Mall Food Madness

See you at the food court

There’s something wafting through the air — something… cinnamony. And beefy. Is that orange juice? Or some chemically smoothed-out version of it? Close your eyes and inhale; you can almost see the red plastic trays glinting in the light of the glass-roofed atrium. You can hear the comforting hum of the escalators and the echo of voices calling out with samples of cookies and cucumber lotion. Ahhhhh yes, drink it in. This is the Great American Mall.

Well, it’s a mall, anyway — and from the aroma of it, one that exists squarely in the 1990s. Because this vibrant, crowded, bustling mall is, we’ve been told, a thing of the past. Online shopping, the story goes, has crushed our demand for IRL retail, and the pandemic wiped away the crumbs. The stalwart department store anchors are bankrupt or shells of their former selves, and kids these days, it is said, would rather hang out online than around fountains and food courts.

But in reality, the mall never really went away. And if it’s to endure, food is central to its survival. As Alexandra Lange writes in her historical mall epic, Meet Me by the Fountain, “the malls that succeed will lean into food, to family life, to design and nature.” So old malls are reinventing themselves into diverse entertainment complexes, with destination restaurants and grocery stores where the Sears and JCPenneys used to be, and a new breed of ultra-malls has transformed the food court entirely into aspirational culinary destinations.

Against all odds, the mall persists — in our suburbs, in our popular culture, and in our appetites. This collection of stories examines and celebrates America’s unique connection to the mall and the varied ways we eat our way through it. Regardless of our Amazon Prime shipping status, there remains some basic human need to try on a pair of jeans in person and scarf down a hot pretzel every once in a while. We need to loiter and pick at french fries in the glow of neon food signs. We need familiar community hubs selling our moms’ imported face creams and the sour-tinged candies of our homelands. We need gathering places where we can soothe the pain of our newly pierced ears with a chocolate chip cookie, get our steps in when it’s snowing, and sip boba while we gawk at our culture being sold back to us at 40 percent off. We need the mall, and it — and its food — needs us. — Lesley Suter

The Great LA Dumpling Drama

Taiwanese chain Din Tai Fung is at the center of an all-out tug-of-war between two of LA’s biggest malls

All the Mall Food Smells, Ranked

Strip away any nostalgic feelings about mall food, and what you’re left with is just… an overwhelming collection of scents. Here, we rank them.

Fountains of Youths

One grown-ass woman’s descent into the soul of the American teen on their home turf: the mall food court

Empire of Orange Chicken

A look at the sweet, sticky success of Panda Express, the Chinese American sensation that revolutionized the mall food court

Gorillas (and Volcano Brownies) in the Mist

On why we’re still obsessed with the Rainforest Cafe, and why keeping it alive — and weird — is more important than we think

If You Give a Woman a Cookie

Debbi Fields, the founder of Mrs. Fields, has been called both a “feminist American dream” and a “good-looking front” for a multimillion-dollar brand. The reality is somewhere in between.

Pretzels Make Perfect

When it comes to the ideal mall snack, there’s no beating the humble, buttery, salty, puffy, endlessly portable pretzel

The Holdout

The very last restaurant in NYC’s once-bustling East Broadway Mall is hanging on, one tray of dumplings at a time

My Sweet, Sour Gateway Drug

Before there was Flamin’ Hot everything, there was the chuchería, or candy stand, the champion of every Mexican mall

The Ultimate Mall Food Eating Guide

Where to eat at the most delicious malls across America, from Atlanta’s Plaza Fiesta to Minneapolis’s Mall of America

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Credits

Editorial lead: Lesley Suter

Creative director: Nat Belkov

Contributors: Ryan Bradley, Avery Dalal, Bill Esparza, Justine Jones, Jamie Loftus, Bettina Makalintal, Amy McCarthy, Jaya Saxena, Wei Tchou

Photographers: Wentung Gu, Wonho Frank Lee, Adam Riding, Molly J. Smith, Louiie Victa, Nathaniel Wilder

Illustrator: Pablo Espinosa Gutiérrez

Editors: Erin DeJesus, Lauren Saria, Jesse Sparks

Designer: Lille Allen

Audience: Kaitlin Bray, Avery Dalal, Frances Dumlao, Kristen Kornbluth, Mira Milla

Project manager: Lesley Suter

Fact checker: Kelsey Lannin

Copy editor: Leilah Bernstein

Video Director: Murilo Ferreira

Video Editor: Charlotte Carpenter

Producers: Pelin Keskin, Ian Stroud

Camera Operator: Jay Simms

Animation: Alfredo Villa

Special thanks: Nadia Q. Ahmad, Missy Frederick, Brenna Houck, Amanda Kludt, Rachel P. Kreiter, Ellie Krupnick, Jess Mayhugh, Meghan McCarron, Stefania Orrù, Stephen Pelletteri, Jonathan Smith, Stephanie Wu