More than a year after the unexpected closure of the former Little Italy Food Hall, a new multi-concept venue featuring pizza, lobster, burgers and Thai food has taken its place on the fringe of the bustling Piazza della Famiglia.
Global Fork Food Hall, the brainchild of San Diego-based Tiger Hospitality, opened late last month, about six months later than hoped, due to permitting delays with the city of San Diego.
The more than $3 million project involved gutting the former space and redesigning it with a more inviting, elevated look, says Tiger Hospitality’s chief operating officer, Jim Krieger. That includes a new indoor-outdoor bar that features electronically controlled shelves of liquor that move up and down.
San Diego’s new Global Fork Food Hall in Little Italy features a large indoor-outdoor bar that features movable shelves of liquor bottles. (Lori Weisberg /The San Diego Union-Tribune)
Despite the closure of the former food hall after a seven-year run, Krieger says he’s confident Global Fork will do well, especially given its prime location in one of San Diego’s more popular neighborhoods. Tiger Hospitality already runs a food hall in San Clemente and soon will open another in La Jolla.
“Being in a very high-density area with all the local residents, plus the tourists who like to come through that area — and our diverse offerings in a unique setting — gives us an optimistic feel,” he said. “Our expectation isn’t to take away from all the other places in Little Italy, but to enhance the area and bring more people down for yet another great option.”
Global Fork is already offering live music on Friday and Saturday nights and is hoping to add other activities to enliven the piazza, Krieger added.
“There are a lot of residents in the area who like to walk and have a place they can go to,” he said “and we all know parking is difficult in Little Italy, so for people to be able to just take their bikes or take a nice stroll here, with six venues, including a dessert option, is really a nice touch for the area.”
As part of the Global Fork project, the entire 5,000-square-foot space was gutted and redesigned by the San Diego firm, Basile Studio, which has done a lot of work for CH Projects restaurants, including Morning Glory, Born & Raised, and Ironside Fish & Oyster. The individual venues are glass-enclosed with unique facades that employ colored tile and wood accents. There’s also plenty of seating with tables and booths.
The interior of the former food hall was gutted and redesigned with a more elevated look. (Lori Weisberg /The San Diego Union-Tribune.
“We wanted to offer a more elevated and old European feel but with modern twists,” Krieger said.
The dining emporium occupies the ground floor of a 97-unit apartment building developed by H.G. Fenton in 2018, along with the original food hall, located on West Date Street between Columbia and India streets. It, too, featured a bar, in addition to a number of food vendors, some of which were associated with San Diego-based Sam Zien, better known as “Sam the Cooking Guy.” It was operated by Grain and Grit Collective, which is known for Carnitas Snack Shack on the Embarcadero and a few Broken Yolk Cafe franchises outside of San Diego.
Moto Pizza, in the new Global Fork Food Hall. (Luke Johnson / The San Diego Union-Tribune)
In its quest to fill out Global Fork, Tiger Hospitality relied in part on three of its own concepts. They are Cosmos Burger, Lobster Lab and La Vida, which is known for its smoothies, salads, wraps and bowls. Added to the mix are Prik Ki Nū Thai Cuisine and Seattle-based Moto pizza, recognized for its sourdough crust and thicker, Detroit-style rectangular slices.
For dessert, a Handel’s Homemade Ice Cream truck is just outside, with a more limited selection of flavors compared to its brick-and-mortar locations.
“It was important to keep some authenticity, and pizza is a big part of Little Italy, and we just fell in love with Moto,” Krieger said, who noted that the Tiger team did plenty of taste testings. “They do it a bit differently than other places in Little Italy. We took the same approach with the Thai or Chinese offering. After sampling numerous vendors, we thought Prik Ki Nū Thai was by far the best.”
In September, Tiger Hospitality will open a food hall at UC San Diego across from the La Jolla Playhouse. Known as Station 8 Public Market, it will feature nine venues, among them Moto, House of Bao and CoCo Playa, a coffee and cookie shop.
It will also develop, for the first time, Lobster Lab outside of a food hall environment. It will be opening next week at the Sky Deck within the Del Mar Highlands Town Center.