iN PHOTOS: Food court at Penticton mall down to one restaurant
The Cherry Lane Shopping Centre in Penticton has dozens of tenants but only one of them can be found in the mall’s food court.
For any shoppers who get hungry, the Sizzling Rice Express is their only dining option after Lord of the Pies announced it will be moving.
"Lord of the Pies was on a one-year trial lease and when time came to renegotiate a long term lease we were unable to come to a mutually beneficial agreement with Cherry Lane to secure a tenancy beyond May," Lord of the Pies owner Dustin Watson said in an email.
Watson said his pie shop will reopen after Interior Health approves his plan to move in with a local downtown business, but he has not yet announced which business he's partnering up with.
Now the last-remaining eatery at Cherry Lane is surrounded by empty stalls.
The dining area is pretty sparsely attended these days. Sitting in a nearly-empty food court during lunchtime can feel eerie.
“It almost has an echo,” said Brigid Kemp, one of the few people in the food court on June 15 around 1 p.m.
Kemp said the Save-On Foods in the mall has a better selection of fresh food than the food court. And the two places to get beverages in the mall – Blenz Coffee and Booster Juice – are located outside the food court.
“I think it’s a sign of the times maybe,” she said.
But anybody who shops at other malls in the region – like Orchard Park Shopping Centre in Kelowna, Village Green Shopping Centre in Vernon and Aberdeen Mall in Kamloops – will notice those food courts still have plenty of vendors.
Some of the few other guests at the Cherry Lane food court were a couple named Dean and Brenda, who declined to give their last names, but were found sitting in the food court drinking coffee from Tim Horton's down the street. Drinking coffee at the food court has been a part of their weekly routine for years. And they liked getting it from A&W, which used to have a restaurant in the food court.
“But we have to bring our own now,” Dean said.
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Dean said that sitting in such a quiet, under capacity dining room feels like being at a wake.
“Just that ghost town effect,” he said.
Cherry Lane did not respond to a request for comment. What sort of food vendors would you like to see at the mall? Let us know in the comments below.
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