A Placerville eatery featured on Food Network will be closing in October

A fantasy culinary destination in Placerville featured on the Food Network is set to close in the coming weeks.

Enchanted Forest Dining Experience, a themed restaurant designed to immerse diners in a mystical fairy land, will serve its last meals on Oct. 12, it announced Thursday on Facebook.

“After nearly six magical years, the Enchanted Forest Dining Experience will soon close its doors,” the post reads. “The building our restaurant is (in) has been sold, and we have been asked to move out.”

Kaitlyn Keyt owns the Enchanted Forest restaurant at 372 Main St., along with neighboring shops Savory Pies of the World and VibesUP. In a message, Keyt said she and her team feel “a little lost on what to do next.”

“We open(ed) two months before (COVID) hit, and we put our heart and soul into creating this unique themed restaurant,” she wrote. “It is a place that makes people feel like they have time traveled away from current stresses and they are part of a truly enchanting experience.”

In 2024, Enchanted Forest Dining Experience was featured in a Placerville-focused episode of Guy Fieri’s ”Best Bite in Town” show on the Food Network, winning the “best bite” title for its Gold Miners Irish Pasty Pie, which is stuffed with potatoes, corned beef and sauerkraut.

Savory Pies of the World is in the same building as Enchanted Forest, and it will have to close as well, Keyt wrote. She said in her message that rebuilding the concept from scratch may be too expensive for the family-owned business, but she is hoping to sell some of the restaurant’s bestsellers — pasty pies and mead — at VibesUP, which will stay open at 366 Main St.

Keyt wrote that the Enchanted Forest team would be willing to “adopt” the restaurant to a prospective owner who has sufficient funding to launch it in a new location, offering to supply decorations and support.

In her message, Keyt thanked the El Dorado foothills community for its support of the business and for sharing fond memories at Enchanted Forest through its five years in business.

“We’ve been blessed to be a part of so many celebrations from birthdays, baby showers, wedding dinners, even memorial services,” Keyt wrote. “We will miss being (a part) of the celebrations.”

Enchanted Forest Dining Experience is open three days per week — 4-9:30 p.m. Fridays, 11 a.m.-9:30 p.m. Saturdays and 11 a.m.-8:30 p.m. Sundays. The restaurant has four more weekends in operation until its closure, with reservations available online and over the phone through its final day.

Camila Pedrosa

The Sacramento Bee

Camila Pedrosa is the California Diversions Reporter at The Sacramento Bee. She previously worked on The Bee’s service journalism team and was a summer reporting intern for The Bee in 2024. She graduated from Arizona State University with a master’s degree in mass communication.