The Revamped Circle Food Store Wants to Be More Than Another Food Hall | Eater New Orleans

"Set to reopen soon, the iconic Circle Food Store — New Orleans’s first African-American‑owned and -operated grocery — is being revamped into a multi-purpose space that will include a market with fresh produce, a butcher and bakery, an urgent care and pharmacy, and a much-discussed food hall. Local developer and co-owner Sidney Torres, who bought the historic Seventh Ward building at sheriff’s auction last April for $1.7 million, says he wants it to be “the Circle but the Circle on steroids” and promises to “honor the history of what was here before”; he hopes to open within the month and has invited the public to a tentative soft opening on February 15. The plan has prompted social-media concern that the project could become a “trendy place for rich folks” and affect the Treme neighborhood, but Torres emphasizes preserving the store’s legacy." - Clair Lorell