New Albany’s Bubbly Food Hall is about to go quiet. The indoor food market, a rare all-in-one dining stop on the city’s east side, will permanently close next Tuesday, March 31, after nearly three years in business. The hall opened in April 2023 and has since weathered a steady loss of vendors and an increasingly tangled legal fight over who controls the building.
Stef Chen, a representative for the hall, confirmed the shutdown and said vendors were told to clear out by next Tuesday, according to NBC4. Court records cited in that coverage show the property was moved into receivership and is currently run by a court-appointed third party. Those filings also state that lender Fairbridge Strategic Capital picked up the building at a public, court-ordered auction late last year.
Vendor churn left the hall looking half-empty
On paper, Bubbly still looks busy. The venue’s vendor page lists Kiku Sushi Bar, Dhaba Kitchen, Hibachi Run, El Burrito Bowl, Boba Paradise Café, Zero's Pizza and Crunchick among its tenants, with a full lineup and online ordering links posted on Bubbly Hall's site. In practice, though, local reporting has documented a revolving door of vendors and ongoing tension with management almost from the start, including a 2024 lawsuit that pointed to unpaid loans and operational strain, as reported by Columbus Underground.
Crunchick makes a weekend move to Bridge Park
One of Bubbly’s newer tenants is already plotting life after the hall. Crunchick announced in a social media post that it will relocate to weekends at Dublin’s North Market Bridge Park, running from May 23 through September 26. The vendor called the shift “truly bittersweet,” a nod to both the opportunity and the abrupt end of its New Albany run. Coverage of the closure noted that Crunchick plans to keep serving at Bubbly only through March 28, according to NBC4. The Saturday-only strategy hints at how smaller concepts are leaning into established weekend crowds as they lose a full-time home base.
Lawsuits, receivership and what happens to the site next
The backdrop to all this has been a long-running money fight. Fairbridge alleged that Granaz Properties, tied to the original project, stopped making required loan payments in 2023. The lender filed suit in January 2024, then moved toward foreclosure, according to earlier reporting. Coverage from Columbus Underground outlined the disputed promissory notes and missed payments that helped land the property in court. With Fairbridge now in control through a receiver and the building sold at auction, mixed-use development plans previously linked to the Granaz Group are expected to be revisited by new decision-makers.
For east-side diners, the closure means losing a laid-back food hall where sushi, burritos, pizza and boba were just a few steps apart. For vendors and staff, it triggers a scramble to grab stalls at other markets, book pop-ups or test weekend-only models. What becomes of the sprawling New Albany site now sits in the hands of the receiver and new owner, while former tenants work out where to land next.
