Chicago cuisine has made a name for itself with the likes of deep-dish pizza and Chicago-style hot dogs. In recent years, the city’s appetite for plant-based food has grown. Since 2021, locals have welcomed and embraced Chicago’s first vegan ice cream shop, the city’s first plant-based Mexican restaurant, and even the country’s first vegan empanada shop.
Soon, Chicago will also have the largest vegan food hall in the Midwest. Scheduled to open later this summer, the XMarket Vegan Food Hall is 6,500 square feet and can seat 375 people. Upon check-in, guests will be able to dine at six restaurants, dine at a wine and beer bar, and get their morning fill at a coffee shop.
PlantX
XMarket Vegan Food Hall is the latest concept from PlantX, a digital lifestyle platform and e-commerce site committed to making plant-based living more accessible. To bring the concept to life, PlantX tapped Macromia Group, industry experts skilled in food hall operations.
“Chicago has emerged as one of the largest vegan and health-conscious communities in North America, making it an ideal location to launch our all-in-one vegan food hall concept,” PlantX CEO Lorne Rapkin said in a statement.
The largest vegan food hall in the Midwest
Located in Uptown Chicago, XMarket Vegan Food Hall occupies the space formerly occupied by XMarket, a chain of vegan grocery stores from PlantX. While PlantX successfully operated XMarket outposts in Venice, CA and Ontario, Canada, the company decided to close its Chicago location for one main reason: it was too big.
“Full-blown grocery stores with produce and everything work in a big space. But for us, all vegan products [XMarket carries] Really grab your attention, and you don’t need all that space,” Alex Hoffman, PlantX’s chief marketing officer, told VegNews.
PlantX
“Our store in Venice Beach is 700 square feet, and we have every product in the vegan world in that 700 square feet. We’ve tried to do that. [in Chicago]But we felt things were getting lost and they deserved attention.”
While PlantX was committed to recreating the “bodega vibe” it accomplished in Venice, company leaders knew they wanted to do more with the 6,500 square feet of retail space in Uptown Chicago. And thus, XMarket Vegan Food Hall was born.
Locals who rely on XMarket for vegan pantry staples needn’t worry. The XMarket Vegan Food Hall will feature a bodega-style, plant-based grocery store with its own vegan cheesemonger.
Plant-based restaurants at XMarket Vegan Food Hall
Billed as the ultimate one-stop shop, the XMarket Vegan Food Hall was designed to keep visitors entertained throughout the day. After enjoying a meal at one of six in-house concepts, guests can pick up pantry essentials at the grocery store, visit the coffee shop, or enjoy a drink at the wine and beer bar, where the vegan wine bar will provide food and wine pairings.
Apart from food, beverages and groceries, PlantX will host a variety of events to entertain visitors. Equipped with large viewing screens, the XMarket Vegan Food Hall will host game days and live music events—all indoors to provide shelter from Chicago’s notorious winter weather.
PlantX
But what vegetarian restaurant visitors can expect? While PlantX has yet to announce the featured dishes, Hoffman told VeganNews that they will be concepts that Chicago natives already know and love.
“These are existing concepts, but their food hall menus will be slightly different than their freestanding locations,” she says. “We want to offer guests something unique and we want to [the restaurants] Complementing each other and not competing with each other. There won’t be room for two burgers, [for example]”
PlantX will announce its in-house restaurants in the next two weeks In addition to these six permanent concepts, the XMarket Vegan Food Hall will also house pop-ups on a three-month, rotating basis. Not only does this keep food offerings exciting for locals, it also offers chefs a platform to reach new audiences.
“A new vegetarian restaurant might be looking at the Chicago market or want to test their concept, and [our rotating pop-up series] It’s a great way for chefs to come in, try something and then open something bigger,” says Hoffman.
And while PlantX is focusing on the Chicago market for its premier vegan food hall, the company hopes to bring the same concept to more US cities through a franchise model.
In the meantime, Chicago locals can visit the XMarket Vegan Food Hall during its soft launch at the end of August, with a grand opening following Labor Day weekend.
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Jocelyn Martinez is an Associate Editor at VegNews living in Los Angeles, CA.