If you’re wondering what all the hubbub is in downtown Delray Beach on Saturday, it’s probably the opening of the Delray Beach Market. Florida’s largest food hall will give South Floridians another reason to hit the hot seaside town other than the popular dining/drinking enclave Atlantic Avenue.

The market is the newest, shiniest star on Florida’s cuisine scene. Foodies will be able to munch on everything from fresh baked pastries to empanadas, and healthy bowls to fried chicken at the 27 permanent vendor stalls (all indoors). There’s also a scratch kitchen delicatessen, a fish market stall and an upstairs lounge with a craft cocktails bar and a staging area for chef demonstrations.

After 10 a.m. opening remarks, doors open at 11 a.m. Saturday.

Coming in at 150,000 square feet and standing four stories high at 33 SE Third Ave., the food hub sits alongside the railroad tracks just a block south of Atlantic Avenue. The project has been in the works for three years at a cost of $60 million.

The vendors are mostly mom-and-pop food kiosks, says Craig Menin, the founder of Delray Beach-based Menin Development, which built the food hall.

“We didn’t want big chains,” Menin explains. “We didn’t want Starbucks. We didn’t want Shake Shack. Nothing against them, but the thesis is: We want people to come from a wide distance to come here. And if we’re only offering things that they can get around the corner, why would they?”

The vendors include some names already known to South Floridians such as Fort Lauderdale’s Lovelee Bakeshop, which opened just a little over a year ago on 13th Street, and Ferdos Grill, which has been a staple for Mediterranean and Middle Eastern fare for almost 20 years.

At a media reveal Thursday night, Raquel Chaiben of Ferdos Grille recalls that she didn’t fully grasp what a food hall was back when Menin’s president and general counsel, Jordana Jarjura, approached her family.

“I thought it was a magazine,” Chaiben says. “I’m like, ‘Oh yes, yes, I’ll talk to you next week.’ She’s like, ‘Raquel, come here. Let me explain what this is.’ I’m like, ‘Get out of here.’ ”

But once she understood, she saw the future of food retail. “You see this concept? This is the new millennium. This is perfect. You can bring all your family. Everybody can have unique food.”

For Lee Mazor — who was the pastry chef at Delray Beach’s popular but long-shuttered restaurant 32 East — the Delray Beach Market means a rapid expansion of her Lovelee Bakeshop business since opening in December 2019.

“I had one employee at the time,” she explains. “I’ve had that one employee until about a month ago when I opened this place and now I have 10 employees. So I’m thankful very much to this food hall that I’m able to expand so quickly and so easily.”

Menin Development’s Jarjura says that the market has “over 250 permanent jobs and and we’re still hiring. Our vendors are really looking for people.”

She also feels the market fills a niche missing from Delray Beach’s busy-buzzy food scene.

“I felt we were lacking certain things in terms of authentic cuisine, healthy cuisine, quick serve,” she says. “We want this to be more than just a restaurant, one large —you know — space for restaurants. We want it to be a destination. We want it to be food retail. You go to the European markets, you’re able to go there and buy some fresh fish, some fresh meat, some fresh pasta, some cheese, some wine, some fresh specialty produce and go home and make your dinner. We want it to be so much more than just lunch, dinner and breakfast.”

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