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Montavilla is getting a new food hall with four restaurants and a taproom.
Home to Gigantic Brewery's second taproom and the return of Alleamin African Kitchen, Rocket Empire Machine will gradually open over the next week.
Along with Gigantic's brews and sambusas, injera and Somalian sauces from Alleamin, the Northeast Glisan Street and 70th Avenue outpost now hosts bakery and coffee shop the Pie Spot, Mexican-Oaxacan restaurant Tierra Del Sol, and Sea and River Sushi, which will serve sushi alongside Burmese curries.
The food hall is named after the building's previous tenant, a car repair shop.
Rocket Empire Machine's development has been underway since last summer, and is helmed by Sister City and Guerrilla Development, the company behind similarly modeled food halls the Ocean and the Zipper.
In an attempt to reduce the effects of gentrification, one of the five restaurants has a "non-displacement provision"—a below-market base rent for the first three years of operation. The provision went to Alleamin's, which lost its previous Montavilla brick-and-mortar due to a rent hike four years ago, and has since become a neighborhood favorite at the Woodstock Famers Market.
Alleamin and Tierra Del Sol will open this Saturday, followed by Gigantic on Tuesday, Aug. 11, and the Pie Spot on Aug. 12. Sea and River does not yet have a fixed opening date, but hopes to open in the next week.
For now, all businesses at Rocket Empire Machine will be open for takeout and delivery only, though the spot will eventually open its indoor and outdoor seating in compliance with state COVID-19 regulations.