I grew up across the street from that bastion of crass commerciality, Northbrook Court, and watched how one former hayride farm could completely transform the area for miles around it. Still, as a kid, having a mall essentially across the street doesn’t suck, especially when it had restaurants like The Magic Pan. My sister and I were nuts for their crepes, both the savories they served as meals as well as the sweets we’d count on for desserts. We loved watching the crepes being made, since they did it the “real” way, on the flat bottoms of frying pans.

Well, almost 30 years (!) since that mall first opened, one of the original names on the mall directory is returning. Signs throughout the mall proclaim that The Magic Pan is coming soon! My guess, though I have no special insight, is that it is Lettuce Entertain You’s reincarnation of The Magic Pan. It sounds like some of those 70’s menu classics are reborn, but when it’s enveloped in a crepe, how sucky can it be?

Watch for me hanging out at the grand opening.