A summer camp-themed eatery and pickleball playground? It’s coming to Denver and Huntsville, Alabama. But you’ll have to wait until 2024.
According to a story published in OutThere Colorado, the new eatery, dubbed Camp Pickle, is the newest, and biggest, venture from Robert Thompson, founder of Denver restaurant and bowling center Punch Bowl Social.
Camp Pickle will be designed to mimic what Thompson calls a 1940s summer camp, featuring a rustic design and a heavy dose of nostalgia.
The Camp Pickle website sums up the experience as a celebration of both U.S. national parks and the camp culture of the 1940s. The site doesn’t give an official opening date, but does promise that the “first bugle” will sound in early 2024.
According to Nation’s Restaurant News, the first Camp Pickle location will open in Huntsville, Alabama. Thompson plans to eventually open 10 locations by the second quarter of 2026. The second will open in Denver later in 2024, before Camp Pickle locations open in cities such as Dallas, Minneapolis and Atlanta.
Camp Pickle locations should cover from 55,000 to 75,000 square feet each with 10 to 14 pickleball courts, according to Nation’s Restaurant News. The facilities will also feature other games such as bowling and darts and a restaurant menu with a summer camp theme.
Thompson said that Camp Pickleball will feature wood-fired cooking to mimic that campground feel. The Nation’s Restaurant News story said that customers will either order their food at a counter or from their table using QR codes. Servers would then bring the food to them.
Camp Pickle is just the latest pickleball and eatery combination hitting the country. Similar concepts are opening in locations such as New Orleans and the Minneapolis-St. Paul market. As the sport of pickleball continues to draw new fans, expect more entrepreneurs to open pickleball-themed entertainment centers and eateries in the future.
