Downtown Boston's Food Hall Grand Opening Brings Hope That Life Is Returning To Normal

BOSTON (CBS) - Pizza, sushi, even a champagne vending machine as a ribbon-cutting ceremony kicked off the opening of High Street Place Food Hall.

"I like the variety. We all came here, five of us, and we hit up five different restaurants," said Dave Blum, who works in an office building nearby.

"It's been a long time coming. It feels like now's the time. It feels great," said Rachel Miller Munzer, co-owner of Mamaleh's, one of the food hall's 20 vendors.

At 20,000 square feet, there's seating capacity for 400 people inside, but surrounded by office buildings, it begs the question: How many of those seats will be filled?

"I feel like it's finally time. You know, the mask mandate is lifting, people are going to start coming back to work. And we're going to be here for them. We're ready," said High Street Place Food Hall Marketplace Manager Lauren Johnson.

"This is, I think, like a statement opening for sure. Not just for us but for all the partners and all of downtown Boston," said the wine and beverage director at Big Heart Hospitality.

Customers say not too long ago, this area was a ghost town.

"We used to come down in June of 2020. I started coming back into the office. And it looked like a zombie movie. There was no one around," said Harsh Agarwal, of Brookline.

The food hall was originally supposed to open two years ago, but that was delayed due to the pandemic. In that time, local businesses tell WBZ-TV, things have been tough, but they hope that will change soon.

"It's been really hard for the small businesses. We're lucky to be open, to be honest with you," said Cecelia Demellorodi, a hairstylist at Advantage Hair Salon on High Street.

"We're still way behind on what we used to do. But things are moving in the right direction, for sure. We do like 25-30% of what we used to do," said Evo Chakarov, owner of Kwench Juice Cafe on Congress Street.

"Over the last two years, it's been dead to then gradually coming back, slowly and slowly, and now, we're starting to really see, like I said, that life that we missed," said Michael Kaplan, owner of Bailey & Sage, located on Federal Street.