Attention all South Park fans and anyone who lives in the state of Colorado, the infamous Casa Bonita is coming back to life.
You guys remember the episode of South Park where Kyle doesn’t invite Cartman to his birthday at that massive pink Mexican restaurant with cliff diving called Casa Bonita? Well, it turns out that restaurant is completely real. Not only that, the creators of South Park Matt Stone and Trey Parker have purchased the restaurant and are in the process of renovating it to reopen to the public.
Casa Bonita was opened in 1974 and was a staple for local Denver residents while Stone and Parker were growing up. Everything in the “Casa Bonita” episode of South Park was spot on from the cliff divers to the world famous sopapillas to even the puppet show. Stone and Parker compare the restaurant and all of its many activities to a “little Disneyland” and say that going there as a child “felt exotic, like going away.”
In March 2020, Casa Bonita temporarily shut down due to COVID, before ultimately filing for bankruptcy in April 2021. Four months later, in September 2021 Stone and Parker pooled together $3.1 million and purchased Casa Bonita in hopes of “restoring an important national landmark.”
Since purchasing their favorite childhood restaurant, Stone and Parker have invested over $40 million in renovating Casa Bonita. Their plan has been to keep it exactly as it was before, just improving certain aspects to make it more appealing. While they want everything to look and feel the same as when they were kids, Stone and Parker have made one massive change: a new chef. Casa Bonita was known for many things, but one of the most sought after parts of the restaurant were their famous sopapillas. Stone and Parker have been dedicated to keeping that true and have since hired James Beard nominated chef Dana Rodriguez to help step the food up from the below-average white people Mexican food that Casa Bonita once served.
Though people initially believed that Stone and Parker bought the restaurant as a gag (makes sense considering these are the two guys who tripped acid and wore dresses to the Oscars), the two show creators insist that their decision was made out of passion not humor.
Stone and Parker have invested a great sum of money into this restoration project, yet don’t expect it to make much profit, telling the Today Show that they would need about six million customers a night to break even. Luckily for them, the two have a combined net worth of $1.3 billion dollars and no sight of their hit TV show coming to a stop anytime soon.
Casa Bonita has not officially set a grand opening date, yet has begun beta-testing the restaurant by randomly pulling people from an email list to come and try out the food. If you want to join the list, here it is. Stone and Parker intend to open the restaurant to the public in June, but have not yet released an official date.
