Campo Verde, Christmas Light Crazyland, Has Closed

Campo Verde along Pioneer Parkway has closed, to the chagrin of Christmas light enthusiasts far and wide, as first reported by Bud Kennedy at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

Campo Verde is a Tex-Mex and Sonoran-style restaurant in Dalworthington Gardens, which is best known for the free-wheeling tickets the cops pass out or this restaurant (or as the birthplace of Pantera, if you rock out like that). The space is bedazzled in a trauma-inducing way with a trillion holiday lights, a toy choo-choo train that circulates the dining room, vintage decor and a thick orange dip so controversial it could start a war.
The restaurant has been open for more than four decades, and since that time, many families have made an annual holiday pilgrimage to absorb the crazy, kaleidoscope interior where every inch of space is covered in Christmas lights and decorations. From November through December, the parking lot is packed and the wait time is long. The lights are kept up until early Spring just so everyone gets a chance to experience the holiday spirit. The restaurant still allowed smoking in the bar area, which was bananas.

A couple of years ago, the original owners sold the restaurant and the new team gave the place a good scrubbing, slimmed down the menu from a novel to a college essay, but left the essential attractions (decor) the same. The carpet was best not looked at, but the old tables and chairs reminded us of our grandparent's house, ashtrays and all. We'd go sit at the bar on occasion, although it's been at least a year, for a margarita and absorb the offbeat energy the place seemed to attract.

Alas, recently the space got dinged with a poor health inspection score, a mark that is hard to recover from.  James "Smiley" Williams originally opened the restaurant in 1983 and, after 42 years, sold the restaurant to Thomas Ray Stewart Jr. It looks like there may have been some financial woes, according to the legal website Trellis.com and a summary judgment was issued on January 25.

Comments on social media are a mix between nostalgia and comments on the quality of the food, which was never really a point of high praise, as demonstrated by the plate of orange above.

If this institution can't be saved, there should be one amazing parking lot sale.