Thursday, July 13, 2006

Piccadilly Cafeteria



The above picture is a 2005 picture of the inside of the Piccadilly Cafeteria at Carolina Circle Mall.

In November of 1976, the Piccadilly Cafeteria opened in the Carolina Circle Mall across from the Circle Six Theatres.

For over 20 years, Greensboro had two Piccadilly Cafeterias. There was one at Carolina Circle Mall and one at Four Seasons Mall. Today, we'll be taking a look at the Carolina Circle Mall one. For the Four Seasons one, visit Four Seasons City. Not!

I believe this particular Piccadilly Cafeteria doubled as the set for the Old Rebel Show for one day. Carolina Circle was a part of Greensboro TV Land!

In the '90s, I went to the Piccadilly Cafeteria fairly regularly. My parents never really cared for it, but we went anyway. They were similar to K&W Cafeteria, but their food had a certain taste to it that K&W didn't have. Also, I never went to the one at Four Seasons.

On July 31, 1996, Piccadilly Cafeteria went out of business leaving a huge empty space in the mall. It was the longest lasting dine-in restaurant the mall ever had. Since the Four Seasons Piccadilly Cafeteria closed in the late '90s, most of North Carolina hasn't had a Piccadilly since.

I had the chance to revisit Piccadilly Cafeteria once. In May of 2001, I went with the 5th grade of Madison Elementary School to Williamsburg, Virgina. We had dinner at the Piccadilly Cafeteria in Williamsburg. It was awesome.

For some reason, Piccadilly Cafeteria has given me dreams and nightmares over the years. The most recent one was from a few months ago. I went to Piccadilly Cafeteria somewhere and had a meal. When I got back home, I told someone about my meal. Suddenly, my backpack attacked me and I woke up shaking and sweating. Because I'm posting about Piccadilly Cafeteria, I'll probably have another nightmare tonight. The things I do for my blogs.

2 comments:

Livemalls said...

The best thing I can say about Piccadilly is they had some cool Gothic-style cafeterias back in the day. I never cared for the food (K&W all the way!).

Jake Nelson said...

The only Piccadilly left in NC is in Jacksonville.