New owner to reopen Fort Worth-area ‘Christmas wonderland’ restaurant Campo Verde
Arlington chef “Moose” Benhamacht will remodel and reopen Campo Verde, a landmark restaurant attraction known for its 200,000-light “Christmas wonderland” decor, he said this week.
Benhamacht, a career hotel and resort chef who opened the local Loews hotels before moving to the successful Cafe Americana in downtown Arlington, and co-owner Liesl Best will bring Campo Verde a fresher look and an all-new Mexican food menu, he said.
Benhamacht, a Moroccan native who came to Arlington hotels after leading hotel kitchens in resort regions such as Napa Valley, California, and Orlando, Florida, said he plans to repaint and restore Campo Verde’s seven rooms of Santas and Christmas lights, which draw thousands of customers each holiday.
Campo Verde, a 43-year landmark between Fort Worth and Arlington at 2918 W. Pioneer Parkway, closed in early January after two years with timeworn decor and kitchen struggles under a past owner, Louisiana restaurateur Tommy Stewart.
“We’re going to keep the history and tradition of Campo Verde,” Benhamacht said.
“We have friends who came here in the ‘80s, then their kids came, now their grandkids are coming — we’re going to clean it up and make it a better experience for Arlington and everybody who loves coming here,” he said.
He knew the answer to one question right away.
“The train will run again,” he said, referring to model trains that run a looping track around the ceiling.
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The multiple rooms, holiday displays and clickety-clacking train gave Campo Verde the same kind of fierce, multi-generational following on a smaller scale as Casa Bonita, the legendary Tex-Mex restaurant and theme park in Denver.
But Campo Verde staggered to the finish line last Christmas.
The telephone didn’t work for months, and the restaurant’s social media pages weren’t updated and were finally deleted. The restaurant ran out of staples — even beans — and didn’t have the traditional chile powder to dust its chips.
At the peak of the holiday season, the restaurant barely stayed open with a near-failing 60 score on a Dec. 3 health inspection, a 61 on a revisit Dec. 11 and a 71 on a second follow-up Dec. 17.
Campo Verde was built in the 1980s heyday of fajitas-and-margaritas restaurants. The founder, the late James “Smiley” Williams, was a manager for Fort Worth restaurateur Don Bowden at now-gone Dos Gringos before Bowden started Mercado Juarez Cafes. Williams sold the restaurant in 2022.
Forty-year chef Antonio Reyes left two years ago and now serves Campo’s original dishes at Chente Cafe Brazos River Catfish and Tex-Mex, 10771 Interstate 20 West at the Brazos River bridge west of Weatherford.
This story was originally published February 26, 2025 at 5:31 AM.
