Long gone are the days when people would meet in the center of town to sniff produce, bargain over dry goods, and exchange niceties as well as choice gossip. The city is now fragmented, and restaurant and retail offerings are scattered throughout the metro area.

But some are working to bring this style of community back, and modern marketplaces are experiencing a boom in the metro area.

Today’s marketplaces feature a large indoor venue, filled with interesting restaurants, shops and watering holes. Buzzing with business, they offer the same sort of community that many lament has passed.

Among the latest of these offerings is Edgewater Public Market. Located near Sloan’s Lake, at 5505 W. 20th Ave., this gathering spot opened in November of last year, to great excitement.

At Edgewater, most of the restaurants began as food truck businesses and have stepped on the brakes to enjoy the benefits of a stable location. They offer customers everything from mac and cheese and pizza, to crepes, empanadas and Ethiopian food.

Visitors will also find eight retail shops, a coffee shop, a bar and, in the coming weeks, a new brewery. A common consumption liquor license allows customers to order drinks at a bar and wander the marketplace, drink in hand.

Restaurant owners interviewed just prior to opening noted that “they were drawn by the lure of the crowds that they expect to converge on the market from west Denver and from some of the western suburbs that have not seen the same invasion of food halls that the Mile High City has,” noted the Denver Business Journal.

Indeed, central Denver is brimming with such marketplaces, including: Dairy Block, 1800 Wazee St.; Denver Central Market, 2669 Larimer St.; The Source, 3330 Brighton Blvd.; and Broadway Market, 950 Broadway.