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Steve Cuozzo

Food & Drink

Amazon’s Shaver Hall is proof that the food hall trend desperately needs to die

By Steve Cuozzo Published July 1, 2026, 2:51 p.m. ET

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If the Big Apple has one food trend that needs to die, it’s food halls – those indoor clusters of same-old “favorites” that might or might not be available at any particular time you go.

Just-opened Shaver Hall on the ground floor of the former Lord & Taylor building on Fifth Avenue, now owned by Amazon, hopes to buck the recent trend of flops. I wish them well but the model is as stale as cheese left to mold in the sun.

Exterior of Shaver Hall in Manhattan with pedestrians on the sidewalk. — The former Lord & Taylor building has a new food hall. Emmy Park for NY Post

The Dallas-based The Food Hall Co. is behind Shaver Hall. Jeff Bezos should fire whoever decided to install a Texas-based outfit in what was until 2019 one of the city’s most iconic shopping venues.

In the last couple years, Shaver Hall has had tons of hype in WWD, Forbes and Travel + Leisure — and, yes, the New York Post — even as the city was fast losing its taste for food halls.

Exterior sign for Shaver Hall in Manhattan. — Shaver Hall has been hotly anticipated, but it’s just proof that food halls need to go extinct. Emmy Park for NY Post

The public chewed up and spit out food courts branded by the great Jean-Georges Vongerichten at the Tin Building and popular chef Todd English at the Plaza hotel.

Next to go will be Singapore-themed Urban Hawker in Midtown, which will shut down on July 17. The recent body count also includes Gotham West, Canal Street Market, Market Lane, several locations of Urban Space, Citizens Market Hall and Williamsburg Food Hall. Like Shaver Hall, they all claimed to be “a food hall like no other.”

But the Big Apple is a giant, five-borough “food court.” Who needs to eat cliché dishes at cramped tables in charmless, warehouse-like settings when there are vastly more interesting options at actual, comfortable restaurants outside your apartment door.

Close to my Upper East Side home are French, Italian, Japanese, American and British eateries. We also have – right across the street and around the corner! – sit-down places for Afghan kebabs, South African grilled meats, Spanish tapas, Ecuadorean fish soup, Irish stew, Indian tandoori, Thai curry and Mexican paletas.

A dining hall at Shaver Hall in Manhattan with people eating and drinking. — Who needs to eat cliché dishes at cramped tables in charmless, warehouse-like settings (above) when there are vastly more interesting options at actual, comfortable restaurants outside your apartment door. Emmy Park for NY Post

With so many intriguing options, I can’t get excited about pepperoni slices at Shaver’s outpost of F&F Pizza.

Food halls’ shortcomings are no secret. Because operators lease stands to outside vendors but don’t actually manage them, customers find inconsistent food, unpredictable opening hours and long waits for what’s supposed to be “fast” food.

Two al pastor tacos with pineapple, cilantro, and onions, served on a white plate with a lime wedge. — Tacos from Taqueria al Pastor were enjoyable. Emmy Park for NY Post

At least Shaver Hall isn’t as awkward as many of its ilk, thanks to decent chairs and adequately spaced tables and counters. It has eleven “chef-curated” stands, three sit-down restaurants and two bars, as well as a stage for live entertainment and televised sports. (The audience was rapt for the Germany-Paraguay FIFA match, but ignored a singer-guitarist’s feeble renditions of early Beatles another afternoon.)

Most offerings are similar to those at roughly 100,000 grab-and-go spots nearby. The best I had was a bowl of peppery tan tan noodles with roasted and ground pork for $18 at Tonchinette, which calls itself a “streamlined spin” on the Tonchin ramen spots in Midtown and Brooklyn.

Zazu Mediterranean Street Food stall in Shaver Hall, Manhattan. — Zazu was somehow out of shawarma at 11 a.m. Emmy Park for NY Post

I also enjoyed an al pastor taco with a corn tortilla and fine-shredded pork from Taqueria al Pastor ($4.95). But Zazu Mediterranean was “out of” chicken shawarma at 11 a.m.

Even a unique conveyor built of cheese doesn’t make Shaver Hall worth a visit. At the first US location of London-born Pick & Cheese, guests sit around a 200-foot long oval counter as dozens of numbered plates of cheese and morsels zoom past on a fast-moving belt. (The numbers correspond to descriptions in a printed menu.)

Too bad they were out of a half-dozen varieties at lunchtime. The three I picked from what was available ($5.95-7.95) all tasted fine, especially creamy-and-crumbly Humboldt Fog goat from California. But I went batty making sense of the color-coded plates plates and labels as items whizzed past me.

Pick &amp;amp; Cheese restaurant in Manhattan, with a cheese conveyor belt in the foreground and a neon sign in the background. — A conveyor-belt cheese concept isn’t as much fun as one would hope. Emmy Park for NY Post

The free bananas in the lobby are your best bet. Emmy Park for NY Post

A Bodega station includes sparsely stocked shelves of so-called “daily staples” such as Hot Girl Pickles and Khloe Kardashian-created Khloud Protein Popcorn — neither of which I would consider canon to NYC bodegas. A self-serve tap wall offers 20 wines and beers by the glass, but ordering them is so confusing, there wasn’t a single customer every time I checked.

The best deal in the house might be in the lobby just past the food hall’s door. An Amazon cart offers free bananas to everyone — a generous stroke from Jeff Bezos’s company that won’t likely make much of a dent in its $716.92 billion annual revenue.

Maybe they know Shaver Hall is bananas, too.

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Image gallery

The former Lord & Taylor building has a new food hall. Emmy Park for NY Post

Shaver Hall has been hotly anticipated, but it's just proof that food halls need to go extinct. Emmy Park for NY Post

Who needs to eat cliché dishes at cramped tables in charmless, warehouse-like settings (above) when there are vastly more interesting options at actual, comfortable restaurants outside your apartment door. Emmy Park for NY Post

Tacos from Taqueria al Pastor were enjoyable. Emmy Park for NY Post

Zazu was somehow out of shawarma at 11 a.m. Emmy Park for NY Post

A conveyor-belt cheese concept isn't as much fun as one would hope. Emmy Park for NY Post

The free bananas in the lobby are your best bet. Emmy Park for NY Post

You are viewing 1 of 7 images

Don’t forget San Diego’s July 4 fiasco — then vote the bums out

Don't forget SD's July 4 fiasco — then vote the bums out

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Don’t forget San Diego’s July 4 fiasco — then vote the bums out

By CA Post Editorial Board Published July 1, 2026, 9:57 p.m. ET

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Ripped from the headlines of the satirical Babylon Bee:

A DEI extravaganza to mark the 250th birthday of the USA!

Oh wait.

That’s not the Bee; it’s actually a thing: San Diego County plans an identity-politics spectacular this July 4.

Wanna go?

A smiling woman wearing sunglasses and a rainbow lanyard waves from a motorcycle at the San Diego Pride Parade. — That’s not the Bee; it’s actually a thing: San Diego County plans an identity-politics spectacular this July 4. Getty Images

Three men from Alliant International University wave rainbow fans and an umbrella on a vibrant float adorned with Progress Pride flag motifs at the San Diego Pride Parade. — The San Diego County Board of Supervisors voted this year to align the county’s Independence Day event with “equity and racial justice” goals. SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

The San Diego County Board of Supervisors voted this year to align the county’s Independence Day event with “equity and racial justice” goals.

Per a social media post from the mayor of El Cajon, the three-hour program will feature: a “tribal intimate blessing welcoming to land”; a tribal invocation; the American and black national anthems; local tribal community stories; Latino community stories; Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander community stories; LGBTQIA+ community stories; and black and African community stories.

Whew. It’s exhausting just to read about.

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But more to the point: all of this … on July 4 of America’s 250th year? What message does the county of San Diego mean to send?

Not one that elevates fun, family, unity, respect, gratitude and patriotism — traditional Independence Day fare.

Instead, the county stoops to woke pandering.

Participants in a Pride 5K Run &amp;amp; Walk, including some in inflatable costumes, walk down a sunny street. — But more to the point: all of this … *on July 4 of America’s 250th year?* What message does the county of San Diego mean to send? Getty Images

Extolling favored groups on the nation’s birthday is e pluribus unum in reverse: ex uno, plura.

It’s divisive. It’s ill-timed. And it’s disrespectful to the nation, to its founding values and to the US Armed Forces who have fought and sometimes died to guard the rights the grievance crowd takes for granted.

In the very recent past, Americans of all stars and stripes could agree on some things, including the Fourth of July and its fun family patriotic fare.

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Remember the iconic jingle, “We love baseball, hot dogs, apple pie and Chevrolet?”

Those were days when Americans united around major holidays, around a shared heritage of freedom and around pride in a country that’s the freest in the world.

No longer.

These days, the scolds can’t be satisfied, the socialists win elections from New York to Colorado (unthinkable not long ago) and divisive Fourth of July programs emerge in once-moderate places like San Diego County.

Increasingly, elected officials want to shove a thumb in the eye of the nation, its founding, its traditions and its glory.

Enough.

Note to the radicals who rush to tear America down on perhaps its most cherished holiday:

Stop being petulant about losing national elections.

Participants in novelty costumes during the San Diego Pride 5K Run &amp;amp; Walk. — Note to the radicals who rush to tear America down on perhaps its most cherished holiday: Getty Images

Love your country even if you don’t love its current leader.

Teach, respect and appreciate the values of 1776: liberty, individual rights, equality, limited government and the rule of law.

Ditch the woke bilge and restore the picnics, US flags and fireworks.

Restore e pluribus unum.

Skip the lecture series and let the people have fun.

And a bonus memo to San Diego County voters: Remember this farce next election.

Just maybe, in another grand American tradition, you’ll do this:

Throw the bums out.

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That’s not the Bee; it’s actually a thing: San Diego County plans an identity-politics spectacular this July 4. Getty Images

The San Diego County Board of Supervisors voted this year to align the county’s Independence Day event with “equity and racial justice” goals. SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images