A customer walks past a McDonald’s restaurant located in the Milford rest stop on I-95 on Thursday, March 2 2020.
Christian Abraham / Hearst Connecticut Media file photoTRUMBULL — A popular offering in the Westfield Trumbull mall closed last month, and a mall official said there isn’t an immediate replacement lined up.
The McDonald’s in the mall food court closed at the end of January. The restaurant’s lease was up and the owners opted not to renew, said Patrick Madden, vice president of shopping center management for the mall.
“I think they are focusing strictly on free-standing locations with drive thrus,” and shifting away from food court locations, Madden said.
The McDonald’s has been part of the mall food court for 15 years, Madden said. In that time, it has become a staple of the dining area.
“That brand is certainly well known,” Madden said. “And it had been here so long. It was certainly a favorite. We really wanted to keep them.”
Madden said there are no immediate prospects to fill the former McDonald’s space, and it is still vacant — as is the former Subway space next to it.
But there has been a new addition to the food court. The fried chicken restaurant Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen opened across from the former McDonald’s space in mid-January. The restaurant had been in the court previously, but closed at some point during the COVID-19 pandemic.
A new sit-down restaurant, Guacamole’s Mexican Cuisine, is also set to open soon in the former Wahlburgers space.
Trumbull community and economic development director Rina Bakalar said this kind of turnover isn’t unusual at mall food courts.
“We certainly want to see as many locations as the mall occupied as possible and we don’t like to see any business pull out, however, it is my experience over the six years I have been here, that in the food court there are groups that come and go,” Bakalar said. “The space generally fills up pretty quickly. Hopefully as things get back to a more normal situation, the food court will be abuzz.”