Episode description

Have you visited a food hall recently? It’s a venue bringing together multiple independent food and drink businesses, often with communal seating.

We look at the ways in which food halls are being used to bring consumers and spend to new areas, raising the value of surrounding offices, apartments and other businesses.

In this programme Devina Gupta visits Society food hall in Manchester in the UK, where she meets Julia Martinelli, who manages the pizza offering from Noi Quattro restaurant and Reece Gibson, operations manager for Vocation Brewery which runs the bar.

Mariko Oi in Singapore reports from the Maxwell Hawker Centre in Singapore, to explore how today’s food halls have evolved from street food traders.

Frode Rønne Malmo from Mathallen in Oslo, Norway and Spiros Loukopoulos, from Reffen in Copenhagen, Denmark talk about the ways in which their food halls have brought people to the surrounding area. Food hall consultant Philip Colicchio in New York in the US explains why this business model has been so popular.

Presented by Devina Gupta.

Produced by Beatrice Pickup.

Additional reporting by Mariko Oi.

(Image: a man and a woman enjoying plates of food in a food hall. Credit: Getty Images/BBC)