Story by: Donald Cazentre
Published: Originally posted on syracuse.com Sep 24, 2020
Syracuse, N.Y. — Salt City Market, the downtown food hall that will offer tastes from around the world, is pushing back its grand opening from this fall to January 2021.
Construction of the market in a former parking lot on South Salina Street across from the Marriott Downtown Syracuse hotel is going well, but there’s been a hold-up in some of the pieces needed for the project to be completed, said market manager Adam Sudmann.
One part, the “skin” of the building, is coming from Spain but has been delayed in part by a resurgence of the coronavirus there, Sudmann said. Another piece is delayed coming from Texas.
The $22 million project is funded by the Allyn Foundation, which created Syracuse Urban Partnership, a separate nonprofit to own the building and run the food hall.
When it opens, it will have ten vendors operating in stalls offering cuisines from places like Jamaica, Vietnam, Burma (Myanmar) and the American South. Eight of the vendors won spots in the market through a competitive process. Two newly added vendors, a Middle Eastern stand and a juice bar, are from established operators. The market will also host the Salt City Bar, a new cocktail venue associated with Salt City Coffee on West Onondaga Street.
Coming later in the spring will be the second location for the Syracuse Cooperative Market grocery store. (The market is keeping its current location in the Westcott neighborhood open).
Sudmann said the market is preparing for the January opening to be accompanied by the type of coronavirus safety protocols now in place for restaurants, such as mask requirements and social distancing.
Assuming the guidelines don’t change, that would also mean a limit of customers to 50% of capacity. But the market is fairly large with a regular capacity of about 400 people, Sudmann said.
“So even at half capacity, that’s 200 and that’s a a lot of people,” he said. There will also be places to pick up food to go.
During the summer, the market’s vendors had been showcasing their food through a series of Friday curbside pick-up dinners at the With Love restaurant, 435 N. Salina St. That series had stopped, but with the delay in opening the market it will resume in November and December, Sudmann said. Details are still being worked out.