Last year, the Washington Post declared that food halls were “having a moment,” and it appears that moment continues with a forthcoming spot called Feria Food Hall in Mount Vernon Square.
Feria Food Hall will be located at Anthem Row, the forthcoming development on K Street NW between 7th and 8th streets, according to promotional materials on brokerage website StreetSense | CBRE. Washington Business Journal first flagged the new leasing flyer. Information about vendors or other participants in the venture was not available. The Meridian Group, the development company behind Anthem Row, has declined a request for comment.
The food hall isn’t the first business to commit to Anthem Row, which is located across the street from the new Apple store at the Carnegie Library and near the upscale CityCenterDC.
Luxury fitness club Equinox signed a lease back in late 2016 for nearly 34,000 square feet in the development. Less than a year later, Truluck’s—a fine-dining seafood, steak, and crab house with outposts in Florida, California, and Texas—inked a 20-year lease, according to Restaurant News. At the time of the announcement in 2017, the plan was for the restaurant to open by March 2019. It’s unclear what the current timeline for the building is.
The building complex being rechristened as Anthem Row was previously called Techworld Plaza when Meridian purchased it in 2014. In addition to the more than 60,000 square feet of retail space, there is also 400,000 square feet for offices.
A look at Anthem Row’s site plans shows that Feria Food Hall will be located on the ground floor, and a mezzanine on the second floor will look down on it. The space for the food hall is about 17,000 square feet. There are two more spaces still available for lease on the ground floor.
Feria will join a few other food halls getting ready to open in the District. (In case you were wondering, a food hall differs from, say, a food court, because it is the main event, rather than an incidental place to dine in the midst of viewing something or shopping, per the Post.) La Cosecha, the Latin American market in the Union Market neighborhood, will begin its soft open on Thursday. And The Block, the Asian-inspired food hall which opened in Annandale, Va. and has another location planned for Bethesda, is planning to make its D.C. debut close to Farragut North. The D.C. location appears behind schedule, though: its website says it is “Coming soon Spring/Summer 2019.”
In the storybook for the rebranded development in Mount Vernon Square, a map describes some of D.C.’s neighborhoods with a series of adjectives. Shaw, for example, is “residential, edgy, gritty,” while H Street is “multicultural, lively, textured.” Downtown, where Anthem Row is located, is considered “innovative, contemporary, dynamic.”
This story has been updated to note that the Meridian Group has declined to comment, and to note that, despite the spelling on the promotional materials, the food hall will be called Feria Food Hall.
Rachel Kurzius