North Columbus Vietnamese dessert shop shutters at Kenny Centre Mall as new restaurant prepares takeover
A change in tenants at a well-known Northwest Side retail center
A Vietnamese dessert shop in north Columbus has closed, ending its run at Kenny Centre Mall, a retail plaza on the city’s Northwest Side. The space is expected to be taken over by a restaurant, reflecting continued churn among small food businesses operating in shopping-center storefronts.
The Kenny Centre area, located off Kenny Road near Bethel Road, has long drawn diners for its concentration of Asian restaurants, bakeries and cafés. The departure of a dessert-focused concept adds to a familiar pattern in which niche operators cycle through high-traffic retail centers that depend on steady daily sales, reliable staffing and predictable lease terms.
What the location has hosted in recent years
The closing follows a period in which Vietnamese sweets and drink-forward menus have gained a visible foothold in Columbus, including storefronts built around items such as mochi-style donuts, specialty beverages and house-made desserts. In 2023, a Vietnamese café concept opened at 1157 Kenny Centre Mall with a menu that included mochi donuts, Vietnamese desserts, specialty drinks and pho, operating mid-day through evening service most days of the week.
In retail plazas like Kenny Centre, concepts that combine desserts and beverages often rely on repeat visits and peak-hour volume, especially during evenings and weekends. At the same time, the same storefront dynamics—parking, visibility, adjacent anchors and competing quick-service options—can support a rapid transition when a new operator is ready to assume the lease.
What a restaurant takeover typically changes
A move from dessert shop to full restaurant generally signals a shift in how the space will be used and what the customer base can expect. While final details of the incoming operator’s plans have not been confirmed publicly, restaurant build-outs commonly require changes in:
Kitchen equipment and ventilation to meet higher-volume hot-food service requirements
Seating layout and front-of-house workflow
Hours of operation, often expanding lunch and dinner capacity
Staffing levels, which can increase with table service or broader menus
Why the transition matters locally
Columbus has seen steady growth in Vietnamese dining options over the past several years, ranging from pho-focused restaurants to concepts emphasizing desserts and specialty drinks. That broader expansion has created more choice for diners, but it can also intensify competition for small operators—particularly those in categories where consumer demand is more seasonal or concentrated around specific time windows.
For retail-center food businesses, the difference between a dessert counter and a full restaurant often comes down to how consistently a concept can generate daily traffic, not just weekend interest.
The closure marks another transition in a corridor where customers frequently track openings and closings closely. The next tenant’s timeline for opening, menu focus and operating model have not been finalized publicly.