Food trucks to serve up classic Zellers restaurant items at new stores

With Zellers stores set to make their much-anticipated return this spring, Canadians have been wondering if they would also see the comeback of the retail chain’s popular family restaurants.

Turns out the Zellers dining experience will be back — sort of — and those craving the original food items will get to vote on what will be served up.

Hudson’s Bay Co. (HBC) has announced Zellers shoppers will be greeted by food trucks when the first round of new stores open inside The Bay locations in the spring. The new fleet of trucks will serve a list of classic items from the original menu.

“The Zellers diner on wheels will pull into various locations and serve shoppers with some fan favourites from the fondly remembered Zellers Family Restaurant,” reads a release from the company.

The company says a full return of the original restaurants will not be feasible in the new 10,000-square-foot store-within-a-store concept. If the food trucks get a positive response, HBC says they will head out on a cross-country tour with dates and locations being shared at a later date.

The public will also have their say about what appears on the menu. The company launched an Instagram poll listing 10 menu items — nine from the original restaurants and one new veggie option.

People can cast their vote over the next week to narrow the list of food items down to five.

• Big Z Burger
• Fries and Gravy
• Hot Chicken Sandwich
• Grilled Cheese Sandwich
• Onion Rings
• Quesadilla
• Poutine
• Hot Dog
• Chicken Fingers
• Veggie Burger

The first locations of the new stores were revealed last week.

In B.C., there will be four locations: Pacific Centre in Downtown Vancouver, Guildford Town Centre in Surrey, 7 Oaks Shopping Centre in Abbotsford, and Aberdeen Mall in Kamloops.

The Zellers department store was founded in 1931 and bought over by HBC in 1978, when it operated as the discount division of its flagship Hudson’s Bay department stores. The store hit its peak of about 350 locations in the late 1990s.

In 2011, HBC announced plans to sell the majority of its remaining Zellers leases to Target Corp., closing most stores by 2013. The retailer kept a handful of Zellers locations open as liquidation outlets until 2020.