Photo courtesy EDENS
D.C. will find out if it’s ready for a second destination food hall this weekend when Union Market, a new culinary emporium on the same site where the old Centre Market and Union Terminal Market once inhabited, opens its doors.
The renovated 47,000-square-foot warehouse on Fifth Street NE a block off Florida Avenue is the work of EDENS, the retail developer that runs a string of plazas, shopping malls and other consumer playgrounds up and down the East Coast. While Eastern Market has been drawing food-lovers to Capitol Hill for more than a century with its independent grocers and farmers’ markets, EDENS is banking on the new space attracting gourmands with a lineup of several dozen artisanal vendors and rotating pop-up merchants.
Among the vendors installed for Union Market’s opening are Rappahannock Oysters Co., the mixologist Gina Chersevani, Righteous Cheese, Peregrine Espresso, Lyon Bakery and offshoots of the food trucks DC Empanadas and TaKorean. The targeted appeal is obvious. Where Eastern Market offers an upscale and occasionally off-kilter grocery-shopping experience, Union Market is serving up more ready-to-consume stuff, like artisanal pickles and freshly mixed cocktails. It will also be the new home of the late, lamented Capital City Diner, which man-about-the-Internet Matt Ashburn sold to Edens in April.
The location, though, seems like it could leave Union Market sticking out like a giant white thumb in the middle of a neighborhood that is filled with rundown warehouses and other scarred buildings. A short walk from the glassy new office buildings First Street NE, Union Market’s aesthetic feels very much like the vanguard of the next phase of the gentrification of Near Northeast.
But Union Market is also positioning itself as a venue for craft-driven events. A pricey dinner in June featured dishes by a gallery of Washington’s buzziest chefs, including Mike Isabella, Bryan Voltaggio, Nora Pouillon and Jamie Leeds. Washington City Paper announced earlier this week that it is moving its annual Crafty Bastards arts-and-crafts fair the food hall and that the event will now charge admission.
The event on Sunday, however, is far more egalitarian—the DC Scoop, a battle royale of indie ice-cream makers. The frosty showdown begins 1 p.m., and with free admission comes free samples.
