The Pythian market is closed for now but may reopen in early 2023. Business news

Pythian Market, located on Loyola Street in the Central Business District, has closed its doors after four years in business, although the popular food hall may reopen as early as 2023 under new management.

The closure was not unexpected. In early December, the building’s owner, ERG Enterprises, evicted the eatery’s operator, Pythian Market LLC, for nonpayment of $2.5 million in rent, although ERG agreed to keep the market open until Dec. 23.

In the weeks since then, ERG has been trying to negotiate individual leases with the restaurant’s 10 vendors — mostly small businesses, some new to the food service industry — to reopen the restaurant.

Those plans haven’t been finalized, but suppliers said they’ve been told to plan for late February or early March.

“ERG is taking over, and they’re going to be closed a little bit for the rebrand and doing some construction touches, but the hope is to open March 1, if not sooner,” La Cocinita operator Rachel Angulo said. He expects to sign a new lease with ERG by the end of the week.

Barrett Cooper, ERG’s executive director, declined to comment except to say in a text message, “We’re starting again.”

A long-standing debate

The restaurant saga is part of a larger legal battle that has played out for years between ERG, a Metairie real estate investment firm, and Green Coast Enterprises, a nonprofit real estate development company that specializes in sprawling communities.

Green Coast is redeveloping the 110-year-old Pythian building into a mixed-use project with apartments, office and event spaces and a ground-floor food court to revitalize the CBD’s edge. He conceived the plan in 2015. Green Coast owned a stake in the building and, independently, operated the food hall through Pytian Market LLC.

ERG was an investor in the project, although earlier this year it bought out Green Coast and another partner to become the sole owner.

Since the building opened in 2018, ERG has been trying to get Green Coast out of the project for various reasons, court records show. Green Coast faced opposition. Along the way, the plague hit and the Pythian market fell behind on rent.

While the two sides have been working out their differences, Jackie Dadakis, former president of Pythian’s Market, never disputed that the restaurant was behind on rent. She explained that now that the eviction is complete, the vendors are unable to close during the holiday season, and she is trying to get the restaurant to reopen under new management.

“We will continue to use all the equipment – tables, chairs, stoves – vendors and everyone who comes in behind us,” she said.

the tree

The multi-vendor food hall concept, pitched as a less risky way for new chefs and food producers to test their ideas, was all the rage around the country when Pitian Market opened its doors in May 2018 after a three-year renovation.

At the time, New Orleans had St. Rock Market, then three years old, and Auction House Market, which had opened weeks earlier in the Warehouse District.

The auction house market also collapsed during the outbreak, and has since been replaced by a hybrid food hall-restaurant concept.

Anguilla, La Cocinita, a local food truck operator — along with a brick-and-mortar restaurant and two food trucks in Chicago — continues to gain faith in the food hall concept. She plans to run her food truck in town while the food court is closed.

“It would be great to get the truck out into the community and onto the streets and try to get new customers,” she said. But we look forward to reopening in the food hall.

She said she has spoken to several retailers who are considering reopening, but said she expects some change in the tenant mix.