SINGAPORE – The Urban Hawker food hall, home to Singaporean food in the heart of New York City, is set to cease operations in July, said Makansutra founder K.F. Seetoh.
The foodcourt in Manhattan will stop operating on July 17, with the building where it is sited sold by its owners for redevelopment, said Seetoh on Facebook on June 30.
“It may be curtains down at Urban Hawker, but it ain’t the end for Singapore makan culture there. Another door will always be open,” he wrote.
Seetoh, who partnered US foodcourt operator Urbanspace to start Urban Hawker in September 2022, said they are looking for a new spot to house more hawkers in a “kopitiam concept space”, calling New York City a dynamic and meaningful market.
He said they had been scouting for new locations, adding that some developers had also approached them, without revealing more details. Some patrons have also urged him to take it to other cities in the US.
“Singaporean food is more popular than we think,” he told The Straits Times. “The diversity of flavours is a key draw (to New Yorkers), from Chinese to Indian, Nonya and Muslim offerings.”
Urban Hawker sold popular Singaporean food including chicken rice, laksa, mee rebus and Hainanese curry pork chop, and even the Singapore Sling cocktail. Many of the dishes earned positive reviews from US food critics from publications including Eater, Food & Wine and The New York Times.
Since beginning operations in 2022, Urban Hawker has been a fixture at 135 West 50th Street in the Theater District of Midtown Manhattan.
The food hall seats around 400, and does about 3½ turns – the number of times a single table is occupied and vacated by different groups of customers – a day, Seetoh said.
The food hall has also been the meeting point for many Singaporeans or Asians based in the Big Apple or the US, while visiting Singaporeans, including politicians and celebrities, have sought out the spot for some authentic Singaporean fare as well.
Seetoh said some of the Urban Hawkers have opened other posts elsewhere, such as Vanderbilt Market near Grand Central Station, as well as in other New York boroughs like Brooklyn’s DeKalb Food Market.
“The stall operators knew this was coming,” he said, adding that they had been alerted by the building owners a year ago. “Some felt sad but they know no business model lasts forever.
“The hawkers we work with are entrepreneurs, they will hop on to good opportunities anywhere.”
The idea for the food hall came in 2012 during a meeting with the late US celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain, but became reality only in 2022 when Seetoh worked with Urbanspace to launch the eatery.
Bourdain, who wrote the best-selling Kitchen Confidential book, and fronted the Parts Unknown travel and food series, died in 2018.
Reflecting on how their ideas had come to fruition, Seetoh said: “I made his wish come true and our hawker food culture proud.”
