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.
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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
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…