One Operator, Two Dining Rooms: Planning a Gold Springs Holiday Season Around Columbia's Main Street

"I heard the City Hotel's board had started to liquidate," Christina Lint told The Union Democrat. "So I ran over there and said, 'Don't sell anything. Let's cut a deal.'"

That deal is why the City Hotel's dining room will be lit for the holidays this year. It also means something new for anyone in Gold Springs who heads into Columbia State Historic Park for a December evening. Both of Main Street's landmark restaurants now answer to the same concessionaire. Their hours line up closely with the park's holiday calendar, close enough that you can plan a whole season of outings around them.

How the City Hotel changed hands in five weeks

The Columbia City Hotel Cooperative Corporation formed in 2022. It had 308 members and served as a park concessionaire for about three years. myMotherLode reported that it was the only patron-owned restaurant cooperative of its kind in California. On February 2, 2026, members voted to stop operating the City Hotel Restaurant and What Cheer Saloon. The board cited "rising costs and changing economic conditions," and the closure took effect February 18. Board Chair Leannha Rodes thanked members, diners and staff for their support.

The handoff came fast. Lint signed the City Hotel concession contract with California State Parks on February 17, the day before the cooperative's closure took effect, and the restaurant reopened March 9. "Yes, it all came at lightning speed," she told The Union Democrat's Chris Bateman. "But it's working."

Lint had already spent more than five years running the Bella Union, the restaurant formerly called the Columbia House. She and her husband, Nate, now hold the concession contracts for both Main Street restaurants. Her City Hotel contract runs three years with an option for seven more. Her Bella Union contract has another decade to run. The City Hotel keeps its name. The Bella Union name came from a list of about 200 historically acceptable names the state offered, and it belonged to a Columbia business in the 1850s.

The two rooms are meant to do different jobs. In the same column, Lint said the City Hotel serves about 60 meals a day. The more casual Bella Union serves about 150, and the two restaurants together employ nearly 25 people. She also said that since she took over, sales are up 25% at the City Hotel and 40% at the Bella Union.

Why the hours decide which holiday nights work

One operator running both rooms means the schedule was planned as a pair. The Bella Union serves breakfast and lunch. The City Hotel serves lunch and dinner and is the more upscale, pricier of the two. According to the City Hotel's website, lunch runs daily from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Dinner runs only Thursday through Sunday, 4:30 to 8 p.m. The What Cheer Saloon lists these hours, with live music most Friday and Saturday evenings:

• Sunday: 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.
• Monday through Thursday: 11 a.m. to 8 p.m.
• Friday and Saturday: 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.

Nearly every evening event on Columbia's holiday calendar falls between Thursday and Sunday, when the City Hotel serves dinner. The daytime events fall in the Bella Union's breakfast-and-lunch window. Here is how the published 2026 dates line up with those hours. Restaurant hours come from the hotel's own pages and can change, so confirm them before you go.

The Shrek run and the Wednesday gap

The theater run is the longest stretch on the calendar, and it's the one where the hours matter most. Sierra Repertory Theatre's Shrek The Musical plays the Historic Fallon House Theater at 11175 Washington St. from November 20 through December 20. Visit Tuolumne lists 22 performance dates. Four of them fall on Wednesdays: November 25, December 2, December 9 and December 16. The City Hotel doesn't serve dinner on Wednesdays, though the What Cheer is open until 8 p.m. that night. The Thursday performances on December 3, 10 and 17 do fall on City Hotel dinner nights. Curtain times vary by performance, so check the Sierra Rep 2026 season page before you book a table around a show.

The listing skips Thanksgiving Day, then runs November 27 through 29, the weekend after the holiday. If family is in town that weekend, all three dates fall on City Hotel dinner nights.

The first weekend of December fills up first

December 4 and 5 is the busiest weekend on Main Street. Shrek plays both nights, and Friends of Columbia State Historic Park runs its Lamplight Tours. Lantern-carrying guides lead a walking play through town after dark, starting at the Columbia Museum. Friday has six tours starting at 6:30 p.m. Saturday has nine starting at 5:30 p.m., with a tour leaving every 15 minutes.

The Friends' booking page lists tickets at $30 for ages 16 and older and $10 for ages 10 to 15. The tour isn't recommended for children under 10. The California State Parks events page lists $25 per person, so go by the organizer's booking page. In 2025 the play was A Miners' Christmas Carol, and the Friends say it sold out. They haven't yet posted details on this year's play.

On Saturday the tours start at 5:30, an hour after City Hotel dinner service opens. A booked table and a booked tour can work on the same evening, and the What Cheer stays open until 10 p.m. both nights.

Sunday, December 13 is a full day on Main Street

The second Sunday of December has two free events about six hours apart. The Columbia All Equestrian Parade steps off at 11 a.m. It's a judged parade open to riders and drivers of all ages and to mounted groups, and entrants can earn points toward the California State Horsemen's Association Parade High Point Program. It's free to watch, and participants pay a $25 entry fee. Organizers ask everyone to bring an unwrapped toy for a toy drive that benefits ATCAA's Housing Families Program.

At 5:30 p.m. the Las Posadas Nativity Procession moves down Main Street. Columbia has staged its own version of the Spanish tradition every December since 1983. The cast includes Mary, Joseph and their donkey, the three Wise Men, a tax collector, an innkeeper, and miners, musicians and other costumed townspeople. Luminaries line the route, and spectators hold candles and join in Christmas carols. Shrek also has a performance that day.

The restaurants cover both ends of the day. Brunch or lunch at the Bella Union fits around the parade. The procession starts an hour into Sunday dinner at the City Hotel, and the What Cheer's Sunday hours run to 8 p.m.

A Miners Christmas closes the season at lunchtime

The last weekend before Christmas belongs to the daytime crowd. A Miners Christmas runs December 19 and 20 from noon to 3 p.m. on Main Street, and admission is free. Friends of Columbia State Historic Park produces it. The program includes Christmas stories from old-timer miners, chestnuts roasted over an open fire, old-fashioned crafts, hot cider and coffee in buildings decorated in period style, and possibly a visit from Father Christmas. Some activities may be canceled in wet weather. Shrek ends its run on December 20, the same Sunday.

Still no rooms in the park this year

Visitors still can't stay overnight in the park. The City Hotel's website says its nine Victorian rooms are temporarily unavailable, while the restaurant, saloon and catering stay open. According to The Union Democrat, the City and Fallon hotels together hold nearly 25 rooms. Both buildings have gone without overnight guests for most of three years, so there is currently no lodging inside the park. The park's concessionaire specialist is working on a possible lodging deal with Lint, and she estimates rooms could open sometime in early 2027. For now that's a plan, not a signed contract.

Until then, out-of-town guests coming for Lamplight Tours or Las Posadas will be booking rooms in Sonora or Jamestown and driving in. Living in Gold Springs, next door in Columbia, puts you closer to Main Street than any of those guests, and it lets you plan around the restaurant hours instead of a drive back to a hotel. If you're hosting a larger gathering this season, the City Hotel's catering arm, What Cheer Catering, lists holiday gatherings among the events it handles. For the earlier part of the year, our fall guide to Gold Springs covers Labor Day through Halloween.

Being close to Main Street is part of what a Gold Springs home is worth, and it's one of the things we look at when we prepare a valuation. If you'd like to know what yours would bring this winter, the team at Tuolumne Homes can put together a free home valuation built on recent Gold Springs sales, before the Lamplight Tours sell out.