DESTIN, Fla. (WKRG) — A new restaurant concept is opening at the Destin Commons. The City Food Hall is set to have a Grand Opening on March 4 at 11 am.
Located at 4237 Legendary Drive in Destin, the food hall has nine different restaurants with open seating circling a center space bar.
Restaurant List:
- Birdies Nourished Kitchen – power food and smoothie bowls
- Likkle Jamdung Cuisine – Authentic Caribbean food
- Macho Taco – Mexican-Inspired Soul Food
- Nanbu Too – Japanese cuisine with Southern flair
- PB&J Bakery and Cafe – Health forward cafe with vegan and traditional options
- Pluma Chicken Co. – Miami-based Fried Chicken Company
- Poke Loa – New Orleans-based fresh fish dishes
- Tuk Tuk Thai – Authentic Thai street food
- Zaitoun – Greek and Middle Eastern dishes
“It’s been a long time in the making and you know to finally see people enjoying the space, enjoying all the vendors and seeing not only our goals come to life, but all the vendor’s goals and things like that as well is extremely special for us, and so we’re just super happy to get to finally get going,” said Kenzie Motai, Co-founder and COO of City Food Hall.
The project started when the owners said they wanted to bring a new atmosphere to Destin dining. The location held a soft launch for family and friends on March 1.
“We definitely want to be the place where people gather. We have an open layout so you’ll be able to come here for a meeting to do work, to get happy hour, or just to come here to eat and grab great drinks and use it as an entertainment space,” said Motai. “We also see it as a place to meet up with your friends to figure out maybe what you want to do for the rest of the night as well.”
Each restaurant has its own flavor so they do not compete. Motai said they searched for just the right chefs and businesses to be in the hall.
“We always try to approve the menus that the vendors put forward so that there’s no internal competition and everyone can have their own success within the hall,” said Motai. “Our expectation really was to find all the best chefs in the Panhandle and put them under one roof. We tried to work with as many local chefs as possible, which is always our goal. It’s not always possible to get all 10 locally, so for the people that are not local, we try to find those as close as possible.”
The restaurants sign a two-year lease. Motai said they can choose to stay after their lease or expand to the local area with their new clientele base. Some of the businesses inside are opening a store for the first time.
“We want to help people grow their businesses, their brands to become Better Business people and we want to continue to incubate all these different concepts and help them succeed,” said Motai.
The location also has two virtual Topgolf suites for adults and kids alike to play games like Golf, Football, Hockey, and much more.
Motai said the restaurants or center area does not take reservations, but the Topgolf suites do require a sign-up time.
More information about the Destin City Food Hall can be found online.
Motai said they are planning to open a second location in Gainsville, Fla. in 2023. More plans in the future expand the concept to Athens, Ga., and beyond.
