Beyond the Counter – Episode 3: Meriel Armitage, Club Mexicana

In this episode, we speak to Meriel Armitage, founder of Club Mexicana — the cult vegan brand that’s gone from supper clubs and street food stalls to multiple restaurants and major food hall residencies.

This is the first vendor-led episode of Beyond the Counter, and it’s a refreshingly honest, practical deep dive into what it really takes to build a food business from the ground up. Meriel shares how food halls shaped her brand, what operators often get wrong in working with traders, and how she’s navigated growth in a sector still dominated by meat and men.

For anyone working in food halls — whether you’re an operator, trader or investor — this one’s essential listening.

Beyond the Counter is hosted by Simon Anderson of Next Phase and produced in collaboration with me&u.

Beyond the Counter – Episode 2: Matt Bigland, Blend Family

In this episode of Beyond the Counter, we sit down with Matt Bigland, co-founder of Blend Family — the group behind some of the UK’s most ambitious food halls including Cutlery Works in Sheffield, Cambridge Street Collective, and the newly launched Tower Street Collective in London.

Matt shares the story behind scaling from a single-site vision to a multi-venue brand, and the challenges of keeping soul, independence and culture intact as you grow. From building a community-first approach to designing venues that prioritise people and purpose, this conversation is packed with insight for anyone shaping the future of hospitality.

Hosted by Simon Anderson of Next Phase, Beyond the Counter is brought to you in collaboration with me&u.

It is easy to look at a stranded building and imagine what it could become. A community hub. A food hall. A creative workspace. Co-working. A boutique hotel. The ideas come quickly, often fuelled by examples from other places that seem to have cracked the problem.

But ideas are not the hard part. The hard part is knowing whether an idea will actually work - in this building, in this location, for this community, at this cost.

Most stranded assets have no shortage of vision. What they lack is the evidence to support it.

People often feel unheard, cynical, or disengaged - and yet they do care. The problem isn’t apathy. It’s how engagement is designed, delivered, and used to extract meaningful conclusions that can be acted upon.

At Next Phase we design and deliver engagement that is proportionate, inclusive, and genuinely useful - not as a procedural requirement, but as a critical input into better decisions. That means combining strong survey design with on-the-ground conversations, thoughtful analysis, and clear, evidence-based recommendations that clients can actually act on.

On New Year’s Eve, Next Phase was featured on BBC Breakfast, with our research into the UK food hall sector used to inform a national discussion on one of the few areas of growth within hospitality. Our business partner Simon Anderson appeared live on the programme from Altrincham Market Hall at 6.30am, sharing insight from the data and wider experience across the sector.

At a time when hospitality and high streets continue to face significant challenges, food halls are emerging as a rare positive story. According to our Growth 2025 research, the number of food halls operating in the UK increased from 73 to 94 over the past year, representing growth of 26 per cent. Across all multi vendor operations, the total now stands at 139, up 22 per cent on 2024.

Despite ongoing pressures across the industry, only one food hall closure was recorded during the same period.

Defining a future use for a stranded asset is only half the challenge. The other half - often underestimated - is working out who will own it, who will run it, and how it will sustain itself over the long term.

This question is not a technicality to be resolved once funding is secured. It shapes everything: the types of use that are feasible, the funding routes available, the level of ongoing council involvement, and whether the building will still be thriving in ten years or quietly struggling within three.

Every town has buildings that have slipped into limbo. Former civic buildings, such as town halls, outdated commercial blocks, heritage structures without purpose, and market halls that no longer trade effectively. These stranded assets sit in the most visible parts of town, yet they resist easy answers.

They are too costly to maintain, but often too prominent to ignore. And while they wait for a solution, they quietly undermine wider regeneration efforts. A decaying landmark in the wrong location sends a message about a place's direction. It weakens investor confidence. It frustrates residents. Doing nothing is not a neutral act.

When people picture a Christmas market, they think of wooden chalets, fairy lights, mulled wine and happy shoppers. What they don’t picture is the spreadsheet of road closures, the endless risk assessments, or the frantic hunt for one last trader who can do weekends two and three. 

Empty department stores, underused basements and tired retail units are a genuine challenge for town and city centres. They drag on footfall, confidence and investment. But the answer is not simply to point at the void and decide it should become a food hall. A food hall can be a powerful solution, but only when the numbers, the market and the operating model are aligned from the start. Without that alignment, even the most exciting concept can become an expensive, short-lived experiment.

As of September 2025, there are 94 food halls operating across the UK, up from 73 last year, a 26% year-on-year increase. Across all multi-vendor operations (MVOs), the total now stands at 139, up from 114 in 2024, a rise of 22%. A further 58 sites are currently in development, compared with 52 last year.

Behind the Counter: Nick Johnson MBE on Markets, Independence and Regeneration

In this opening episode of Beyond the Counter, a podcast by me&u, hosted by Simon Anderson of Next Phase, we sit down with Nick Johnson MBE, founder of Altrincham Market, Mackie Mayor and the Picturedrome. Widely credited with kickstarting the UK’s modern food hall movement, Nick shares his no-nonsense views on regeneration, independence and why soul can’t be CGI'd.

This is a conversation about more than food; it's about placemaking, people, and the power of doing things differently. For anyone working in markets, hospitality or urban change, it’s a must-listen.

The recent opening of Padel Parx at the Cotton Works has completely shifted my perspective on the role sport can play in regeneration projects. I’ll admit, I’ve been cautious in the past about the risks of following “booming” sports. But seeing first-hand the passion of padel players, and the sheer fun and exhilaration the game creates, I’m now thoroughly sold.

Manchester is currently the most vibrant and exciting city in the UK when it comes to hospitality, especially in food halls. As the Manchester Evening News recently described, food halls are now “a trendy food and drink phenomenon taking the city-region by storm.” But what’s driving this wave, and is it sustainable?

Let’s break it down.

Something feels missing in many customer experiences today.

You walk into a shop or café, look around for help, and find no one. You might complete your entire visit without speaking to a single person. There's no welcome, no advice, no expertise. Just self-service tills and a quiet sense that you're on your own.

This shift isn't limited to retail. It’s becoming common across sectors — from hospitality to services and even professional settings. Efficiency has taken priority, and with it, much of the care and personality that used to define how we engage with businesses.

As a parent of two Gen Alpha kids, I know everyone thinks their children are special, but hear me out. There’s something genuinely different about this generation. Despite growing up in a world of tablets, TikToks and voice notes, Gen Alpha (currently aged 8–15) feels oddly analogue. They remind me more of Gen X than any generation since: independent, curious, socially conscious and surprisingly offline.

It’s great to finally see this and other recent positive stories in the press highlighting the resilience and potential of our industry. I’ve been out here banging the drum for quite some time.

This story, alongside strong performance results from the likes of Market Halls, is shining a light on the real opportunity for growth in the food hall sector. But just like the wider hospitality industry, we must still proceed with caution. The recent closure of Department in Sheffield, the first in over a year, is a reminder that this isn’t a guaranteed win.

National Geographic recently highlighted their thoughts on Europe's best market and food halls, shining a spotlight on how these vibrant spaces have become central to modern tourism and placemaking strategies. Today's market and food halls offer much more than just diverse culinary experiences; they are powerful catalysts for urban regeneration, economic vitality, and community cohesion.

AI today feels like the wild west days of the Internet in the mid-to-late 90s, fast-moving, full of fear and hype. If you look back and see how the Internet reshaped almost every part of our lives, you have to acknowledge that AI will do the same, likely tenfold, making the fear around its unchecked expansion understandable.

This past weekend, I found myself in central London with my nine-year-old daughter, on a mission to find a Labubu. If you know, you know. If you don’t, consider yourself lucky.

Our quest took us through several Pop Marts, but it was most pronounced in Selfridges’ toy department, where there were queues of over two hours for the JellyCat fish and chips experience. The Full Experience Set—a cuddly fish, chips, mushy peas, and sausage—costs £165. The most striking thing? At least 90% of the customers were adults.

Last week, we attended Inntegra and Home Leisure Direct’s “The Power of Play” event, and one thing was crystal clear: competitive socialising is reshaping how people choose to spend their leisure time.