An indication of the instances.
A beloved Southern California amusement park will quickly be closing for good, however one nostalgic pizza joint that’s outlasted two theme parks isn’t going anyplace.
Fiesta Village Household Enjoyable Park in Colton — about 50 miles east of Los Angeles off the 215 Freeway — is about to close its gates this month after greater than 5 many years, with house owners Michelle and Patrick O’Brien blaming declining attendance and rising working prices.
However whereas the rides are coming to an finish, Nickelodeon Pizza is staying put.
The family-owned restaurant introduced it’ll proceed serving clients from its longtime location at Fiesta Village, assuring frightened locals that the closure of the amusement park gained’t spell the top of certainly one of Colton’s most enduring establishments.
“We’re extraordinarily saddened to listen to the information of their closing, after so many generations of individuals have loved the amusement park through the years,” the restaurant wrote on Fb.
“We wish the group to know that Nickelodeon Pizza will stay open. We’ll keep in the identical constructing and can function underneath the identical enterprise hours.”
The pizza parlor’s survival is nothing new.
The enterprise traces its roots again to 1973, when it opened as Roaring 20’s Pizza Parlor throughout from San Bernardino Valley School. It later moved into Movieland Frontier City in 1981 after adopting the Nickelodeon Pizza identify, turning into one of many final companies standing earlier than that Previous West-themed attraction closed in 2000.
It was impressed by a nickel arcade contained in the park, the place there was an previous Nickelodeon, an Eighteen Nineties participant piano. It has been a staple in the neighborhood ever since.
After a short stint at one other Colton location, the restaurant got here full circle by returning to Fiesta Village in 2006 — and now it’s as soon as once more outliving the theme park it calls residence.
Former proprietor Gary Grossich, who handed the restaurant over to Colton natives Michael and Amanda in 2025, stated he isn’t frightened the park’s closure will sink the enterprise.
“So far as the pizza restaurant is anxious, I believe it’s going to be simply superb,” Grossich instructed The California Publish.
“Once I bought the enterprise, I particularly labored with individuals who dwell proper right here in Colton and perceive how necessary the enterprise is to the group.”
“That’s necessary to me as a result of I like the folks of Colton,” he added.
Grossich, who spent many years tied to each the restaurant and the amusement parks surrounding it, referred to as Fiesta Village’s demise a “signal of the instances.”
“Yeah, it’s a tragic day. It’s a tragic time. I used to be concerned with Fiesta Village as early as 1973, so I noticed a whole lot of what occurred there through the years—the totally different sights and all the pieces throughout the park,” he stated.
“Children are spending extra time on their cell telephones and away from the sorts of actions we used to take pleasure in after we have been youthful. It looks as if that’s gone out of vogue.”
“Firm picnics have been a giant a part of our income, and when issues get troublesome, they’re not popping out,” Michelle O’Brien instructed SF Gate.
“Lots of people would reasonably sit on their cell telephones and play video video games. It’s only a totally different period,” he added.
Grossich stated Fiesta Village is hardly the primary native attraction to vanish.
“It’s not the primary amusement park within the space to shut, both. Pharaoh’s closed a couple of years in the past, and Scandia on the 215 closed too. They’ve been dwindling down,” he stated.
In a message on their web site, Fiesta Village thanked the workers and group for all the good reminiscences.
“Thanks for permitting us to be a part of your lives and your loved ones traditions. We’ll at all times cherish the position Fiesta Village has performed in bringing folks collectively.”
The park’s remaining days of public operation are listed as July 10 and July 11, with a number of non-public events scheduled for following dates.
