Which Classic Mall Food Chains Do Louisiana Shoppers Miss Most?

LAFAYETTE, La. — Ask anyone who grew up going to the mall in Louisiana in the 80s or 90s what they remember eating, and you will get the same few answers before they even think about it. A frothy Orange Julius. A paper tray of Corn Dog 7. Maybe a wedge of something from Hickory Farms that your mom picked up as a gift and you ate half of in the food court before you even got home.

Most of those chains ran in malls all over the country, not just here. Which ones actually opened in Louisiana, and in which malls, is the more interesting question, and it says something about how Acadiana and the rest of the state shopped and ate before online shopping and food halls changed everything.

Get our free mobile app

Acadiana Mall Had Its Own Orange Julius, and Readers Remember It Well

Acadiana Mall opened on Johnston Street on March 28, 1979, and for more than four decades it has been Lafayette’s answer to the American shopping mall experience. Longtime shoppers single out Orange Julius as one of the spots they wish they had visited more, alongside memories of the Center Court waterfall and the Aladdin’s Castle arcade. Others remember the food court’s old Burger King, remembered as unusually large for a mall location.

The food court at Acadiana Mall has also been home to Chick-fil-A, Corn Dog 7, Sbarro, Great American Cookie Company, and Auntie Anne’s Pretzels over the years, several of which are still serving customers there today.

Before Acadiana Mall, There Was Northgate

Google Maps

Acadiana Mall was not Lafayette’s first enclosed mall. That title belongs to Northgate Mall, which opened in August 1969 and served the city as its main shopping destination for a decade before Acadiana Mall took over. Northgate’s food scene leaned more local than national. A&G Cafeteria and Little Bill’s 33 Flavors Ice Cream Shop were neighborhood names rather than mall chains, and the mall also housed its own Aladdin’s Castle arcade and a Musicland record store.

Shreveport’s Mall St. Vincent Has the Best Paper Trail in the State

If you want the clearest, most specific record of what a Louisiana mall food court actually looked like, Shreveport’s Mall St. Vincent is where you find it. The mall held its official dedication on February 2, 1977, and mall history site Mall Hall of Fame documents its charter food tenants by name: Bresler’s 33 Flavors ice cream, Corn Dog On A Stick, Karmelkorn, and Piccadilly Cafeteria, alongside stores like B. Dalton Bookseller and Butler’s Shoes.

New Orleans East’s Lake Forest Plaza Claims a Pair of Louisiana Firsts

Before it was heavily damaged after Hurricane Katrina and eventually demolished, Lake Forest Plaza in New Orleans East was home to what is remembered as Louisiana’s first indoor ice skating rink, the Fiesta Plaza Skating Rink, sitting at the center of the mall’s food court. Wikipedia’s entry on the mall lists that food court’s vendors as Orange Julius, Karmelkorn, Baskin-Robbins, Corn Dog 7, Great American Cookie Company, and a Chinese counter called China Express, along with sit-down spots like Farrell’s Ice Cream Parlour and a large McDonald’s. Retail history site Labelscar puts a wrinkle in the timeline, noting the skating rink was actually removed and replaced by a formal food court during a 1989 renovation, so exactly how the two coexisted in the mall’s earlier years is not entirely settled.

Lake Forest Plaza is also remembered by former shoppers as the site of the first Chick-fil-A location in the state of Louisiana.

Baton Rouge’s Cortana Mall Never Actually Had a Food Court

Cortana Mall, which opened in 1976 and was for a time the largest enclosed mall in the South, never actually had one. As The Advocate’s history of the mall’s rise and fall documents, its restaurants were scattered through the mall corridors rather than consolidated into one court. Piccadilly Cafeteria and a doughnut shop were original 1976 tenants, and Baton Rouge shoppers fondly remember Mama Brava, an Italian restaurant known for lines around the building, along with an early Chick-fil-A and an Orange Julius.

Cortana closed in 2019 and was demolished in 2021 to make way for an Amazon fulfillment center.

Godiva Only Had One Louisiana Mall Location, and It Is Gone Now

Godiva Chocolatier never had the widespread mall presence that Orange Julius or Karmelkorn did in Louisiana. It operated as a single upscale boutique rather than a food court vendor, and the state had just one location.

Elijah Nouvelage, Getty Images

When Godiva announced it was closing all 128 of its North American retail stores in January 2021, NOLA.com reported that Louisiana’s sole Godiva store was inside Lakeside Shopping Center in Metairie. That storefront has since become a wine bar. A Godiva location previously referenced for the Mall of Louisiana in Baton Rouge could not be independently confirmed and has been removed from this story.

Monroe, Kenner, Lake Charles, and Houma Had Their Own Versions of the Same Story

Pecanland Mall in Monroe opened on July 24, 1985, with a 450-seat food court that has included Auntie Anne’s, Chick-fil-A, Sbarro, Great American Cookie Company, and Corn Dog 7 over the years.

The Esplanade in Kenner, which opened on October 9, 1985 and closed in 2021, had a food court set beneath a grid of skylights that served Café du Monde coffee alongside Chick-fil-A, Cedar Grill, Dippin’ Dots, and Smoothie King. Prien Lake Mall in Lake Charles and Southland Mall in Houma both settled into a similar mix of Chick-fil-A, Great American Cookie Company, and Corn Dog 7, the same trio that seems to show up in nearly every Louisiana mall food court from the 1990s forward.

Get our free mobile app

A Few Chains That Never Actually Made It to Louisiana

Not every national mall food court name made it to Louisiana. York Steak House, Hot Sam pretzels, The Original Cookie Company, Blimpie, Steak Escape, and Arthur Treacher’s Fish and Chips do not turn up in any documented Louisiana mall tenant list.

You May Also Like...

• Lafayette's Lost Retail Gems: Acadiana Mall Stores We Really Miss
• Lafayette Institutions We Lost, and Ones We'd Give Anything to Get Back
• Lafayette's Most Missed Restaurants: Local Favorites Gone Forever
• Popular Lafayette Restaurants that are Now Gone