City's newest food hall set to open next week

Venture brings new life to downtown building

- KARON LIU

Workers put the final touches on the 55,000square-foot Waterworks Food Hall on Tuesday. The new location features a mix of cafés, bars, bakeries and restaurant offshoots under one roof at 499 Richmond St. W.

While the city has seen a slew of food halls open in recent years, few are able to say they’re housed in a heritage building that takes up an entire city block.

Final construction touches such installing signs, as well as vendors doing practice services runs, are underway at the 55,000-squarefoot Waterworks Food Hall, a mix of cafés, bars, bakeries and offshoots of existing restaurants under one roof at 499 Richmond St. W. (at Brant Street, just west of Spadina). Slated to open to the public next Wednesday, it is built inside what was once a Depression-era, city-owned public works building that sat vacant for years, and coincidentally, was once the site of the city’s earliest public markets.

“Our background is in heritage properties but we’re also committed to keeping spaces open to the public,” said Eve Lewis, CEO of Woodcliffe, the developer behind other heritage buildings as the North Toronto Station (better known as the Summerhill LCBO) and the Gooderham Flatiron Building. “Many historic buildings like this in Europe have been turned into a food hall. These are concepts that people will revisit and we hope this becomes a neighbourhood place.”

Woodcliffe took over the Waterworks building in 2015 with the original goal of opening in 2021, but as with most construction projects, the pandemic put everything on hold. Upon opening in July, the Waterworks Food Hall will be open Sunday to Wednesday 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. and Thursday to Saturday from 11 a.m. to midnight.

The list of vendors includes:

■ Torched sushi and hand rolls from Aburi Sushi

■ Jewish-style deli and barbecue from Dave’s Genuine Deli

■ Harry’s Charbroiled burgers