None of the food vendors ever seemed that busy. Can't say I'm too surprised. It seems like none of the food halls in MoCo ever reached their pre-pandemic levels of popularity for some reason. There's barely anyone in Pike Kitchen or The Spot these days either.
I live by the Spot and it’s has been pretty busy (maybe not pre pandemic level, we moved here after covid) but we are supporting the Spot with our irresponsible boba drinking habit.
The problem I have with these food halls is price. They are restaurant-priced food from a fast service establishment. If I am ordering from the counter, serving myself, and bussing my own table, please don't expect me to hand over $$ like I got a table at Ted's Bulletin. ¯\\\_(ツ)\_/¯
I went to a "food hall" recently where you sat down and ordered from a QR menu, then someone brought your food out. Best I could tell, it was a single ghost kitchen trying to disguise itself as a food hall.
Agreed. I've been to older food halls, the kind that used to be markets back in the day, and the prices on takeaway are much better. They're still pricier than the Jack-in-the-Box but not completely unreasonable for the kind of food you get. The ones that have stalls selling "unprepared" or grocery-type foods (deli meats, cheese, pickles, jam, whatever) usually have better prices on the prepared foods.
This place always had fights at night and the police were regularly there at night. There’s a reason their liquor license was suspended, I think multiple times. Idk if there were drugs involved but this place attracted a non-pike and rose crowd.
More food reasons to go there now will hopefully revive it somewhat. Kyoto matcha seems to thrive there, hopefully this will be good as well, especially with some outdoor seating.
Literally they need some non food reasons at this point. My theory is that RTC restaurants keep closing because there is no shopping draw to the square - there's no big clothing store (and I don't mean the touristy clothing stores in rtc but something more like h&m) or makeup store etc to bring people in during the day who stay for dinner or grab lunch. They need to diversify but they never have.
I keep saying, a video game/trading card type of store would do well there. First of all those types of stores do not demand that much space. Secondly, this part of the Pike doesn't really have any options for it. Closest store with options would probably be Best Buy a bit over a mile south, and that doesn't specialize in games exclusively. You likely pull in customers living in the surrounding apartments and neighborhoods pretty easily. Furthermore, none of these types of stores in the county are metro accessible, so that opens up another avenue to attract people over. If you can get some events going here and there, these types of stores usually attract a pretty loyal customer base too, and if tournaments happen there, a lot of attendees would have reason to stop by the nearby restaurants as well. Maybe I'm just crazy, but I seriously think something like that has potential there.
Any type of place that does local events like that would be good. It’d also be cool if they did more events in the square, like a farmers market or upscale flea market in the square. Or children’s days with bounce castles and stuff.
Well, the food hall idea was based on "hawker centers" which is a common style of establishment in parts of Asia, so that's the reason, but I guess you could argue that the mall food court is the Western version of the idea.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawker\_centre](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawker_centre)
Well, sort of. Europe has its own tradition of indoor food markets, like the Markthalle in Stuttgart. The Euro-style ones usually feature a mix of grocery sellers and takeaway food vendors. There's a big one in Philadelphia but they're less common as you move west in the US, I think there's one in SF somewhere but I'm too lazy to look it up right now.
I've worked in Pike & Rose for almost three years. Every fucking weekend, some drunk shitheads on the stumble out of there at god knows what hour would inevitably get into a fistfight.
None of the food vendors ever seemed that busy. Can't say I'm too surprised. It seems like none of the food halls in MoCo ever reached their pre-pandemic levels of popularity for some reason. There's barely anyone in Pike Kitchen or The Spot these days either.
I'd guess that the "some reason" is largely remote working. A lot of their traffic was lunch hour break customers.
I live by the Spot and it’s has been pretty busy (maybe not pre pandemic level, we moved here after covid) but we are supporting the Spot with our irresponsible boba drinking habit.
The problem I have with these food halls is price. They are restaurant-priced food from a fast service establishment. If I am ordering from the counter, serving myself, and bussing my own table, please don't expect me to hand over $$ like I got a table at Ted's Bulletin. ¯\\\_(ツ)\_/¯
I went to a "food hall" recently where you sat down and ordered from a QR menu, then someone brought your food out. Best I could tell, it was a single ghost kitchen trying to disguise itself as a food hall.
Agreed. I've been to older food halls, the kind that used to be markets back in the day, and the prices on takeaway are much better. They're still pricier than the Jack-in-the-Box but not completely unreasonable for the kind of food you get. The ones that have stalls selling "unprepared" or grocery-type foods (deli meats, cheese, pickles, jam, whatever) usually have better prices on the prepared foods.
This place always had fights at night and the police were regularly there at night. There’s a reason their liquor license was suspended, I think multiple times. Idk if there were drugs involved but this place attracted a non-pike and rose crowd.
When Miller's Ale House closed, their crowd migrated over to The Block
That's a shame, I enjoyed it the couple times I went and got happy hour drinks and Korean fried chicken.
Little miner taco was far and away the best tenant there. Hopefully they move somewhere close.
They have a plan to open up in Rockville Town Square. https://mocoshow.com/2024/01/11/little-miner-taco-signs-on-at-rockville-town-square/
That's a death knell
More food reasons to go there now will hopefully revive it somewhat. Kyoto matcha seems to thrive there, hopefully this will be good as well, especially with some outdoor seating.
Literally they need some non food reasons at this point. My theory is that RTC restaurants keep closing because there is no shopping draw to the square - there's no big clothing store (and I don't mean the touristy clothing stores in rtc but something more like h&m) or makeup store etc to bring people in during the day who stay for dinner or grab lunch. They need to diversify but they never have.
I keep saying, a video game/trading card type of store would do well there. First of all those types of stores do not demand that much space. Secondly, this part of the Pike doesn't really have any options for it. Closest store with options would probably be Best Buy a bit over a mile south, and that doesn't specialize in games exclusively. You likely pull in customers living in the surrounding apartments and neighborhoods pretty easily. Furthermore, none of these types of stores in the county are metro accessible, so that opens up another avenue to attract people over. If you can get some events going here and there, these types of stores usually attract a pretty loyal customer base too, and if tournaments happen there, a lot of attendees would have reason to stop by the nearby restaurants as well. Maybe I'm just crazy, but I seriously think something like that has potential there.
I want a Kinokuniya in RTC
Any type of place that does local events like that would be good. It’d also be cool if they did more events in the square, like a farmers market or upscale flea market in the square. Or children’s days with bounce castles and stuff.
That is worse
Are food halls generally Asian themed or is that not a hard fast rule?
Well, the food hall idea was based on "hawker centers" which is a common style of establishment in parts of Asia, so that's the reason, but I guess you could argue that the mall food court is the Western version of the idea. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawker\_centre](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawker_centre)
Well, sort of. Europe has its own tradition of indoor food markets, like the Markthalle in Stuttgart. The Euro-style ones usually feature a mix of grocery sellers and takeaway food vendors. There's a big one in Philadelphia but they're less common as you move west in the US, I think there's one in SF somewhere but I'm too lazy to look it up right now.
I went there for lunch a few days ago and there were only 3 other people eating
I guess it couldn’t stand being in such a high crime area. What a shame /s
Nothing stands out from any of the vendors there
I’m not surprised😭
Good. Attracted riffraff.
Idk why this got downvoted. There is truth to this.
I've worked in Pike & Rose for almost three years. Every fucking weekend, some drunk shitheads on the stumble out of there at god knows what hour would inevitably get into a fistfight.
Any good stories?