The Melting Pot served its final cheese and chocolate fondue on Monday. It closed its Foothills Mall location at the end of business Monday.
The Melting Pot fondue restaurant in Foothills Mall, shown in 2013, closed on Monday because of poor sales, said company officials in a written news release.
Just shy of two years after new owners took over and gave it a major remodel, The Melting Pot restaurant in Foothills Mall closed .
The fondue restaurant, a popular date-night location and special occasion family spot, served its final meals last weekend. It closed on Monday because of poor sales, company officials said in a written release.
Devin Gilbert, an operating partner with the group that owned the Tucson restaurant and three Phoenix area Melting Pot locations, also said the Foothills Mall was not willing to accommodate what the restaurant needed. He wouldn’t elaborate on what that meant except to say that the mall was “going away from what they used to be” which “didn’t allow for any natural growth.”
The Phoenix locations are not affected.
Mall officials on Tuesday said the restaurant’s closing came as a complete shock.
“We had no knowledge they were closing,” said Foothills Mall General Manager Regina Harmon. “It was quite a surprise to us.”
Harmon said the restaurant could have had a place at the table for the mall’s upcoming redevelopment, being drawn up by the mall’s new owners Bourn Companies.
Bourn bought the Foothills Mall, 7401 N. La Cholla Blvd., in mid-December, roughly two years after several mall merchants defected for the Tucson Premium Outlets mall off Interstate 10 and Twin Peaks Road. Among those merchants was the Nike Outlet, Saks Fifth Avenue Off Fifth and Old Navy — two Foothills Mall anchors.
Harmon was quick to note how many merchants still operate in Foothills Mall including Ross Dress for Less, Barnes & Noble bookstore, Bath & Body Works and AMC Foothills theater, Tucson’s only IMAX theater.
Harmon said Bourn is still in the planning stage of the proposed mall redevelopment and no plans or timeline have been finalized.
