Two prominent Gaslight Village establishments close

Ben Sagritalo, Staff Writer

Student’s will no longer have Mediterranean or pie lunch options after the closure of two prominent Gaslight Village stores.  Olga’s Kitchen and Sweetalicious bakery were both recently closed, in October and July respectively.

For the last ten years, Olga’s occupied the corner of Wealthy and Bagley, serving various types of Mediterranean-American cuisines to the people of East Grand Rapids for years. Sweetalicious Bakery served pie, cookies, cake, slushies and other sweets since opening in 2014.  Sweetalicious replaced the popular candy store, Mary Ann’s Chocolate.

Students are having mixed reactions to the closure of the two gaslight village stores.

“Honestly, I kinda expected [Sweetlicious] to close” said Genevieve Doyle ‘18.  “But I’m also really sad because they had good cupcakes.” Other students are also going to miss some of their favorite foods from the store.  “It’s really sad that Sweetilicious is closing because I really liked their cookies” said Maddie Gonzalez ‘19.  

For many students, the closure of Olga’s Kitchen took them by surprise.  “Olga’s closed?”,  Sam Green ‘18 said.  “I never really went to either of them, so I didn’t know” Emory Etienne ‘18 said.

The closure of the two gaslight stores isn’t having a have impact. impact. “I don’t really care”  said Sam Green ‘18.  Green said he rarely went to Sweetielicious so the closure had a minimal impact on him. “Honestly, I don’t really care because I’ve never been there” said Dan DeLano ‘20.  “But pie is good so it’s sad for other people.”  

While students have mixed views on whether they are happy with the closure of Sweetie-licious  all students are anticipating what’s coming next.  “Mary Ann’s again” said DeLano.  “Panera” said Lucy Pietriga ‘20.