the Capital Room is back...sort of

If you've been reading this blog for very long, you know about the closing of Hudson Belk department store's cafeteria, The Capital Room, in Crabtree Valley Mall. As you may recall, it was closed so that the store could expand its selection of women's clothing. A petition drive to stop the closing failed miserably. Now we hear this news from the Raleigh News & Observer:

The next Capital Room won't be a cafeteria, and it won't be in Belk department store. Instead, it will be a full-service restaurant in a Ramada Inn a few miles away.

But it will preserve such popular Capital Room features as seven-layer salad and San Francisco chicken, says Karl Hudson III, a former Belk executive and now part-owner of the Ramada at 1520 Blue Ridge Road.

Hudson is taking the Capital Room's name, menu and some of its employees in an effort to revive the restaurant that operated for 32 years in Belk's Crabtree Valley Mall store, until it closed last month.