When recent headlines reported that 50,000 hopefuls had joined a crowded telephone line for reservations at Casa Bonita, a spectacularly mediocre Mexican restaurant, I had only one question.
“why?”
I’m really interested.
The only restaurant on Earth where I would wait behind 50,000 people to get in was King’s Food Host in Arvada, which closed in 1978 and is now a Wendy’s. (Yes, the appeal of cheese French is still strong.)
Casa Bonita has an illuminated pool and a man-made cliff where divers jump off every 20 minutes.
Robin Inteman, Denver Gazette Special Reporter
I’m as nostalgic as the next person. Like thousands of other Coloradans, my life has intersected with the Lakewood theme park like a child’s game played with fingers and a ball of yarn. My string is full of happy memories of Casa Bonita.
It’s not much to start with. For the first time, young John, who had not yet learned the glories of Mexican food that would later be discovered as Taco Bell, stood at the end of a dormitory-like ordering line and sat in a daunting cafeteria-style casa. – I looked over Bonita’s menu. And I chose the safest option: a Mexican burger. Afterwards, I sat in the bathroom for a few hours, and it would be ages until my next visit.
A Casa Bonita patron filed a $596 doctor’s bill after eating at the iconic restaurant in the late ’90s.
Nicole C. Brambilla/Denver Gazette
But I’m back. And I get it, emotional attraction. I was jealous of a few of my friends who worked as cliff divers. As far as I know, no one has ever had trouble finding a date.
My next life as a “jolly old man” meant many happy returns for little children’s birthday outbursts. I spent hours (and hundreds of dollars) in that dumpster at the arcade, hoping for enough tickets to get probably the tiniest stuffed animal, only to find out that the glow-in-the-dark rubber I settled on the ball. There was a brush with liquid on the wall of Black Bart’s cave, but even if I washed it, it wouldn’t come out clean. (Believe me, it wasn’t sopaipilla honey.)
A new documentary about Casa Bonita’s reopening was featured at the Tribeca Film Festival and is currently showing at Alamo Drafthouse in Sloan’s Lake.
Provided by: Tribeca Film Festival
In 2006, as a reporter for the Denver Post, I visited Casa Bonita with a group of six then-unknown comics from Chicago’s Second City. They came here to perform an original sketch comedy show titled “How I Lost my Denverginity.” After three hours of scarfing Sopaipira, booing Black Bart, knocking down piรฑatas, and having fun at the arcade, Jenny Hagel gets lost and has to ask her friend Amber Ruffin for help. It didn’t happen. (Yes, they are a comedy duo currently famous for their appearance on “Late Night with Seth Meyers.”)
โI get to be a nuanced black woman, and not many people get to do that,โ the humorist says.
“This is a terrifying labyrinth,” Hegel later told me. She learned the hard way that Casa Bonita is a place where even adults need a buddy system.
Later in life, my father bought a bar across the street called Eddie’s Cordial. The building was demolished earlier this year, primarily due to renewed business interests in the area immediately surrounding Casa Bonita. Armed with cheesy tater tots, a $3 pitcher of PBR, and some neighborhood history.
Casa Bonita has the least chance of survival.
Formerly Eddie’s Cordial, it closed as “The Cordial Sports Bar” during the pandemic shutdown and was finally demolished earlier this year at 1521 Pierce Street in Lakewood, across the street from Casa Bonita. Ta.
John Moore, Denver Gazette
But nostalgia isn’t the only reason for this over-the-top, ongoing phenomenon of people lathering up to return to a place. Cliff diving is definitely kitschy fun. So I had the best artist draw a caricature of me. And as far as I’m concerned, sugarbread is perfectly acceptable as a meal replacement on its own.
But I seriously don’t understand it. Considering that very few people went to Casa Bonita in the years immediately before its closure, why did 50,000 people enter the lottery for the chance to revisit it, if only because “I enjoyed going there when I was younger”? That’s a totally insufficient reason to explain why you should jump into it.
But from what I’ve heard, Casa Bonita salvagers Matt Stone and Trey Parker spent $40 million in renovations to make the place look more or less the same as before. i doubt it. Same goes for “But they hired an executive chef.” Because it implies that people want that food now. I mean, if you’re going to eat food, you’re probably going to want to go somewhere else, right?
So what’s actually going on here? For answers, I turned to the people with whom I am most emotionally connected: my faceless Facebook friends, of course. Their reactions made it clear that I was almost alone in my confusion. But after hearing so many people’s stories, I feel like I understand this whole thing a little better.
Ed Sheeran had fun in “jail” while visiting Casa Bonita Restaurant and Arcade in Lakewood before his concert in Denver on August 19, 2023. After Sheeran posted the photo on Twitter, Casa Bonita employee April Edwards wrote on behalf of the restaurant: “I love the way you look in prison, but I think I like Kevin smiling better.” he replied. I love everything about it. you are very interesting I know you work so hard every day so I’m glad to see you having fun!” The man with Sheeran is “Security Kev โ Ed from 2015.” He is known as the man who kept Sheeran safe.
Provided by Ed Sheeran Headquarters
When Casa Bonita closed during the pandemic, it seemed like it was gone forever. Next up were “South Park” creators Parker and Stone from Colorado, whose left-field rescue mission drew international media attention.
Zeitgeist technically reopened the restaurant in 2023, but the general public was not allowed equal admission until a bizarre reservation lottery on September 16th. People jumped on it as if it were the last train to Clarksville. (If you’re under 60, ask your grandparents.) Important people like Mark Ravenhill, associate director of development and donor relations at the Denver Performing Arts Center, have good jobs and purposeful lives. people. He even signed up as a member – whatever that means (probably for priority access).
success! Thank you for subscribing to our newsletter.
“It was scheduled to start at 9 a.m., and I got in line at 8:30 a.m. and there were already 22,000 people ahead of me,” he said. “It took me over 3 hours to get to the reservation page.”
Eventually, enough people lined up to fill Folsom Field in Boulder. That’s outrageous.
Phil Cope of Denver jumped in because he wanted to take his kids to a restaurant, and his reason struck a chord with me. โThereโs not much left of old Denver,โ he said. “I can’t take him to the Celebrity Sports Center, the Old Spaghetti Factory, the Funplex. Elitch and the tattered-cover bookstore aren’t the same. I can’t take him to see the Denver Zephyrs (the last minor league baseball team). However, Casa Bonita remains as it is because two local sons are struggling with money.
“I hope ‘All About Matt and Trey’ inspires young people,” he continued, “I haven’t seen ‘South Park’ in years, but they… He changed the animation industry without compromising. And Matt refused to compromise on the foolish task of saving a building that should have been demolished. And I feel like that’s worth celebrating.”
There’s no arguing with that. And there’s one good news for you, Phil. The Old Spaghetti Factory, located at 9145 Sheridan Blvd., still churns out pasta and Crayola placemats from trolleys. at Westminster.
At the High Plains Comedy Festival in Denver last month, comic Joshua Emerson, dressed as the Casa Bonita gorilla, performed a stand-up set in character.
John Moore, Denver Gazette
Kate Hall, who is a big name as CEO of Denver’s Center for Labor Education and Employment, says most of us are from other places and that Casa Bonita is a huge boon to local tourism. It reminded me that it’s proven.
The curiosity of “South Park” fans who have made Casa Bonita a must-visit destination cannot be underestimated, especially considering that the legendary 2003 episode of South Park is titled “Casa Bonita.”
And now there’s a brilliant new documentary called “Casa Bonita, Mi Amor!” This blockbuster film from MTV Documentary Films tells the story of how Parker and Stone set out to save their quirky little “Strip Mall Disneyland of Mexican restaurants.” The doc also garnered attention at the ultra-trendy Tribeca Film Festival and has a “100% Fresh” rating on Rotten Tomatoes. NPR called it “a treat interwoven with great archival footage and countless scenes of Parker and Stone’s amused horror as they hear the latest reason their labor of love turns into a goldmine.” There is.
The film is currently shown at least once daily at Sloan’s Lake Alamo Drafthouse Cinema.
Apparently if we rebuild it, they will come.
“Here’s what’s really interesting about all of this,” Holle said. “People come to Denver from all over the country for Casa Bonita. Really.”
My theater friend Shannon Johnson is a project manager for the Barbizon Lighting Company and told me not to underestimate the $40 million it would cost to upgrade. Now, Shannon speaks terms like light switch, Fresnel, and truss, so most of the time I have no idea what the hell she’s saying. However, I do understand that the magic show has completely new technology, with moving lights installed around the waterfall and stage.
โWe have controls throughout the building, including changing the lighting on the outside of the building that changes the atmosphere depending on the time of day,โ Johnson said. “The soundscape extends throughout the interior of the building. The entertainers are top-notch professionals from Denver and the director is ex-Disney. I guarantee you there’s nothing like it in Colorado. It’s so much better than the original. Itโs so funny.โ
And once again, โItโs Disney in Colorado!โ (I believe that’s a good thing.)
Casa Beer, photographed at Casa Bonita in Lakewood, Colorado.
Photo courtesy of Casa Bonita
Denver resident Brian Murray, a computer whiz and father, took his kids there and they loved them. He admitted that the place is cleaner and the food is better. โBut when you look around, you see that Casa Bonita is clearly for adults who grew up with Casa Bonita,โ he said. โWe have two new bars where there used to be something for kids. This puppet show has more adult humor than kids humor, and while staying true to the ideals of Casa Bonita, there are also (Side note: Each drink at these new bars will have its own special lighting effect, Johnson said.)
When I heard that a food truck outside Timnath’s Brewpub was serving Cheese French on Saturdays, just thinking about it immediately set my memory alight and my arteries instinctively started clogging.
The new Casa Bonita “is a tribute to our youth,” Murray decided. And who wouldn’t want to escape to a time when they could drink margaritas but didn’t have the responsibilities they have now? โ
Up until this point, I personally had no desire to revisit the new and improved Casa Bonita. I still tend to side with my similarly acerbic journalist friend Mark Obmastic. He sums up all this madness as “a suburban phenomenon that only became possible after Colorado legalized marijuana.”
But after digesting all this new information much better than my first Mexican burger back in the day, sure, I might be turning into a clown. Only one request. Replace the Mexican burger on your menu with a cheese Frenchie. That’s OK.
A photo of Casa Bonita, the Lakewood restaurant where South Park character Eric Cartman is located. Last month, this week’s restaurant began accepting reservations for the first time in more than a year.
Dennis Huspeni/Denver Gazette
Saudero beef (left) and chicken mole are one of eight entrees served at Casa Bonita.
Robin Inteman, Denver Gazette Special Reporter
Inside photo of the restaurant “Casa Bonita” in Lakewood. Last month, the store began accepting reservations for the first time in more than a year.
Dennis Huspeni/Denver Gazette
Source link