Matthew Kenney's M.A.K.E. is the Latest Casualty at Anemic Santa Monica Place

Santa Monica Place is starting to feel like an episode of The Walking Dead. It’s a mostly deserted lens into what might have been, but around a few corners, the occasional spooky zombie still lurks.

For a time, that included M.A.K.E., the raw food emporium by way of Matthew Kenney that managed to keep lumbering along despite the shutters all around it — including Kenney’s own takeout kiosk inside the same mall.

Now even M.A.K.E. is headed for the burn pile, according to the LA Weekly. Kenney has officially announced the shutter of the genre-busting restaurant, which aimed to make raw/vegan food more approachable for the daily consumer. That effort appears to have fallen short, through no fault of Kenney’s own; it’s hard to survive in a lackluster location where not even the natives realize you’re still around.

For all the faults of Santa Monica Place, Kenney himself seems no worse for the wear. His new spot Plant Food & Wine is aiming for an Abbot Kinney debut in a few weeks (in the former Axe space), and there are talks to apparently open up a second concept in Venice. Perhaps by moving his restaurant out of the shadows and down into the sunnier south, Kenney can reanimate a brand that has taken a few tough lumps.

April 30 is last call for M.A.K.E. at Santa Monica Place. That’s when the remainder of Kenney’s operations (including his attached cooking school) will relocate to Venice. Look for that second concept, done in conjunction with Lemonade backer Ilan Dei, to aim for a fall debut.