Taste Of The Town: Midtown Food Hall Showcases Chef-Driven Food Concepts
Follow CBSMIAMI.COM: Facebook | Twitter
MIAMI (CBSMiami) -- St. Roch Market Miami is an upscale marketplace featuring 12 chef-driven food concepts with cuisine from all over the world. St. Roch is named after a neighborhood in New Orleans where the original market was created back in 2006. Will Donaldson is its founder.
"I have been a lifelong entrepreneur and I wanted to make a space where restaurants can get off the ground and that's really the idea. In Miami, it takes a minimum of $2 million to get off the ground. It's so expensive and so I wanted to create a space where we could essentially share the cost," said Donaldson.
The 12 concepts, which feature everything from homemade Italian and Vietnamese to vegan desserts and more, pay about $20-thousand in all for their mini start-up restaurants.
"St. Roch is a mission-oriented thing. It's a beautiful food hall and all of them are owners of their businesses that are trying to show you something you haven't seen before," Donaldson explained.
In the spacious food hall, there's also a large center bar which features craft cocktails as well as wines and craft beers.
Among the 12 eateries is a Coop where the three Rodriguez brothers and Maria Torres, the fiance of Robert Rodriguez, cook classic Southern food made from scratch, like their mouth-watering best selling sandwich call the "Lil Hot One" made with brined and fried chicken topped with handmade slaw and pickles.
"This is a really fantastic way for kind of the little guy to get their foot in the door, Miami is large and growing market when it comes to restaurants and this makes it really accessible not just for us but for all vendors and customers," said Torres.
Over at Jaffa, an Israeli concept, owner Yaniv Cohen, who calls himself 'The Spice Detective' on Instagram, prepares a beautiful three-tiered chicken shwarma platter complete with a delicious Israeli salad. Cohen says Saint Roch is something special.
"This is the future. It's like a shared economy. We share the kitchen, the energy, and everybody's like a family," said Cohen.
Chef and author Chloe Coscarelli, a popular vegan chef and author specializing in amazing vegan desserts, couldn't be happier with her busy food station.
"We just opened up here at St. Roch Market serving salads and a bunch of vegan pastries and its just been so much fun serving the people of Miami," she said.
Foodies will find themselves in sheer bliss at the St. Roch Market, trying anything and everything all under one chic and trendy roof.
Saint Roch Market is open 7 days a week - breakfast, lunch, and dinner. It's located in the Miami Design District at 140 NE 39th Street.
