Ramen House in Louisville moves locations. See inside
Ramen House moved from Mid City Mall in Louisville to the Irish Hill neighborhood. Here’s what we tried at the new location.
When Mid City Mall in Louisville’s Highlands neighborhood hit the market in 2024, people began to wonder what would happen with the businesses it houses.
The Bardstown Road shopping center has become an important part of the community since it first opened in 1962, with staples such as a movie theater, grocery store and library.
After more than a year of waiting for an announcement of a new owner or plans for redevelopment of the 11.5 acres of space, this is what we know about the status of some of the mall’s major stores:
Nearly New Shop
One of the first confirmed closings was Nearly New Shop, a resale nonprofit which closed in September after spending almost 40 years in the mall’s basement.
The National Council of Jewish Women decided to close the shop due to an increasingly-competitive resale market as well as the uncertainty of Mid City Mall’s future, executive director of the council’s Louisville section Sarah Harlan previously told The Courier Journal.
It did not take long for another business to fill its space. Nearly New 2 U, which opened Nov. 1, is an indoor vintage vendor mall with booths run by a variety of Louisville-based sellers and has opened in the Nearly New Shop’s old basement location.
Ramen House
Ramen House opened at Mid City Mall in 2019 and closed in August. A spokesperson for Ramen House called the departure “bittersweet” in an Aug. 30 Facebook post.
“We’ve grown so much at that place,” owner Jonathan Ham previously told The Courier Journal. “That’s a staple for Louisville in general, and those were my stomping grounds when I was a young 20-something, with The Back Door, that whole area.”
The restaurant reopened at 204 S. Spring St. in Louisville’s Irish Hill neighborhood in October. Though the two-story structure remains, the new location has a bigger kitchen, patio space and an upstairs bar.
Baxter Avenue Theatres
Following several rumors of an impending closure, a spokesperson for theater’s parent company, Apex Entertainment, announced Dec. 22 that Dec. 31 would be Baxter’s last opening day.
“The future of Mid City Mall is uncertain. While Apex Entertainment would prefer to continue operations and serve its loyal patrons, that is not possible at the present time,” the statement read. “We have not received any indication that the developers wish to incorporate Baxter Avenue Theatres into their plans. We disagree but respect their decision.”
The mall’s rear entrance was the theater’s home since 1996. Baxter is known for being a centralized, accessible theater that showed independent and foreign films.
Though the news has sparked public outrage and even a change.org petition to save the theater, owner Leslie Aberson previously told The Courier Journal he has no plans of relocating Baxter if it was not part of Mid City Mall’s future.
In a Dec. 22 statement to The Courier Journal, Mid City Mall co-owner Sandy Metts said the closure was unrelated to potential redevelopment of Mid City Mall.
“We were surprised to learn of the theater’s decision to close, particularly given that their current lease runs through September, of next year,” she said. “… Unfortunately, attendance has been on the decline at this location for many years, reflecting national trends. The closure is not related to any pending renovation or plans for Mid City Mall.”
ValuMarket
The Courier Journal spoke with John Bizzell, store manager of locally-owned grocery store and major tenant of Mid City Mall, Dec. 22. He said the store intends to stay at least through its current lease, which ends June 30.
“We don’t know if we’ll get another extension option,” Bizzell said.
He added that if current mall ownership were to offer an extension, he’s not sure if the grocery would accept it, listing decreasing foot traffic as a main concern. When the time does come to shut down, it is unlikely that the store would relocate elsewhere in the area, Bizzell said.
The closest nearby grocery options from ValuMarket include the Highlands Mart convenience store at 1351 Bardstown Road, Bombay International Food Mart at 1591 Bardstown Road, the Kroger at 2440 Bardstown Road and the Kroger at 1265 Goss Ave.
Highlands-Shelby Park Library
After some uncertainty after whether the Highlands-Shelby Park Library should remain at its Mid City Mall location, officials announced the library will stay until at least June 2026. The library’s hours were also extended to include operating hours on Sunday.
Before the extension was announced, some residents proposed the library should be relocated to the original building, an old Carnegie library on Oak Street in the Shelby Park neighborhood. The Shelby Park branch merged with the Highlands branch at Mid City Mall in 1994, where it remains.
The old Carnegie building served as a community center before closing in 2017. District 8 Metro Councilman Ben Reno-Weber, who represents the Highlands, has led a number of conversations about where the library might go if the lease is not extended past 2026.
Reporters Matt Glowicki, Killian Baarlaer and Amanda Hancock contributed.
