The market hall after renovation. It didn’t quite turn out as planned.

Such objects often appear in culinary programs of travelers. Upon arrival to a city – let’s say Dublin, Palermo or Istanbul – they go to a market hall where they can taste local specialties or buy vegetables, cheese and cold cuts from local producers or fish and seafood from fishermen.

Why do we like such places? Because on one hand, they encapsulate the culinary character of the country/region/city, and on the other hand, you can eat something simple but delicious there for really little money.

After the city hall announced plans to renovate the Market Hall and adapt it to new functions, many residents of Bydgoszcz hoped that exactly such an object as seen in culinary travel programs or from their own experiences during foreign voyages would be created here.

Unfortunately, this expectation did not come true. What did we get? A Food Hall with fancy restaurants from all over the world. It includes Mexican, Japanese, Greek, and Italian cuisine, among others. And Polish cuisine? Forget about it. Just like the possibility to eat something good for little money or buy products from local producers. Not here. Here, you have to pay 28 PLN for a bowl of bean soup and 40 PLN for the cheapest pizza. The overall impression is as if you were visiting a typical food court in a shopping center.

Why did it end up like this? Some argue that the hall’s formula à la the famous Mercado do Balhao (Porto) has no chance of market success here. However, it is hard to believe. If such facilities can function in almost all of Europe, why would it be doomed to failure here? Therefore, we should hope that the formula in which the Market Hall operates will evolve. So that in the future, we can buy Powidła Śliwkowe (Polish plum butter), pickled mushrooms from Borów Tucholskich, artisanal cheese from local producers, etc.

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