Movie goers and shoppers at River Park will soon have two new places to dine

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- The skeleton of what once stood as the World Sports Café sits vacant. The popular restaurant closed around three and a half years ago.

Ever since then, shoppers and movie goers have been wondering what will take over space, and they won't have to wait much longer.

"It was such a great space, we wanted to make sure we had the right concept in there," Tracy Kashian with River Park said.

Retailers and restaurants jumped at the chance to sign a lease, but the shopping center wanted to find the best fit and a destination for shoppers and moviegoers.

"Just the way the economy has changed, restaurants are really the draw to a shopping center," Kashian explained.

Two new restaurants are taking over the almost 10,000 square foot space. Each one comes with a concept so new, the restaurant owners haven't decided on names yet.

What we do know is that each restaurant will be its own entity.

"One is very chic, it's hip, it's a new concept that's big in LA," Kashian said.

That restaurant will be opened by Fresno's Jason Lin. You may have been to his Campus Pointe restaurant, Hino Oishi. A separate restaurant group will be opening the street facing side.

"The second one is very exciting family friendly," Kashian said. "It has more of a Disneyland feel kind of like going to a theme park."

Both restaurants are going to have patio space for their patrons. If you take a look you can see where they'll go. One restaurant is even going to open up space further.

The walkway between the movie theatre and restaurants will remain, as it provides access to fire trucks in the event of an emergency. Over the next several months the team will create the two spaces and acquire building permits.

"Probably at the first of the year, I would think we would be able to hand the space over to them they'll be able to come in and put their concepts into the spaces," Kashian said.