds Gravelle, “which I’m purposely amused at, because I think our string of bad luck is over.”