Fantasy themed eatery in Placerville saved from closure at the last minute

Less than a month after announcing plans to close, Placerville’s Enchanted Forest Dining Experience was “saved,” the restaurant said in a Facebook post Tuesday evening.

“The Enchanted Forest Has Been Granted More Time,” the post reads. “We no longer have to lose our doors October 12th ... Thank you to everyone who rallied around us ... Your support quite literally helped save The Enchanted Forest Dining Experience.”

In September, owner Kaitlyn Keyt shared that the 372 Main St. fantastical storybook-themed eatery had lost its lease and was set to close Oct. 12 after six years in business and a 2024 feature on Food Network. Less than three weeks later, she said she was able to come to a new agreement with the building’s landlord to remain in the unit.

“We were able to have a good conversation and come to an agreement,” Keyt wrote in a message. “He’s going to allow us to stay for a while and after some time, we will talk again and he said he might let us stay even longer.

“It was a very positive conversation and it really showed me that he does care about the restaurant and the community.”

She thanked community members and KCRA 3 for their continual support in recent weeks, helping raise awareness for the restaurant’s impending closure and spreading positivity among Placerville-area foodies.

Keyt said Savory Pies of the World, a sister restaurant in the same building as Enchanted Forest, will still have to close, but its menu and chef will have a new home in the Forest. In her message, Keyt wrote that the restaurant’s employees are “so relieved” about the lease extension, in particular a hostess for whom Enchanted Forest is her first job.

“She’s still in high school and she told me yesterday that she’s so excited to come to work and that her coworkers encourage her,” she wrote. “She is probably the most excited out of all of them because she loved her first job so much.”

Enchanted Forest will offer a four-course fondue special at a discounted price as the team trains new staff, and it will be open for limited hours, gradually expanding to its normal hours. The weekend of Oct. 18-19, it will be open Saturday and Sunday, then Friday-Sunday the following weekend and back to its Thursday-Sunday schedule afterward, according to its Facebook.

Keyt wrote that she is also working to obtain a full liquor license, which will allow the restaurant to serve spirit-based cocktails in addition to its existing soju cocktail, beer, wine and mead offerings. She expects the full bar to open in late October.

“We were trying to emotionally prepare ourselves for starting the teardown on Monday the 13th,” Keyt wrote in her message. “This huge feeling of dread has now lifted, and we are elated!”

This story was originally published October 8, 2025 at 1:03 PM.

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.