A new chef-driven food hall in the Richmond-Adelaide Centre is hoping to shake up the culinary landscape of the restaurant chain-dominated downtown core.

Assembly Chef’s Hall, opening Nov. 1, is a 18,000-square-foot street level operation at 111 Richmond St. W. that will feature offshoots from 17 independent GTA-based restaurants and a 205-seat beer hall (plus an 3,000-square-foot outdoor patio slated for next summer.)

Open seven days a week, the 638-seat indoor marketplace will also host community building programming from live music and chef events to a breakfast speaker series.

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Assembly comes on the heels of the success of summer markets including Adelaide Eats (formerly Front Street Foods), and shows that the popularity of food halls overseas — think Harrods Food Hall in London, Isetan Food Hall in Tokyo and La Grande Epicerie de Paris — is making its way to Toronto.

The city already has Saks food hall by Pusateri’s, a gourmet food market in the Toronto Eaton Centre opened last November. Single-purveyor Eataly and Mediterranean-themed Campo mini food hall are slated for the Manulife Centre in Yorkville and the corner of King St. W. and Spadina Ave., respectively.

Unlike traditional food courts, which focus on convenience, food halls focus on quality food from a mix of chefs with a fast-casual concept that is touted as affordable and convenient.

“The reason you’d come to our chef’s hall is because you’re looking for food that’s handcrafted by a highly skilled individual, as opposed to eating processed food,” says Assembly’s president and developer Andreas Antoniou.

Antoniou is also managing partner of nearby Volos, Little Anthony’s, Los Colibris and El Caballito.

He’s recruited a diverse roster of what he calls “best-in-class” chefs and restaurants, including Lawrence LaPianta of Cherry St. Bar-B-Que, Amira Becarevic, formerly of the Chase, and Ivana Raca of Parkdale’s Raca Café & Bar.

Assembly offshoots will focus on a few signature items from the restaurants’ usual menus. Offerings will run from a 42-ingredient vegan salad to turmeric lattes, ramen to khao soi.

“My customers tell me, ‘if you were downtown, I’d be there every night,’ ” Raca says, noting she couldn’t afford a core location on her own. The food hall model allows her to open a downtown restaurant for a fraction of what it would typically cost. Assembly is responsible for waste management, equipment maintenance and even marketing and PR communications. In turn, chefs like Raca can focus on doing what they do best — cooking.

Antoniou is counting on quality food to draw diners, which is important to the profit-share model.

“When they’re successful, we’re successful,” he says.

The development is targeting those who live and work downtown, especially millennials. According to a 2016 report by commercial real estate service firm Cushman & Wakefield, food halls are the next evolution of foodie culture, driven by both celebrity chefs and the push to eat responsibly sourced fare, a move millennials are championing. (The same report found the number of existing food hall projects in the U.S. had risen 37.1 per cent in the first nine months of 2016, with more on the way.)

Finding fast, healthy and freshly prepared options is a frequent dilemma for Siva Jega, 26, an IT analyst at the Exchange Tower in the First Canadian Place complex at 130 King St. W.

When the subject of food markets — such as Adelaide Eats, a summer-only outdoor pop-up on the second-floor terrace of Adelaide Place — is brought up, he bursts with excitement: “Dude, if there’s something like that I’d go there all the time!”

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It’s that enthusiasm that Assembly and its vendors are counting on.

“Most people often don’t make healthy choices a priority due to busy schedules,” says Becarevic, whose outpost will focus on healthy offerings. “So we are bringing the option to you in a fast-casual environment and sneaking in all kinds of amazingly beneficial ingredients that just happen to taste great.”

What’s on offer

Amira Becarevic, former chef de cuisine at the Chase

Assembly offshoot: Mira Mira

Cuisine: Health-driven

Signature dish: Kimchi Chicken and Kale Sunflower Caesar

Eating well has improved Becarevic’s health and mood. This classically trained chef aims to fuel others with boldly flavoured dishes made up of “healthy fats, proteins from high-quality ingredients, lots of leafy greens and colourful vegetables.”

Lawrence LaPianta of Cherry St. Bar-B-Que

Assembly offshoot: Cherry St. Bar-B-Que

Cuisine: Texas-style barbecue

Signature dish: Central Texas-style salt and pepper brisket that’s been cooked low and slow on oak wood

Since all his food is cooked on an offset smoker, LaPianta has added another smoker to his restaurant to accommodate the increased production. He’s hinted he will serve daily specials featuring collaborations with other Assembly members.

Ivana Raca of Raca Café & Bar

Assembly offshoot: Resto Boemo

Cuisine: French and Italian comfort foods. Raca describes it as “Bohemian free-spirited.”

Signature dish: Gnocchi

The Mark McEwan protege, who has gone on to work with two catering companies, Raca Cafe and Bar Catering and Ufficio Restaurant, plans to tap into her network once a month to invite chef friends — from Susur Lee to McEwan — to create and cook a featured dish for a day.

Correction — October 25, 2017: This article was edited from a previous version that misstated the seating numbers and size of the hall and patio.