Union Square’s popular food hall Union Fare is closing — its last day as a public food hall is Friday, Aug. 3, after which it will become a private event space.
Instead of a collection of restaurants, the self-proclaimed gastrohall is made up of various “contemporary American cuisine” stations like poke, Italian food, charcuterie and seafood, each with its own chef. Customers found out about Union Fare closing today from the chefs.
A representative who answered the reservation line at Union Fare’s sit-down restaurant confirmed that tomorrow would be the last day of service, and the restaurant would be closing for renovations. No reopening date has been set. We’ve reached out to Union Fare management for additional comment about their plans.
The Union Square-adjacent Union Fare opened in June 2016, taking over the former Barnes & Noble at 6 E. 18th St. As well as being a food hall, Union Fare included a restaurant, a cafe by day/wine bar by night, and private dining rooms in the basement, spanning more than 50,000 square feet.
Popular as both a neighborhood lunch spot and a more intimate dinner destination, Union Fare was beloved for its variety and warm industrial ambiance. Like Eataly and Le District, Union Fare is owned by a single company as a themed collection of food stations with their own chefs who were given free rein within their theme, Union Fare development director Ryan Harris told Metro in 2016.
“Where a lot of restaurateurs will control everything, we really let the leash out a little bit because we really wanted these guys to play to their strengths,” Harris said.
The food hall is also famous outside of New York City for Union Fare Bakery’s cream-filled croissants, which took over Instagram in July 2016. Pastry chef Thiago Silva (formerly of Catch) created endless varieties of the treat, from the Birthday Cake Croissant made of funfetti dough wrapped around rich pastry cream to an Everything Bagel-spiced lobster croissant, way before everything spice became a major trend this year.
In March 2017, Union Fare announced it would open a second food hall on the West Side right next to the 28th Street entrance of the High Line in Fall 2017. That location never opened.
Whatever the cause for the switch in restaurant concepts, New York City’s food hall trend shows no sign of cooling — despite some restaurant discovering it’s not so great to be part of them. Here are the new food halls that have opened just within the last year or so: North 3rd Street Market in Williamsburg, Urbanspace at 570 Lex in Midtown, Canal Street Market in Chinatown, Dekalb Market Hall in Downtown Brooklyn and City Acres Market in the Financial District.
Still to come are food halls by Jean-Georges Vongerichten at the Seaport District and a Spanish food hall called Mercado by renowned humanitarian chef Jose Andres at Hudson Yards.
