Brooklyn Can’t Get Enough of Texas — New New York Food Hall Mimics Austin’s Food Truck Scene

If any other food trend has seen the same surge of popularity as the Cronut  a few years ago, it would be food halls. The elevated take on tacky mall food courts offers up the chance to experience different cuisines without leaving the same trendy space.

The trend hasn’t escaped Austin, which saw the opening of its first food hall, Fareground, in the heart of downtown earlier this year. Now New York City is the one copying Austin with the opening of Hill Country Food Park in Brooklyn this summer. It aims to bring the original Austin food-truck movement of the 1990s to the heart of Brooklyn.

The food hall will have six food stalls, live music, and a full bar. The 10,000-square-foot space will be overseen by Michelin-starred chef Steven Ferdinand. The food hall will serve up barbecue, fried chicken, “Texas-sized” pizza slices, burgers, tacos, and salads, as well as craft beer and snacks.

As any transplanted Texan knows, the inability to find real breakfast tacos outside of the Lone Star State is a very real grief. Luckily, this new Brooklyn mecca will serve up breakfast tacos and homemade donuts in the morning.

This isn’t the first time New York has been inspired by Texas cuisine. The Big Apple is already home to Texas restaurants such as Hill El Original, owned by Dallas-born, Houston-raised Lisa Fain. There’s also Javelina, which serves up San Antonio’s famed puffy tacos. San Antonio chef Jesse Perez’s Oxide restaurant brings his own brand of Tex-Mex to New York. There is also a brisket pop-up dubbed BrisketLab in Willamsburg, which was started by Dan Delaney after he mastered the art of smoking meat in Austin with 15-hour smoked brisket.

Brooklyn’s new Texas food hall is scheduled to open later this summer. For those who cannot jump on a plane for a weekend jaunt to Austin for breakfast tacos and margaritas, Hill Country Food Park offers light amid the Gotham gloom.

New York is getting Texas-food blessed.