{"id":415024,"date":"2026-07-28T10:15:22","date_gmt":"2026-07-28T10:15:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/415024\/"},"modified":"2026-07-28T10:15:22","modified_gmt":"2026-07-28T10:15:22","slug":"candy-land-cafe-opens-in-san-diego-bringing-board-game-to-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/415024\/","title":{"rendered":"Candy Land Cafe opens in San Diego, bringing board game to life"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The classic <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/shopping\/best-amazon-prime-dayboard-game-deals-2025\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Candy Land board game<\/a> has jumped off the tabletop and into real life for the first time with the Candy Land Cafe, a <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/07\/15\/us-news\/worlds-hardest-to-book-tonkatsu-spot-is-popping-up-in-la-for-just-two-days\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">pop-up<\/a> that has transformed a San Diego restaurant into a whimsical life-size version of the childhood favorite. <\/p>\n<p>But it comes with a harsh policy for guests who break the strict rules.<\/p>\n<p>Bucket Listers has teamed up with toy titan Hasbro to launch the <a href=\"https:\/\/bucketlisters.com\/experience\/candy-land-cafe-sd\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">immersive eatery<\/a>, which transformed Bayside Kitchen + Bar into a real-life version of the classic race-to-the-finish board game, complete with a Lollipop Woods tunnel, giant Jolly Gumdrops, and a winding path leading straight to King Kandy\u2019s Candy Castle.<\/p>\n<p>The Candy Land board game has jumped off the tabletop and into real life for the first time with the Candy Land Cafe. Instagram\/candylandcafeofficial<\/p>\n<p>Visitors are banned from climbing, sitting, leaning or otherwise horsing around on the installations, which are designed to be photographed instead of played with. <\/p>\n<p>Rule breakers may be kicked out with a refund, and may even be <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/07\/24\/us-news\/unhinged-french-squatter-takes-over-female-poker-champs-1-9m-la-mansion-as-his-cliched-act-of-defiance-is-revealed\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">on the hook for any damage caused<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The Instagram-ready experience is packed with photo ops, interactive activities and over-the-top food options. <\/p>\n<p>The chef-driven menu puts a sugary spin on fast-casual favorites, with the likes of rainbow-colored grilled cheese sandwiches, \u201clollipopcorn\u201d chicken and extravagant ice-cream flights.<\/p>\n<p>The pop-up transforms the San Diego restaurant into a whimsical life-size version of the childhood favorite.  Instagram\/candylandcafeofficial<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSign up for the California Morning Report newsletter\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p class=\"inline-module__cta\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCalifornia&#8217;s top news, sports and entertainment delivered to your inbox every day.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\tThanks for signing up!\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>The chef-driven menu boats fast-casual favorites with a spin, like rainbow-colored grilled cheese sandwiches. Instagram\/candylandcafeofficial<\/p>\n<p>The Instagram-ready experience is packed with photo ops, interactive activities and over-the-top food options. Instagram\/candylandcafeofficial<\/p>\n<p>Visitors are banned from climbing, sitting, leaning or otherwise horsing around on the installations.  Instagram\/candylandcafeofficial<\/p>\n<p>Tickets start at $25 per person, and include a 90-minute reservation, a $10 food credit and $5 merchandise credit. Instagram\/candylandcafeofficial<\/p>\n<p>Groups can also dig into a Chocolate Fundu experience, while colorful cocktails and mocktails promise even more eye candy. Visitors can decorate gingerbread cookies and complete a \u201cSweet Adventure Checklist\u201d while exploring the <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2023\/03\/03\/see-inside-a-pastel-maximalists-rainbow-colored-home\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">nostalgic pastel paradise<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Despite looking like one giant playground, organizers have issued a stern warning to visitors who are tempted to climb all over the larger-than-life sweet props. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cCANDY LAND CAFE IS A RESTAURANT, NOT A PLAYGROUND,\u201d an all-caps warning on the event listing declares.<\/p>\n<p>The Candy Land Cafe is scheduled to keep serving up nostalgia in San Diego through Oct. 4. <\/p>\n<p>Tickets start at $25 per person, and include a 90-minute reservation, a $10 food credit and $5 merchandise credit.<\/p>\n<p>Download The California Post App, follow us on social, and subscribe to our newsletters <\/p>\n<p>California Post News: <a 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target=\"_blank\">Sign up here!<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/apps.apple.com\/us\/app\/california-post\/id6751343487\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\"><br \/><\/a>Page Six Hollywood: <a href=\"https:\/\/pagesix.com\/hollywood-signup\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Sign up here!<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><script async src=\"\/\/www.tiktok.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The classic Candy Land board game has jumped off the tabletop and into real life for the first&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":415025,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[166017,7,6716,1339,971,166018,412,74,76,75],"class_list":["post-415024","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-board-games","tag-california","tag-candy","tag-food-drink","tag-lifestyle","tag-pop-up-stores","tag-restaurants","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\/415024","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=415024"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/415024\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/415025"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=415024"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=415024"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=415024"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}