Why do we still love Rainforest Cafe? Nostalgia is only part of it
, and volcanoes erupting from between hefty slabs of brownie, it’s come to represent Y2K nostalgia itself — not unlike the decaying suburban malls where the chain made its home, themselves an endangered species. These days, malls are turning to experiential attractions to bring shoppers in, but maybe they’re already working with more than they think. Maybe nostalgia itself is the ultimate experience.as a kid in the early aughts.
As enchanting as it was when I was a kid, the Rainforest Cafe was even more so in its earliest years. Theme restaurant giant Landry’s Inc. — the company behind the-Tom-Hanks-helmed Bubba Gump Shrimp Co., as well as McCormick and & Schmick’s, Claim Jumper, and Joe’s Crab Shack — acquired the chain in 2000. But from the Rainforest Cafe’s 1994 opening to its acquisition, Schussler ran the restaurants independently and with a whimsical hand.
The success of that first Rainforest Cafe was a boon to the Mall of America, too, which opened two years before the restaurant, on August 11, 1992. The MOA was and still is the largest mall in the country and one of its biggest tourist destinations, drawing 40 million people every year. When it opened, though, many thought it was doomed to fail.reported at the time, hours spent shopping at the mall had dropped more than 60 percent between 1980 and 1990.
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