The Market at Santa Monica Place Goes (Mostly) Dark In Anticipation of Chain Dominance

All of the dreary restaurant news coming out of The Market at Santa Monica Place over the past few years hasn’t exactly instilled a public confidence in the shopping center's culinary offerings. Perhaps that’s why, as Toddrickallen reports, the Market is slowing their restaurant operations down to a trickle in anticipation of a hopeful upcoming flood of new life, thanks to some well-known chains.

On-site signage at Santa Monica Place says that the market area will be changing in the coming weeks and asks shoppers to stay tuned, but is short on details otherwise (multiple calls to reps for Santa Monica Place haven’t yielded much new intel, either). In the meantime, Venokado, Groundworks Coffee, The Curious Palate (whose own Mar Vista location shuttered not long ago) and The Gourmandise sweets shop will remain open, but everything else is in flux.

Of course, that expected flood of new life comes in the form of a Cheesecake Factory and an Arclight Cinemas headed for Santa Monica Place, which should help to at least bring in tourists and movie-goers, and will ideally lead to higher foot traffic and overall sales at the long-flagging restaurants left at the Westside shopping area.