New food hall serves a variety of palates in downtown Evansville
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A unique culinary experience awaits Evansville foodies in the downtown area. The city’s first food hall, Main Street Food & Beverage, held its grand opening at 900 Main Street on July 7. Jacob and Lauren Vanhooser of Nashville and Augie and Kaitlin Carrington of Cincinnati own the business. The Vanhoosers are originally from the Evansville region.
What’s a food hall? It’s similar to a food court in a shopping mall, but the food vendors are in a standalone building without retail stores. After customers order and receive their meals, they dine in a communal area cafeteria-style.
While chain restaurants usually fill food courts, food halls tend to house local artisan vendors. Co-owner Lauren Vanhooser told Inside INdiana Business the food hall is a novelty that Evansville needed. “There aren’t many casual food concepts that you can frequent that have a great atmosphere and appeal to a variety of palates,” she said.
Six vendors and a bar currently inhabit Main Street Food & Beverage:
- That Place serves salads, bowls and paninis.
- Milk & Sugar Scoop Shoppe offers ice cream and sweet treats.
- Burrito Express Mexican Grill & Food Truck cooks authentic Mexican cuisine.
- Downtown Grill has gourmet hot dogs and sandwiches.
- Bayou Boys creates cajun cuisine.
- Nomod comes up with eclectic small plates.
- The Bar at Main Street Food & Beverage sells wine, beer, seltzers and cocktails.
Vanhooser added there’s still room in the food hall for other business opportunities. “We have a flex space that’s attached to the food hall, and we’ve kind of thrown around some ideas. But we want it to be cohesive with the space and for it to be something that’s a good use and makes sense,” she said.
Inspiration from out west
The Vanhoosers got the idea to open a food hall after visiting one in Colorado several years ago. In Denver, they discovered the luxury of dining together while exploring different tastes.
“The great thing about a food hall is that it’s casual. It offers a variety of cuisines. My husband’s palate is not as adventurous as mine, so this was the first time we both were able to find something we were excited and happy about,” said Vanhooser.
As the couple visited family in Evansville over the years, they yearned for more dining options. Eventually, the pair got serious about the food hall idea and started looking at properties. Their first potential location was a building on Carpenter Street. However, after someone came in with a different use for the structure, the Vanhoosers and their partners set their sights on the historic Firestone building on Main Street.
“It had this open space, big garage doors, very conducive to what we had envisioned a food hall being or what we had experienced in our travels,” Vanhooser said. “This building was a lot more turnkey for what we wanted to do. The other one didn’t have a covered patio. This has two huge covered patios.”
After settling on the Main Street building, the owners searched for vendors to move into the space and start cooking their specialties. “We worked with someone who has restaurant experience within the Evansville industry,” said Vanhooser. “He put us in touch with [potential vendors]. And some of that was organic as well from people hearing about it.”
Attracting the vendors
When Sarah Blythe, owner of That Place, got word of the new food hall, she was eager to learn more. “I saw it advertised and contacted the leasing agent. I just fit perfectly with what they wanted—small businesses,” Blythe told Inside INdiana Business.
Blythe, one of Main Street Food & Beverage’s first-time business owners, has wanted to open a restaurant for as long as she can remember. “I took some time to explore some different fields. Then I decided there wasn’t anything else I really enjoyed doing,” she said. “And if I was going to spend my life working, I didn’t want to work for somebody else.”
According to Vanhooser, the food hall contains a mix of business owners in various stages. “For a few folks, this is either an additional location, or they’ve transferred their location to our food hall,” she said. “We also have some startups where this is their first time being restaurant owners, whether they had a food truck or had experience within the food industry.” For example, Bayou Boys moved into the food hall from a food truck. Milk & Sugar Scoop Shoppe has two other locations on Franklin Street in Evansville and Highway 66 in Posey County.
For the vendors, setting up in a food hall instead of investing in a standalone restaurant has many benefits. One of the primary advantages is less capital. “I was looking to get my foot in the door without having to pay $300,000 just to open up,” said Blythe.
With a food hall, all the utilities and sanitation licenses for food handling are already in place, according to Josh Armstrong, president of the Downtown Evansville Economic Improvement District. “You get an individual one for your practice, but those operators don’t have to worry about grease traps, hoods and walk-in refrigerators. Those are very expensive things that are needed to start a standalone restaurant,” he said.
Food hall vendors have lower overhead expenses too. Each business pays a rental fee plus its share of the utilities based on meters. “All of [the vendors] are locked into annual leases. Some are longer than others. They have to bring forth their equipment. We had the electricians and the plumbers come into the spaces, so it’s all fitted to suit their needs,” said Vanhooser.
Operating in a food hall also has advantages over working out of a food truck. Armstrong said the Vanderburgh County Health Department requires food trucks to have licensed preparation facilities for any work outside the vehicle.
“So in addition to buying a truck, fitting your truck, and putting the equipment you need in it, you also need to have a place where you can make your sauces, prep your vegetables or shape your hamburger patties,” he said. “Anything that you wouldn’t do on the truck has to be done in a licensed establishment. Those operators struggle sometimes finding that licensed space, and [the food hall] simplifies all of that.”
While a food truck must travel to neighborhoods and events to find customers, that’s not a concern with a food hall. “[Customers are] coming to us, especially with the location, with it being downtown. The location the owners chose was phenomenal. The building looks great,” said Blythe.
In addition, the entrepreneur appreciates the camaraderie of being near other restaurant owners. “It’s really a community of vendors. If you’re in the middle of a stressful day, you have other vendors to talk to and get advice from, who have experience or are learning themselves,” Blythe said.
The ‘phenomenal’ location
The former Firestone Tire and Rubber Store, which opened in 1930, is listed in the National Register of Historic Places. “It’s a drive-through building,” said Armstrong. “There’s almost like two buildings on either side in this area you can go through, where people would have pulled in, and their tires could have been addressed in the middle of winter or during rain.” Neighboring structures include the Curtis Building, La Mexicana Restaurant and Someplace Else Nightclub.
Armstrong said the food hall will give thousands of daily workers a new place for lunch and draw in other people who don’t typically visit the area because of parking issues or other reasons. “It showcases the consumer areas of downtown are expanding. This is on a block of Main that’s kind of off the beaten path. It’s great to demonstrate that we continue to have this consumer growth,” he said.
Vanhooser also envisions the food hall as a catalyst for other downtown activities. “We’re trying to create that environment in Evansville where not only are you there to eat but hang out, and have a space where people can watch a band on Friday night or go to a game,” she said.
With opening weekend in the rearview mirror, the food hall’s owners and vendors are focusing on day-to-day operations. “With any opening, you’re going to have your fair share of things that you need to refine. But we are open. It was a success in regards to people turning out, and I think the city was excited,” Vanhooser said. “We have a few kinks that we found out we need to work through and stuff like that, but other than that, it went smooth,” Blythe added.
Vanhooser said the owners will support the vendors whether the food hall is a starting point or a stationary solution for their businesses. “We want them to be successful, and we want to position them to where they can be successful to the point where if they outgrow us and need a larger space, then by all means we want to essentially help promote their growth,” she said.
“I feel like the tides are starting to turn in Evansville and the downtown food scene, and hopefully, we can just continue to help snowball that in the right direction,” Vanhooser added.
Main Street Food & Beverage is open Monday through Friday from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. to 9 p.m., Saturday from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.