The Kyiv Food Market has been the talk of the town since it opened on Sept. 25.
The industrial-looking food hall has over 20 restaurants and bars, all set on two floors of a 2,000-square-meter building renovated from a former factory pavilion.
Combining the lively atmosphere of Kyiv’s markets and the quality of its restaurants was the main idea behind this food hall that opened some 200 meters across from the Arsenalna metro station in Kyiv.
“When you’re at the table in a restaurant, people see it as your intimate space, and very few will come by to strike up an acquaintance. But at our market, people walk around with glasses, share food and talk with strangers. This creates a really cool atmosphere,” Alex Cooper, co-founder of the Kyiv Food Market, told the Kyiv Post.
Collaborative project
Cooper, 31, is a well-known restaurateur from Odesa, where he created a similar place called City Food Market for “gastronomy enthusiasts.” But the Kyiv project is different, he says, because it was made in collaboration with Kyiv’s La Famiglia restaurant company that contributed its fine dining expertise.https://archive.kyivpost.com/lifestyle/kyivs-restaurants-bars-unite-under-one-roof.html?preview=true
“We wanted to use the Odesa experience, but then create something unique. The idea was to have the most reputable restaurants in Kyiv develop a bistro menu without losing quality. They now share one space that has many options and democratic prices,” La Famiglia’s co-owner Mikhail Beylin, 42, told the Kyiv Post.
Restaurateurs Alex Cooper (L) and Mikhail Beylin attend the opening of the Kyiv Food Market, which they co-founded, on Sept. 25, 2019. (Kyiv Food Market / Anton Tkachenko)
Most restaurants at the Kyiv Food Market belong either to La Famiglia’s or Cooper’s networks: Ukrainian Malva, Italian Bigoli, Thai Sabai, Cooper’s Burgers, Santos Tacos, Rhythm coffee shop. But there are also branches of other public favorites, many of which have been reviewed in the Kyiv Post: Israeli food café Adelle, healthy restaurant Good Girl, Vietnamese restaurant Năm and others.
The food hall also has several places to get drinks: the cocktail bar Origins, Oysters & Sparkling, Wine Birds, and Varvar Bar for beer.
The owners say that the restaurants don’t compete with each other because they each have different specialties. — there’s only one pizza joint, one steakhouse, one bakery, etc. Each is the best of its kind in Kyiv, Cooper and Beylin say.
“We simply took a list of product categories and said: ‘Which is the best pizza in town? That’s Napule, let them sell it. Where is the best Peking duck? Okay, that’s Bao.’ And that’s how we selected the pool of our partners,” Cooper says.
Kyiv architecture firm Balbek Bureau renovated the interior of a former factory building for the Kyiv Food Market while preserving its defining features. (L: Kostyantyn Chernichkin; R: Slava Balbek / Facebook)
Food halls like Kyiv Food Market attract big groups of friends because the vast selection of foods and drinks can satisfy the tastes of nearly everyone in the group, Cooper says. Nobody has to make compromises, and everyone gets what he or she wants.
“Groups of 12 to 15 people can come to us. With several such groups, there is a special atmosphere. A person feels like he or she is at a feast to which everyone is invited,” Cooper says.
Revitalization
Kyiv Food Market follows the trend of revitalizing industrial zones. In Kyiv, several creative projects have remodeled deserted Soviet factories to serve new functions: several nightclubs use the former ribbon factory at 31 Nyzhnoiurkivska St., Izone cultural center uses parts of a shipyard and Platforma Art Factory uses a former silk factory as a space for outdoor cultural events.
The new food hall took over part of one of the city’s oldest and largest factories that once produced agricultural and military equipment and later, optics. This building then became private property and Kyiv Food Market rents it out.
The property owners reconstructed the facade of the building, and Kyiv Food Market hired the local architecture firm Balbek Bureau for the interior design. Beylin and Cooper say that they did everything to preserve the historical look of the place, including consulted with city authorities and historians.
“We saved all the formal and informal historical elements — including the walls, windows, all the significant details,” says Beylin.
The roof of the building had holes, so it had to be completely rebuilt. The facade has been preserved without any showy signs, advertisement billboards, or air conditioners sticking out of the walls, which are a common sight Ukraine. It took over a year to renovate the building.
Bureau founder Slava Balbek, is a well-known Kyiv architect who supports the historical building preservation initiatives. With the Save Kyiv Modernism initiative, he has developed restoration designs for endangered Soviet buildings in the city.
“Slava loves Kyiv, and he took it as a real challenge to create such a project for the city. He wanted to create a real public place for Kyivans,” Cooper says.
Kyiv Food Market also has a stage for DJs on a small third-floor platform. Besides the functions of the daily food hall, after a few months, it will work as a “night market” club and a venue for networking events. The second floor has a “studio kitchen” for pop-up restaurants and chef workshops.
“Our goal is to build a city hot spot — a new attraction in Kyiv,” Beylin says.
Kyiv Food Market. 8 Moskovska St. 11 a.m. – 11 p.m. +38067 121 1319
