A Food Hall Dubbed ‘The Hall’ Is Headed to Atlanta’s Perimeter

A new food hall is headed to Dunwoody in the first quarter of 2021. The food hall, dubbed The Hall at Ashford Lane, opens by next spring inside the former Henredon Furniture store at Perimeter Place (soon to be renamed Ashford Lane) on Olde Perimeter Way.

Professional athlete-turned-entrepreneur Jamal Wilson first opened The Hall on Franklin in Tampa three years ago. It was meant to “revolutionize” the food hall concept by offering people seven restaurants and a bar under one roof. People have the option to order from the restaurant stalls themselves or opt for a more traditional, full-service dining experience, where people are seated, served, and guided through the menus by “Taste Architects.”

“The Hall manages all of the front of the house and operational aspects, so chefs can focus on delivering their culinary experience,” a representative for the Hall says.

The Atlanta location should operate in much the same way as its Tampa counterpart, with nine restaurant stalls planned for the food hall offering breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and cocktails from the food hall’s bar. Wilson is in the process of scouting chefs and food businesses to fill the stalls for the Hall in Atlanta, and for forthcoming locations in Orlando (The Hall on the Yard) and midtown Tampa. An additional location is slated to open in Nashville next fall.

The Hall is offering pre-approved financing packages for chefs and culinary businesses interested in opening a stall. Most food halls offer licenses rather than leases between stall operators and the landlord. A food stall license costs less than a month-to-month restaurant lease and averages one to three years in length. It typically covers rental fees, length of the license, dimensions of the stall, use of common space and storage, and scullery services and general maintenance.

“The goal of this program is to introduce, chef/entrepreneurs to a new and more balanced restaurant opportunity, allowing them to create or expand their business. As a chef, in order to open your own restaurant, it requires you to raise capital, ultimately ending up in you relinquishing large amounts of equity to investors, as accessing loans for a startup restaurant is beyond difficult…and this was before Covid,” Wilson tells Eater of the Hall’s finance packages. “I want to create an easier method of entry for chefs and allow them to keep 100% of their ownership.”