Casa Bonita has re-opened for business!
One fan described it as "like Disneyland and a Taco Bell had an illegitimate child then abandoned it in front of a strip mall on the outskirts of Denver".
As South Park fans will know, Casa Bonita was featured in S07E11 of South Park. In the episode, Cartman misleads Butters into going missing in order to gain an invitation to Kyle's birthday party at Casa Bonita.
Matt Stone and Trey Parker had fond memories of going to the restaurant as children. So when the original owners went bankrupt due to Covid in 2021, they bought it. They expected it to cost $10 million to renovate. It ended up costing $40 million.
This New York Times details the rebirth of Casa Bonita:
"Finding the right shade of pink was one of the more benign refurbishing challenges, but still demanding. “Twenty seven different tries,” said Scott Shoemaker, who has overseen the renovations. Finding the right shade of gold for the lettering took nine. Some features, like the four fake deciduous trees and the 62 fake palm trees inside the restaurant, could simply be touched up: fake leaves removed, cleaned, trees repainted, leaves reattached.
“There aren’t many construction projects where you have to re-frond the palms,” Mr. Shoemaker said. “Which is the name of my new band.”
Other features, like the old cliff-diving pool, were actual physical hazards. It turned out that divers, once they leaped into the pool, could only exit through a 30-inch-wide underwater tunnel brimming with pipes, Mr. Shoemaker said. Then they emerged from the water into an electrical room.
“There were 200 amps of power directly to the left,” Mr. Shoemaker said. “When I saw it, I called Matt and told him, ‘This is the most dangerous room I’ve ever seen.’”"
One fan described it as "like Disneyland and a Taco Bell had an illegitimate child then abandoned it in front of a strip mall on the outskirts of Denver".
As South Park fans will know, Casa Bonita was featured in S07E11 of South Park. In the episode, Cartman misleads Butters into going missing in order to gain an invitation to Kyle's birthday party at Casa Bonita.
Matt Stone and Trey Parker had fond memories of going to the restaurant as children. So when the original owners went bankrupt due to Covid in 2021, they bought it. They expected it to cost $10 million to renovate. It ended up costing $40 million.
This New York Times details the rebirth of Casa Bonita:
"Finding the right shade of pink was one of the more benign refurbishing challenges, but still demanding. “Twenty seven different tries,” said Scott Shoemaker, who has overseen the renovations. Finding the right shade of gold for the lettering took nine. Some features, like the four fake deciduous trees and the 62 fake palm trees inside the restaurant, could simply be touched up: fake leaves removed, cleaned, trees repainted, leaves reattached.
“There aren’t many construction projects where you have to re-frond the palms,” Mr. Shoemaker said. “Which is the name of my new band.”
Other features, like the old cliff-diving pool, were actual physical hazards. It turned out that divers, once they leaped into the pool, could only exit through a 30-inch-wide underwater tunnel brimming with pipes, Mr. Shoemaker said. Then they emerged from the water into an electrical room.
“There were 200 amps of power directly to the left,” Mr. Shoemaker said. “When I saw it, I called Matt and told him, ‘This is the most dangerous room I’ve ever seen.’”"