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Food halls on track for more growth as concept catches on · Kvetch & Release

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  You're listening to Live and Local with guest host John Leckey on AM eight hundred.
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  Hey, we're back. For decades, food courts in the country were
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  just pretty well the same chains all shoved into a small area at the mall.
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  But there's a whole new wave of dining spaces that's throwing that playbook out
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  the window with cuisine of all different types. There's an article that has been
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  put out by the Canadian Press just at the beginning. Food halls on track
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  for more growth as the concept catches on. Joining me right now might be
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  someone who is a little bit too ahead of the curve on this one had
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  a food haul for a little bit now, quite frankly, and has been
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  operating in this space. Co owner of Windsor Eats, Adriano totally joins me
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  right now. Good morning Adriana, Good morning John. Hey, are you
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  feel in vindicated? You did it? You were you were ahead of the
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  curve here you came. I feel like you might be a former counselor Paul
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  Barelli when he invented the farmer's market after coming back from Italy. We saw
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  it food market or food halls, like what we're doing on an elevated level
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  have really been really large in Europe for years now, So it's it's it's
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  nice to see that it's making its way over to North America. Yeah,
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  definitely so. And I mean, this is what you're doing right now.
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  You call yourself the Windsor Eats food hall operating over on Erie Street. For
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  people who haven't had a chance to come to your establishment, what do they
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  see, Well, it really it's a it's an opportunity for people to have
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  multiple choices of like quality food and like you're saying, it's not just like
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  a mall food court where you're really going to be seeing or what we would
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  normally see or when people think of a food houl or food court with like
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  chains and things along those lines. This is high quality you know, locally
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  owned restaurants, food truck. Well, we have food trucks operating in ours
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  and giving people lots of options to be able to choose from. So Toronto
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  right now has five food halls in its downtown core, and there's also food
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  halls in Montreal, Calgary, Ottawa and across the country. Are there any
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  others in Windsor that you know of in windsor Not that we are aware of.
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  That was one reason why the concept kind of really spoke to us.
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  We've always been, you know, we've always kind of walked to the beat
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  of our own drum, doing things a little differently. And when we you
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  know, thought of the concept and then solved how it was happening elsewhere,
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  we thought it was a great opportunity to really kind of embrace it and do
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  it here in Windsor and provide something different for Windsor. Right so, let
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  us know some of the food trucks that you have had there before in the
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  past and that might be there right now. Sure, so right now.
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  In the past, we've had, you know, like Victorio's on the Go,
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  which was doing pizza. We've had some that come and go fairly often.
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  But we have three staples that are there on a daily basis when we're
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  open, which are Kiru Snack Bar, which is a Japanese street food truck.
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  Right now, they have this braised pork and rice dish which is fantastic.
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  We have Rico Taco Mexican street eats, which a lot of people are
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  familiar with with their Berria tacos, which are extremely popular. And we have
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  Friedlicious, which is doing things like sandwiches and poutine. All the food is
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  of course excellent that you guys bring in, and it's a great opportunity for
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  ale to be able to try different foods from around the region and different cultures.
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  Quite frankly, and you guys just celebrated your twentieth anniversary, your birthday.
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  We did. We'd riches amazing because at the same time it feels like
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  the blink of an eye and it feels like fifty years all kind of rapt
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  up all in one. But we did just celebrate twenty years. And I
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  like to think part of that longevity was due to the fact that we were
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  always looking at doing different things and bringing different things to windsor that people appreciated.
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  And so you know, we're very appreciative of all the support we received
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  over those twenty years to like it, to get us lasting that long.
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  It really is truly a remarkable accomplishment to be able to say that you've been
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  doing this for twenty years. It's also a remarkable accomplishment to say that you're
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  still around. You're an old man now. How that happens, I try
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  not to. I like to think I stopped aging as soon as I opened
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  up Windsories and that's the age I am today. Hopefully I can Benjamin button
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  it a little bit and there you in the mind in the sky. I
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  made an agreement that that was it. We're just stopping it right here.
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  But yeah, no it someday I feel a lot older too, So it's
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  all good. Well, one thing, if you're if you're feeling older but
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  you might want to feel younger, you are rolling out a new I don't
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  want to call it an I guess it is an event. It's an ongoing
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  event that'll be taking place on Sundays, your Sprits Sundays, which will be
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  launching at the end of this month. Tell us a little bit about it.
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  Yeah, it was last year. We used to offer a brunch and
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  it was popular for a bit, but we didn't we didn't necessarily like the
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  direction of it, so you know, we did a short run of it,
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  we ended it, and we kind of started rethinking things a little bit,
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  and this is kind of going to be a relaunch of that a little
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  bit. But instead of us doing the as a brunch ourselves, we really
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  wanted to embrace the whole, you know, food hall aspect of it.
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  So each food truck that's going to be on our property is actually going to
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  be offering their own brunch menu, and so that there's going to be all
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  those different brunch options from, you know, the different food trucks on site
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  that people will be able to choose from. But we are also going to
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  be during that time really showcasing. You know, sprits beverages. Splits are
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  really popular right now. People are absolutely loving them. So we're working with
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  April and we're really going to be doing some great drinks that people can enjoy
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  on the patio brunch, bottomless sprits, snacks. What more could you ask
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  for? Oh? I could tell you. Carrie Snackbar is thinking about doing
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  Macha pancakes. Yes, come on, She's still playing around with her menu,
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  but she said that is one thing that is absolutely going to be on
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  it that she's really excited about. The other two trucks are trying to finalize
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  their menu as well, but of course, with each one being so different,
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  you know, you can expect kind of that Mexican twist on brunch items.
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  For the Rico Taco one, we believe Brian Lucious is going to be
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  doing more traditional brunch items. So it's really like, I'm really excited to
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  see what they come up with. But yeah, something like mucha Pancakes is
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  going to be fantastic. No, it sounds like it now. I didn't
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  realize this, but Windsor Eats is Windsor's largest patio. It is our patios
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  license for over four hundred and twenty people. Yeah, yeah, it's basically
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  and that's why we're always throwing so many different events or mini festivals on site
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  because it provides us that opportunity to do that. It's fairly large. We
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  always know we're bringing in live music, people are dancing, they're still seating
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  for well over one hundred people on there at all times. But it allows
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  us to be really flexible in what we're doing. And that was really what
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  drew us to the property when we were first opening was the huge outdoor space.
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  Oh absolutely so. I mean it's such a great space, very versatile.
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  You can fit a gun, a bunch of food trucks, a lot
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  of people there. But you're also right in the heart of the Italia on
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  Erie Street. I wouldn't say raid in the heart, we're kind of on
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  the western side of it. But I also like to think we're kind of
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  acting as that link between Via Italia and downtown because we're we're just that's really
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  from the downtown core and then just a couple of blocks really from the from
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  Caesar's Windsor as well. So we are in Via Italia. We're kind of,
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  you know, in our in our own little fun space there, having
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  some fun, being kind of a connector between between two different neighborhoods Well Windsor
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  Eats food hall. Just setting the stage, I suppose here, as food
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  halls gain popularity across the country, not setting the stage, setting the table.
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  What am I doing? I missed the opportunity. You had a great
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  opportunity there, and you dropped the ball. I took the ball, I
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  threw it up, I swung and I just hit the ground perfect. Adriano
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  chotally, co owner of Windsor Eats. Thanks for waking up and chatting with
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  me. I know that you guys had your big bike thing last night Friday
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  night lights right now. We had Friday night lights last night, so it
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  was a late night. I don't even know. I think I got a
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  wink of sleep, but I'm not quite sure. Yes, and then we
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  woke you up with the phone call. Sorry that's all good. Sorry about
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  that. Thank you so much for your time. You have a great day
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  anytime, John. Thank you. Cheers by now. Adriano Totally is the
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  co owner of Windsor Eats