Providence Welcomes New Food Hall Track 15 to the City

Foodies, rejoice!

A brand new food hall is open in Providence.

At 11 a.m. on March 18, the ribbon was cut on Track 15, an 18,000-square foot space that is home to seven food vendors, a bar and plenty of seating both inside and out.

A Food Hall Years in the Making

Owner and developer Chris Marsella and his family have been working hard to bring their idea of a food hall to fruition. They got the wheels turning in 2019 as inspiration and ideas for the concept began flowing.

"We would never have imagined that here we are five plus years later, opening today this food hall, which really took that long to take from an idea and kind of get through part of COVID," Marsella said.

"Then to get designs together, get all of our vendors together and really bring to fruition what I think is a really exciting space inside of a beautiful historic building with some incredible local culinary talent to showcase all the fun things that we do here in Rhode Island," he said.

Rhode Island Is a Foodie Favorite

One thing the Ocean State does well is food. From Italian to Indian, seafood to Mexican, the food culture is strong and and you'll find a variety of it at Track 15.

Marsella and his family have certainly done their research, making sure their food hall is top-notch. Though it may be a new concept to RI, food halls are very popular around the world, including the famous Foodhallen in Amsterdam.

"We were most recently, as of maybe even a month ago, talking with a team on the ground there, as well as some other amazing food halls around the world and in the United States, talking about best practices and what we could bring here to Providence," Marsella said.

Why Is It Called Track 15?

Not only is the concept carefully thought out, the name is too.

"A lot of people don't know that this was a train station here at Union Station, even though it's called Union Station," Marsella said. "So from 1898 to about the 1980s, this was the central terminal building within the Union Station complex."

"We're at that lower level, which is actually below the train tracks," he said.

When it came time to name the hall, there was no denying the rich history that surrounded them.

"There were 14 original tracks, and this is Track 15. So that's where that name came from," he said.

This food destination is a must in the Creative Capital.

"I think when people walk through the door, they will definitely see an homage not to just that era of the decades that the train station was there, but also looking back and some really cool photography of the history of Providence and across the state," Marsella said.

In addition to delicious food and plenty of parking (woo-hoo), Track 15 will be adding live music to its space soon.

Bon appétit!