Olaf Growald
A new name, new vendors, and new design elements give West Seventh’s Food Hall a lifeline.
When the Food Hall at Crockett Row opened two years ago, hopes were high it would help bring food lovers back to the West Seventh area. As most local foodies know, West Seventh’s rep as a restaurant destination has been all but snuffed out by the proliferation of neighborhood bars and accompanying idiocy.
For a while, it looked as though the Food Hall may have accomplished its mission, as patrons packed in for superb burgers at John Tesar’s Knife, cheffy sandwiches at Butler’s Cabinet, and housemade pizzas at Abe Froman’s.
But the newness faded, and vendors fled. COVID-19 stunted its growth even more, fueling speculation the Food Hall’s days were numbered.
This past summer, the Food Hall was given something most eateries are not, especially in the middle of a pandemic: a second chance. It now has a new name, Crockett Hall, new management team and 15 food and beverage options, nearly a dozen of which are new.
Crockett Hall’s rebirth is thanks to Bruce Russo of B. Russo Designs in Dallas. He and his firm designed the original Food Hall but came back aboard this summer in a new capacity: to give the place a complete facelift.
Russo removed most of the space’s partitions and added luxury seating elements, such as high-end couches and pub stools and tables. He also installed new lighting, custom millwork, marble finishes, a redesigned bar and lounge area, an expanded patio space, and new garage doors that’ll lift up when the weather’s nice.
“It’s more like a restaurant now, less like a food court,” he said recently as he led a media tour. “From the lighting to the seating, we basically started over from scratch. If you’d been here before, you probably won’t even recognize it now.”
There are 11 new food and beverage vendors: Crockett Row Coffee; Salurrito, where you can build your own salads and burritos; a savory and sweet potpie spot, Polly’s Pot Pies; a pizza and Neopolitan-style pizza shop, Piccolo Italia; Cheeseapalooza, which serves gourmet mac and cheese and grilled cheese sandwiches; Clayton’s Grill, a burger and wings spot; Joey’s Sandwich Shop, a New York-style deli; and Cantina Paseo, the hall’s rebranded bar.
Two more vendors will soon open: Fort Worth Popcorn Company and Taco Paseo. The latter will occupy its own space, next door.
Still standing are original vendors Val’s Cheesecakes, Aina Poke, Not Just Q, and Shawarma Bar.
Russo says Crockett Hall is very much a here-and-now, 2020-type of endeavor. “One reason why we took out the partitions was to give people more space to social distance,” he says. “You have more room to move around, a bigger patio, more places to sit. We put a lot of thought into the food but also the atmosphere and what a restaurant needs to look and feel like in this new world.”
3000 Crockett Row, crocketthall.com