{"id":24164,"date":"2025-01-03T09:56:24","date_gmt":"2025-01-03T16:56:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/once-upon-a-sandwich-hosts-enchanted-grand-reopening\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T04:49:01","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T04:49:01","slug":"once-upon-a-sandwich-hosts-enchanted-grand-reopening","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/once-upon-a-sandwich-hosts-enchanted-grand-reopening\/","title":{"rendered":"Once Upon A Sandwich hosts enchanted grand reopening"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"The
The restaurant has a magical, fairy tale theme. (Bailey Duran\/Special to The Journal)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

Stepping into Once Upon A Sandwich during its grand reopening was like stepping into a medieval fantasy, a tavern where knights and village people stop for food after a long day tending livestock or fighting dragons.<\/p>\n

The tables were full of people and happy children eating, talking and enjoying their time together. Enchanted trees popped out of the walls, and a giant fireplace heralding tales of dragons \u2013 and a photo of a dragon eating a sandwich \u2013 sat at the very back of the restaurant.<\/p>\n

According to co-owner Kari Watson, who wore a costume to match the vibe of the restaurant decorations, said they only had about a week to get ready for the opening, including painting, installing new floors and creating and installing the decorations. They worked right up until the opening at 11 a.m.<\/p>\n

\"Enchanted
Enchanted trees created by Cameron Watson popped out of the walls throughout the restaurant. (Bailey Duran\/Special to The Journal)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"The
The decorations transported patrons to an enchanted forest. (Bailey Duran\/Special to The Journal)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Dragon
Dragon heads peeked out of the wall in the \u201cdark forest\u201d part of the restaurant. (Bailey Duran\/Special to The Journal)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Kari shared that the realistic, enchanted trees were made by her husband and co-owner, Cameron Watson, with PVC pipe, foam board, masking tape, plaster and resin.<\/p>\n

The couple said that the restaurant is still a bit of a work in progress as they continue decorating and working out some of the kinks.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven Disneyland had a few hiccups,\u201d Cameron said. \u201cEvery time you come in here, there will be something different.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cameron shared that Disneyland is one of his favorite places, and he and Kari felt like Cortez could use a magical place that is focused on children and families.<\/p>\n

Some people have even told Cameron they were excited to have a place to take their kids.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re excited to keep bringing it to life,\u201d Kari said, adding that they love have projects to work on as a couple. And the restaurant is a project that will assuredly keep them busy as they continue bringing the fairy tale to life.<\/p>\n

The menu featured a vast variety of food with creative, themed names like The Princess and the Pea\u2019s Garden Fresh Salad, Ratatouille\u2019s Fried Zucchini, The Little Mermaid\u2019s Clam Chowder and Rumpelstilskin\u2019s Golden Mac-n-Cheese.<\/p>\n

\"The
The front side of the restaurant\u2019s menu. (Bailey Duran\/Special to The Journal)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Brinley
Brinley Duran enjoying the restaurant\u2019s Rumpelstilskin\u2019s Golden Mac-n-Cheese. (Bailey Duran\/Special to The Journal)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Cameron noted that the macaroni and cheese went through multiple phases of testing before they landed on the final recipe.<\/p>\n

It was delicious.<\/p>\n

To thank guests on their opening day, the restaurant provided dragon toys for kids on a first-come, first-served basis, and crocheted hearts to the adults. Kari crocheted 70 hearts for patrons.<\/p>\n

Children 12 years old and under will also eat for free the entire month of January.<\/p>\n

\"Co-owner
Co-owner Kari Watson crocheted 70 hearts for patrons who visited on opening day. (Bailey Duran\/Special to The Journal)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Though the menu is largely the same as it was under the original owners, Rick and Carolyn Hessom, the Watsons\u2019 new chef Joe Goulet has added some new touches that brought an added excitement to the new atmosphere and theme.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

delicious food was complemented by whimsical decorations<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":24165,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[431,21,28,60,29,450],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-24164","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-business-general","tag-cortez","tag-headlines","tag-montezuma-county","tag-newsletter","tag-restaurant-and-catering"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24164","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24164"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24164\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":78427,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24164\/revisions\/78427"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24165"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24164"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24164"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24164"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=24164"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}