Is Olga’s Kitchen Closing their Woodland Mall Location?

The last couple of years have been tough on a lot of restaurants. This week we started to see posts on social media that Olga's Kitchen in Woodland Mall would soon be permanently closing.

Trying to Confirm the Rumor

I tried called Olga's Kitchen on Thursday. The conversation went like this...

Olga's Kitchen representative: Hello Olga's Kitchen

ME: Good morning, I'm Scott Winters from 98.7 WFGR radio. I've seen several posts this week on social media that the Woodland Mall location is closing permanently. Is there any truth to that?

-- CLICK! --

Without even trying to answer my question, they just hung up on me!

Since that time I've continue to see more posts that the rumor may be true.

An Olga's Email Gives Us an Answer

I posted the question on Facebook to find out if anyone had a definite answer to the rumors. On Friday morning, I received a comment from Shirley. She said received the following email from Erin from Olga's Support Team...

Olga’s Kitchen is incredibly grateful to our loyal guests who have dined with us at our Woodland Mall location in Grand Rapids restaurant over the last 44 years. Be assured that the decision to move this location was thoughtfully determined, and we are committed to the greater Grand Rapids area as well as the continued revitalization of the Olga’s Kitchen brand. We encourage guests to visit us at our Olga’s Fresh Grille located on Alpine Avenue in Comstock Park.

So it looks like the rumors are true and that the Woodland Mall Olga's will be shutting its doors for good in the near future. Some social media posts have given Monday, October 10th as their final day. There is no mention of the closing on either the Olga's Kitchen website or their Facebook page.

Their Alpine Olga's Fresh Grille is located at 4064 Alpine Avenue, NW, in Comstock Park...

The History of Olga's Kitchen

Olga Loizon founded the first Olga's Kitchen in Birmingham, Michigan back in 1970. She developed the restaurant's recipes in her basement. The chain expanded through the 80s. In June 2015, Olga's Kitchen filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. In the process it closed its Detroit location. Loizon passed away in January 2019 at the age of 92.