In April, Parkway, Longmont's first food hall, announced seven of its eight food concepts. They include Chile Con Quesadilla; H3sh3r barbecue; Spice Fusion, from the owners of Boulder’s Gurkhas on the Hill; and two concepts that also have outposts in Denver's Junction Food & Drink, Cleaver & Co. and Shawarma Shack.
Two concepts from the team behind Farow, a farm-to-table restaurant in Niwot, are also operating at Parkway: Baa Hachi, which serves Japanese street food, and Pie Dog, which specializes in thin-crust Neapolitan brick-oven pizza.
The eighth vendor, which was the last to be announced, is HipPOPs, which makes handcrafted gelato bars.
Reena Duwal has been in the restaurant business since 2005 and is one of four partners at Spice Fusion, which blends Thai, Nepalese and Indian fare. Some of her favorite menu items are the chicken tikka masala, the momo dumplings and pad Thai. "When people come in, they are not stuck to just one food," Duwal says of the benefits of a food hall operation.
Rob Sloma, Parkway's general manager, has been managing food halls for much of his career. When Sloma heard that there was a vacant grocery store in the middle of town, he jumped at the opportunity to help transform it. "I love the community within a community," Sloma says about his passion for food halls. "We have over one hundred people that work between all these different places, and I love watching that culture develop."
Sloma hopes that Parkway becomes a community gathering place. "We have fifteen 85-inch TVs, we have a huge floor plan, so we're going to throw parties all the time," he notes. "We're going to bring in all sorts of events — goat yoga, Taylor Swift parties, ’80s-themed prom parties."
Parkway has a full-service bar offering cocktails that pair with much of the food available on site.
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One, David Petechuk, stopped by while waiting for an appointment. A native of Rifle, Petechuk currently lives in Costa Rica but is back in town to see a doctor and visit his family. Spice Fusion caught his eye because Thai food is hard to come by in his Costa Rican town. "This is pretty cool to have this in the middle of the business center. You know, it's good for the workers. It's good for people coming in, like me," Petechuk says.
The space also includes an arcade, and it will soon add two retail concepts.
The building has been owned by Blackfox Parkway Associates for thirty years. In a press release, its vice president, Chris Nehls, says, “We couldn’t be more excited to welcome folks into Parkway Food Hall. Every detail was chosen to make a space that is inclusive and fun for the entire community. From dawn to dusk, this is the place for a morning meeting, a business lunch, a happy hour exploring the cocktail program with friends, a date night for parents, weeknight dinners for families, and a weekend spot to watch the game.”
Parkway Food Hall is located at 700 Ken Pratt Boulevard in Longmont and is open from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sunday, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Thursday (food stalls close at 9 p.m.), and 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday (food stalls close at 10 p.m.). For more information, visit parkwayfoodhall.com.
