Reed Opera House Mall

One of the city’s most revered and oldest buildings in the state is the Reed Opera House. Formally a cultural and social hot spot for the theater groups during ts early years, the ROH transitioned into place that housed galleries, shops, and department stores before its recent renovation. Now it remains a staple in Salem’s downtown scene as a shopping /​dining destination, an office space, and special occasion locale. Not shabby for a place that just celebrated its 145^th birthday.
The running joke when I was younger was the ROH was touristy and stuffy. It would always be dead and it was pointless to shop there. Many years later, ROH is looking better than ever and while the people traffic is not exactly bustling, I would attribute more of that to Salem’s population than ROH’s failures as a legit place to pass the time downtown. That or maybe I’m now the tourist.
The dining scene is a good place to start. One of the more popular lunch locales is The Soup Shack (
), where one can rock a killer soup with an equally fantastic sandwich. Sisters (
) is one of the city’s only decent Irish options and Little Cannoli Bakery (
) is no slouch for some fantastic Italian treats. Folks looking for a taste of Greece can get it from Macedonia (
) and head up to the Mezzanine for 503 Sushi (
). More than likely I’ll be grabbing a drink at Brown’s (
) where there is everything from cool brews to lively brunch service.
I’ve also attended a wedding or two here. The Trinity Ballroom is a fantastic space for weddings and special occasions and extra perfect during the spring and summer because of the natural sunlight. I can’t comment too much on prices, but for those of you who are looking to book something, peep the rates and rules here:
Lastly, I confess I’m not much of a shopper. A good number of the stores /​services within the ROH are small and locally owned, which is a good thing considering how chainy most malls around these parts are. There is some decent gift shopping to be done here or one could get pampered through the numerous salons and spas.
There are certainly worse ways to spend your money and dropping some here to experience all the ROH has to offer is a great way to get acquainted with some of Salem’s best local businesses.

Pretty neat. Its an old place. Random shops all around. Its a very different kind of mall.

Top floor ball room was my main interest. But it wasn’t as grand as it seems in the photos. So think Potential. There are shops and offices through out this building to explore. I didn’t find anything particularly interesting that I would want to purchase. But it is a fun spot to explore as a tourist if you the type that is interested in repurposed old buildings.

i’m surprised that this place received such high ratings. there were little shops of different stuff and a couple salons. i walked thru this place within 5 minutes. really liked the hat store and bought a cute hat for myself and one for my husband. looked like street parking only.

I get way sweaty hot when I hang out here, but I always enjoy hanging out and looking at the stuff. BIG PLUS!!! Dogs are allowed to peruse the public space!!! (Individual stores decide for themselves, of course.)

The Reed Opera House has a great collection of shops. Its too bad that the Herb Lady went out of business because that was a really neat place to shop in there, as well as Ventis. I love all the shops in The Reed Opera House, it has some nice art work on the elevators. And its a nice place to go and spend some time, just to hangout or shop. Drink coffee. I like it a lot.

There is such an amazing collection of businesses and services in this building that you could almost live there. But the best is the Underground — it has the most interesting collection of shops…