Where Are the Rainforest Cafes in New England?
The Rainforest Cafe is one of those places you forget about until you see one or someone mentions a memory about the iconic restaurant and then you’re like, “Holy CRAP, I miss that place.”
Nowadays, restaurants are bland and modern, throwing up neon signs to show creativity and maybe hanging a few plants to look chic.
We’ve lost the entertainment experience of eating and adding fun things to add to the restaurant experience.
While we never had a Rainforest Cafe in Maine, we had the next best thing at Bugaboo Creek.
But, as cool as everyone thought Bugaboo Creek was, the Rainforest Cafe puts that dancing tree to shame with its massive talking tree and animatronic gorillas.
Rainforest Cafe
The Rainforest Cafe is the most unique dining experience you could ever have.
The food is incredible, with options for everyone like pasta, seafood, burgers, and insane desserts. If you want it, they got it.
The ambiance is unbelievable, you are literally sitting in the middle of a rainforest with cascading waterfalls, tropical rainstorms going off every 20-ish minutes, trumpeting elephants making crazy noises, and animatronic gorillas making you jump.
Your waiter/waitress is your safari guide and the lighting, design, and sounds are out of this world. It’s truly like walking into a whole different world when you walk through the doors.
The tropical storm goes off every 20-ish minutes, with lights flickering to mimic lightning, animatronic animals making noises, and sounds of rain pouring with the waterfalls.
It is freaking epic!!
Rainforest Cafe in New England
I visited one of the cafe locations in Florida when I was younger, had the most iconic, impressive, and entertaining restaurant experience of my life, and then forget about it as the years went by.
I was recently in Nashville, TN, and when I drove by the mall I screamed out, “OH MY GOD, IT’S A RAINFOREST CAFE.”
I didn’t realize they were still around!
This brought me to a quick Google search: Where the HECK are the Rainforest Cafe locations and do we still have one in New England?!
Rainforest Cafe in New England
Unfortunately, we need to travel far out of state to experience the most epic restaurant to ever exist.
We used to have a Rainforest Cafe in the Burlington Mall in Massachusetts but it closed down in 2016, allegedly because they lost their lease.
I don’t care about the reasons for needing to close down, that is the type of restaurant you figure out how to stay open! I would drive the two hours at least twice a month to eat in a fake rainforest.
The current locations are in New Jersey, Arizona, Florida, Tennessee, Texas, Michigan, Illinois, Nevada, Minnesota, California, and a few international spots.
I was lucky to see the one in Nashville but I am so upset that I saw it right after I had already eaten. I would have still gone in and force-fed myself if we weren’t running late.
This is something to plan a vacation around; if you’re trying to get out of state for a bit, I would head to one of those states on that list.