One of Tacoma Mall’s longtime sugar stops has gone dark. The Orange Julius kiosk in the food court is now boarded up, its counter taped off and its blenders silent, leaving regulars without one of the mall’s last old-school drink stands.
Shoppers spotted the plywood and empty stall this week, and employees confirmed the unit has closed to customers. According to store associates quoted by The News Tribune, Tacoma Mall maintenance came in and boarded over the shared Orange Julius and Dairy Queen space soon after the stand stopped serving. Dairy Queen’s official location page for the mall now shows the Treat Center as closed or with online ordering unavailable, signaling the co-branded spot is out of service. The story by Minnie Stephenson, published Feb. 20, includes photos of the shuttered kiosk.
Brand roots and the DQ tie-in
The Orange Julius name dates back to the 1920s and later became a fixture of American mall culture before being acquired by International Dairy Queen in 1987, according to Wikipedia. Over the years, many standalone Julius counters were absorbed into Dairy Queen treat centers, which is why the brand mostly survives today as a DQ menu line instead of as freestanding shops.
The News Tribune noted that the Tacoma Mall kiosk had been serving Julius favorites like strawberry-banana, berry-pomegranate and mango-pineapple smoothies alongside the classic orange drink. Employees described the shutdown as abrupt and said mall maintenance moved quickly to board up the unit after it closed.
Where to find a Julius nearby
Fans who are not ready to give up the frothy, citrusy habit entirely still have a couple of options within driving distance. Local mall directories list Dairy Queen/Orange Julius counters at The Outlet Collection in Auburn and at South Hill Mall in Puyallup, both in their respective food courts, making them the nearest spots to track down those signature Julius drinks.
Why the closure matters
Standalone Julius counters have been disappearing for years as mall food courts evolve and national brands consolidate into co-branded units, a trend that has played out across the Pacific Northwest. A 2025 piece in Eater chronicled the long wind-down of several longtime mall Orange Julius locations in the region.
Tacoma Mall is owned and managed by Simon Property Group, whose site highlights ongoing upgrades to food and retail offerings as part of efforts to refresh the center. That kind of redevelopment pressure often speeds up turnover among smaller kiosk tenants and reshapes who gets a coveted food-court slot.
For now, the plywood-covered Julius counter stands as one more small erasure of mall-era nostalgia in Tacoma. Anyone craving those familiar frothy treats will have to trek to nearby Dairy Queen locations or wait to see whether a new operator eventually takes over the kiosk space. This story will be updated if mall management or Dairy Queen issues a statement or if the unit reopens under a new tenant.
