DeRusha Eats: Market At Malcolm Yards Food Hall
- The Market at Malcolm Yards Food hall is now open
- 9 restaurants, pour-your-own beer, and a cocktail bar all near Surly Brewing in Minneapolis
- Patricia Wall worked on the project for 6 years, through a fire, roof collapse, and pandemic
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- Sushi rolls, smash burgers, and vegetarian grain bowls – not a combination you'd expect at any one restaurant, but it feels right inside the Twin Cities newest food hall, The Market at Malcolm Yards.
"It's incredible," said founder and CEO Patricia Wall, who has spent her career working in the culinary industry.
Wall bought the former Harris Machinery Building in 2016 and started recruiting to fill it with a number of different small restaurants.
"I have no idea. I started meeting and doing tastings and one chef would tell another chef," she said.
When she and her family's company got involved in the building it was in tremendous disrepair. There had been a fire, a roof collapse, and tremendous vandalism and graffiti. It was a sad state for a building that had been a hub of manufacturing for more than 100 years. Dreamers built railroad cars; boiler parts, and camping equipment in this building.
Today, dreams are under construction again – only they're building charcuterie plates on Sunday at the Market and Detroit-style pizza at Wrecktangle.
"The pizzas are built on top of a focaccia dough, which is surprisingly light and airy," said Wrecktangle's owner Jeff Rogers.
The hit of the market so far is Abang Yoli, a southeast Asian-inspired restaurant featuring Korean Fried Chicken.
"This is actually the food I had growing up," said Jamie Yoo, who lost his job as a sous chef when Bellecour in Wayzata closed during the pandemic.
"Before I opened I made fried chicken every day for two months to create this recipe," Yoo laughed. "It's been really really crazy, it's been busy all day."
Some of the vendors already have other locations, like Minnetonka's Del Sur Empanadas, Bagu Sushi in South Minneapolis, Wrecktangle Pizza at North Loop Market Food Hall, Lowry Hill ice cream joint Bebe Zito. Others come from people with restaurant experience, like the Gorkha Palace team behind Momo Dosa, the former chef at Young Joni and Mill Valley Kitchen who runs Advellum, and the chef from Guilia who opened the red sauce Italian spot Joey Meatballs.
"This is a lot more approachable, fun, I'm cooking food I would like and my family would like," said Josh Hedquist, as he served up gnocchi and a giant Peterson Farms meatball.
All are separate restaurants, but Malcolm Yards is designed to feel like one spot. When you arrive you open a tab, and use a special card to "pay" at each restaurant. You can pour your own beer and pay by the ounce; or grab one of the 19 cocktails. Then when you're done, you drop the card in a box and you're all set.
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"One of the keys to success to other food halls around the country is the ability to walk around with a drink and have it feel like one singular place," said Wall.
Veteran Twin Cities bartender and consultant Nick Kosevich created the cocktails for Boxcar Bar and they're all on tap. That leads to high quality, consistency, and fast service.
"On a busy Saturday we might have 1,000 people in here, we want to take care of people quickly," said Kosevich.
He's also paired signature drinks with every vendor at Malcolm Yards. So order a beautiful grains and veggie bowl from Advellum; drink a Snap Pea Tom Collins with gin and a citrus elixir. Get a cheese and meat plate from Sun-Day at the Market, get an All Day Rose Sangria with a hint of lemongrass, lavender and cinnamon.
"Nineteen cocktails can be overwhelming. We want people to look at where they got their food, get the drink and trust us, it's going to be great," said Kosevich.
The lineup of talent is impressive. After all these years, Wall can't wait to see how things work out.
"For how long I worked on it, I never imagined what it would be like to have people in here," laughed Wall.
The Market at Malcolm Yards
501 30th Ave SE,
Minneapolis, MN 55414
https://malcolmyards.market/
OPEN: Sunday – Thursday: 11-10pm*;
Friday & Saturday: 11-11pm *
*Kitchens close 1 hour prior to closing time