{"id":411665,"date":"2026-07-25T04:47:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-25T04:47:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/411665\/"},"modified":"2026-07-25T04:47:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-25T04:47:11","slug":"candy-land-cafe-brings-childhood-favorite-to-life-in-little-italy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/411665\/","title":{"rendered":"Candy Land Caf\u00e9 brings childhood favorite to life in Little Italy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Candy Land Caf\u00e9 is hard to miss on the corner of Pacific Highway and Hawthorn Street in Little Italy. The art deco facade is painted in the bright pink, yellow, orange and blue colors of the iconic Hasbro board game.<\/p>\n

Oversized candy-themed decorations, cupcakes and lollipops transform Hilton\u2019s Bayside Kitchen restaurant into a life-size replica of the Hasbro board game. The experience is complete with the famous colorful squares that wind throughout the restaurant and lead Candy Land fans to an outdoor patio. The trail ends, just like the board game, with a larger-than-life castle, complete with gigantic cupcakes and gumdrops.<\/p>\n

\"Visitors<\/p>\n

Visitors to the Candy Land Caf\u00e9 explore the outdoor patio on July 22, 2026. The pop-up restaurant is based on the Hasbro board game Candy Land and is located inside the Bayside Kitchen in Little Italy.<\/p>\n

Candy Land Caf\u00e9 supervisor Ian Osuna said the giant candy-themed props are popular with cafe visitors for taking pictures and reminiscing about childhood memories of playing the game. The cafe\u2019s menu features American comfort food with a whimsical twist.<\/p>\n

Allison Wilson, from Ladson, South Carolina, is visiting San Diego for Comic Con with her daughter, Madeline.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love the lemonade we had! It came with a piece of cotton candy, and you stick it in and you swirl it around, and it changes the color of the drink. So, mine turned out pink, and I believe hers turned out orange,\u201d Wilson said. Madeline showed off her hand-decorated gingerbread man, she named Wilson, and then bit the leg off.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A colorful alcoholic drink named the Sugar Trail, made with Midori, prosecco, and coconut rum, is ready to be served at Candy Land Caf\u00e9 in Little Italy on July 22, 2026.<\/p>\n

Osuna said the food is meant to inspire nostalgia with classic American fare like smash burgers, curly fries, colorful grilled cheese and tomato soup, and an expansive dessert menu filled with interactive candy-themed treats like make-your-own ice cream flights.<\/p>\n

Right in front of the merchandise and candy store, visitors can also utilize a free candy-themed photo booth, where the photos can be sent to their phones. The store has a variety of different candies available to buy, as well as stacks of the iconic Candy Land board game and Candy Land-themed T-shirts.<\/p>\n

\"Lollipop<\/p>\n

The Lollipop Woods tunnel leads guests at Candy Land Caf\u00e9 outside toward King Kandy’s Castle on July 22, 2026.<\/p>\n

The pop-up experience is hosted by Bucket Listers in partnership with Hasbro and will be running until Oct. 4. Candy lovers can purchase tickets online<\/a> or in person at the cafe. Each ticket includes a 90-minute dining experience, with $10 discounts on food and $5 dollar discounts on merchandise.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Candy Land Caf\u00e9 is hard to miss on the corner of Pacific Highway and Hawthorn Street in Little…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":411666,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[74,76,75],"class_list":["post-411665","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/411665","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=411665"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/411665\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/411666"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=411665"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=411665"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=411665"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}