The Glendale Galleria?s parking-structure dining setup has been widely ridiculed on social media. But its patrons are glad it?s there. | Photos by Alissa Walker

I had lunch in a mall parking garage, and it was actually just fine. When Los Angeles County shut down indoor dining on July 1 ? for the second time ? Gevik Baghdassarian was determined to keep his family?s restaurant open. His employees at Massis Kabob, a local Armenian chain and fixture in the Glendale Galleria?s food court for three decades, began to run stacks of foam-clamshell-encased kebabs to customers as they waited in their vehicles, turning the entrance to the adjacent parking garage into a makeshift drive-through.
But some customers started parking their cars and eating at a handful of tables just outside the food court, a small space which filled quickly and wasn?t set up for social distancing. That?s when representatives from Brookfield Properties, which owns the mall, came to Baghdassarian with another idea: to turn the bottom floor of the three-story parking structure into a dining patio. The somewhat open-air dining area opened on Friday, and responses to photos posted to social media were not generous, painting the situation as a virus-induced dystopian nightmare. Even the Onion had a take. Slate?s Henry Grabar, who argued early on in the pandemic for restaurants to use parking lots for seating, posted a three-word review: ?Advantage: New York.?
When I visited yesterday, a dozen parking spot...