WESTERVILLE, Ohio ( WCMH ) — A central Ohio Mexican restaurant that opened less than a year ago inside a former movie theater has closed.
Cantina Blue Santa at 8 North State State in Westerville’s 97-year-old former State Theatre shuttered late last month. The Mexican restaurant had opened in September 2023, replacing a Barrel & Boar location that had called the theater home for six years.
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State Theatre is quickly pivoting to a new tenant as another Mexican eatery named Los Altos has already taken ownership of the restaurant space, according to a report in The Westerville News. Los Altos is set to open on Sept. 15 featuring an original menu and after reviving the theater with a new point job.
The 97-year-old theater shut down in the 1970s before housing a clothing store, and then an Amish Originals location. When the furniture store moved to different spot, in 2013, 8 State Bistro moved into the space and turned it into a restaurant for the first time.