Topanga Social is bringing the food court into the future with exciting local restaurants and high-tech ordering.
Malls have been centers of youth culture for as long as there has been youth cultivation . There are iconic example inFast Times at Ridgemont High(of course ) andMallrats(duh ) , but kids hanging out in plaza goes at least as far back as Trajan ’s Markets in the warmness of the Pax Romana . And for much of that time , shopping center food sucked . In the common era , the habitue of the physical body were oestrus lamps and steam trays , aged pizzas and dirty electrocute oil and sugary - AS lemonade , and food tourist court became a hub of mod life anyway . But Valley mallrats wo n’t have to put up with that nonsense any longer , thanks to the porta of a revolutionary young food hall , Topanga Social .
Topanga Social comes from restaurant magnate Robert Earl and hisEarl Enterprisesworking in partnership with theUnibail - Rodamco - Westfieldcommercial real estate mega - tummy , which is behind some 100 malls , hotel , airports , and jumbo properties worldwide . And the novel intellectual nourishment hallway ’s scale is fitting for a massive partnership like that . Topanga Social handle more than 55,000 square base , with almost 800 keister in a space design by awarding - winning firmAvroKO . To put butts in those ample seat , the team at Earl and URW have assembled a astral aggregation of 27 food and drinkable marketer , with a focal point on concepts that are small-scale , hipper , and more highly regarded than any other shopping center in town . The legal profession may be down in the mouth , but they ’re flying manner the hell over it .
The headliners at first glance are probablyMini Kabob , the beloved and diminutiveArmenian restaurant in Glendale , experience in equal parts for the Martirosyan family ’s tender cordial reception and their unbelievable grilled meat and ikra , the charred vegetable inclination they refer to as “ eggplant caviar . ” But the vendor list has no skip , from offshoots of other kinsfolk - run businesses likeSeaweed Hand Roll Barto apace growing chainlets likeKatsu SandoandPoke Meto upstart beverage specialists likeHey HeyandMadLab Coffee .
Photo by Renee Cascia, courtesy of Topanga Social
When you near from the parking lot , you ’re greeted byMargarita Garden , an indoor - outdoor legal community that doubles as de facto terrace seating area . It ’s a little asphalt rectangle cut out of a paseo , but it ’s made to sense luxurious and withdraw with greenery , umbrellas , and stylish out-of-door article of furniture . You go in the erectile court through the doorways , revealing a ring of food stalls anchored byRock and Reilly’spub in the middle , circling a large central seating area . Even in these former 24-hour interval , in the middle of the good afternoon on a weekday , the rumpus is striking — it ’s already a hit .
People pullulate around the court , eye the various stands as they stroll in a large circle . There are mathematical group of coworkers sharing adult tables and outside prole sitting alone with their laptop , official Topanga Social ambassadors in khaki looking eager to help oneself , adolescent ditch class from Canoga Park High across the street , and a ton of mass lined up at tablet - based ordering station . That ’s the other matter about Topanga Social — it is also something of a real - world beta trial run for a new unified order platform .
Instead of cashiers , all of your order go on through a single system . For now , that ’s done through tablets placed around the court and in front of each stall where cash registers might be , with a earpiece app derive before long . You tap through a series of login didactics , synchronize their organization with your phone , and then you may order from every restaurant at once . Go for a Tempura Shrimp Hand Roll , a cortado , a Mole Tamal , some Xiao Long Bao , and a Detroit - vogue pizza pie , and then take a seat . schoolbook alerts from each vendor roll in as dishes are ready , so you terminate up eat in an irregular sequence , like a sort of haphazard taste menu . It ’s fun , it ’s exciting , and from top - to - bottom , the solid food is extremely telling , execute at a high level and at good efficiency for opening week . It ’s also , to be perfectly honest , a minuscule alienating .
Photo by Renee Cascia, courtesy of Topanga Social
remove even the simple human rally of ordering profoundly affects the solid food court of justice experience , turning it into perhaps the most solitary matter you could do in world . If you pop in for a quick good afternoon umber or a weekday lunch by yourself , you will likely be in and out without tell a exclusive Word of God to anyone . You tap on a concealment , cull up your food , consume , and move on . Maybe this is the future and what citizenry really require in their lunches , as Postmates bring into meatspace . And perhaps this will trouble no one but the already alienated ; most people will doubtless chatter in group anyway .
That ’s a win for restaurant doer , too . Removing the essence of customer fundamental interaction form the occupation much loose , especially in an age of extremely publicized public freakouts . It is a everlasting contrast from the typical food for thought court experience , and maybe it ’s all for the best . Still , it takes a short recalibration . You will never sense like a even , no matter how many reinforcement points you earn in the app .
It ’ll be interesting to see how the manikin holds up in the area because Topanga Social is surrounded by unwavering challenger . Across the street , to the west , there ’s a Shake Shack , a Dog Haus , and adispensary . To the south isThe Village at Topanga , another Westfield plaza property with a similar luxuriousness set and several worthwhile food options . North by Canoga Park High , there ’s an In - N - Out , a Panda Express , and a Pollo Campero . And two occlusion south is the Promenade , a utter husk of a mall that was the luxury option in the expanse only a couple of decade ago ; Stan Kroenke now owns it and appears destined to be demolished to make way for a practice facility for the LA Rams . Even out here in mall country , the future tense is uncertain .
Photo by Renee Cascia, courtesy of Topanga Social
As you eat a clearly excellent tiffin , it is hard to ignore the circumstance ; the new technical school bolted onto an old data format , the nebulous future of retail as a concept , and the corporate assimilation of cool food for thought . Or perchance Topanga Social will be the succus malls in general motive , a design for Westfields worldwide .
If the whole thing strikes you mostly as another megamall built to lure citizen away from really public spaces and into capitalist territory masquerading as such , spaces where you are much more likely to part with your money , time , attention , and information … well , you ’re not wrong . This is a ploy to bring you to the center , to get you to download the app , to get you to post pictures have fun shopping , to get you to wander and browse after lunch . It ’s a megamall in the deep Valley — already a fastness of mall culture — and your cynicism is fully warranted . But if account has taught us anything , it ’s that kidswillhang out at malls . And it ’s worth call back that there was no poke atRidgemont Mall , no micheladas at theSan Dimas Mall , and no ikra atEden Prairie .
