Birthday venture takes us to Morgan Street Food Hall in downtown Raleigh

In Lee Ann's family, April and December are very popular birthday months. In fact, both Lee Ann and her youngest daughter, Lea, celebrate theirs this month.

For lunch on Lea's birthday, we all ventured to downtown Raleigh two weeks ago to explore the Morgan Street Food Hall. Food halls are a somewhat new marketing concept. They resemble shopping mall food courts, which you probably are familiar with. Food halls contain various food vendors, but they are self-contained in one structure, usually resembling a former warehouse.

With its red brick exterior facade (see photo leading off the post), a warehouse is what the Morgan Street Food Hall resembled to me when we arrived. There is more brick and stone inside, too, as the two photos below indicate. The first below, in fact, illustrates how operators make use of the brick interior walls as a screen for a live football game telecast.

There is another difference about food halls, though. While food courts -- in my experience -- have fare from mostly familiar and well-known franchisers (Wendy's, Chick-fil-A, Orange Julius, etc.), food halls tends to specialize in local vendors providing more novelty fare.

At Morgan Street Food Hall, various vendors cook up southern comfort food, barbecue, lobster and other seafood, empanadas, tacos, Indian fare, poke and noodle bowls, pizza and tapas, fish and chips, Mediterranean ... and even burgers. Some of the hall's vendors are represented in the first photo below. The hall has an adult beverage bar, too. The Arbor Bar serves beers (traditional and craft), wine and mixed drinks.

The illuminated menus from Cousins Maine Lobster and Seafood (above) and Wicked Tacos (below).

The outdoor portion of the Arbor Bar (above), which serves beer (traditional and craft), wine and mixed drinks. There is an indoor portion, too. The first of the two photos below features the beer garden seating area, while the second below is the outer fringe of the beer garden as seen from the public sidewalk outside the hall. 

We had not really explored much of downtown Raleigh since our move, so I grabbed a few shots of the landscape near the food hall on our way back to our car. They appear below. As always, click on any photo to view a larger, sharper version. To see more images from the shoot to the food hall and downtown Raleigh, click on the link in this sentence.

Above, a building I can't identify since I don't know my Raleigh downtown yet. Below, a Holiday Inn.  

A Greek tavern (above) and the steeple of Edenton Street United Methodist Church (below).

Above: The exterior of Second Empire Restaurant and Tavern at 330 Hillsborough St. Hillsborough is an east-west thorough one block north of Morgan Street.