Casa Bonita
In 2019, The Denver Post published a feature on the restaurant and described the decor, saying, "Its pink exterior conceals a vast network of nooks and crannies inside. While the main, multilevel dining room is decorated with plastic palm trees and strings of lights, different facades and themed rooms invoke regional Mexican architectural styles, including the resort of Puerto Vallarta." The centerpiece is a 30 foot (9.1 m) indoor waterfall with cliff divers, an imitation of the cliffs of Acapulco. The building is crowned with a gold dome and a statue of Cuauhtémoc, the last Aztec emperor of Mexico. It was designated a historic landmark of the city in March 2015.
Casa Bonita temporarily closed in March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and its owner filed for bankruptcy in April 2021. Later that year, it was acquired by South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone, who gave the restaurant a significant renovation. The restaurant held a soft relaunch beginning June 23, 2023, now billing itself as The Greatest Restaurant in the World!
History
Founder Bill Waugh opened the first Casa Bonita restaurant in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, in 1968. By the mid-1970s, the chain had expanded to locations in adjacent states and was known for its "all you can eat" beef or chicken plates and offering sopapillas—small squares of fried bread served with honey—with every meal.
In 1982, Casa Bonita's parent company, which also owned Taco Bueno fast food restaurants, was sold to Unigate (later Uniq plc). In 1992, Unigate sold the restaurants to CKE Restaurants, owner of Carl's Jr. In 1997, the two remaining Casa Bonita restaurants, in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and Lakewood, Colorado, were spun off by CKE as part of Star Buffet. The Tulsa location closed in September 2005, then reopened for two years as Casa Viva, and closed again in December 2007. It was reopened by Star Buffet under the original name in late July 2008 but closed again in 2011, leaving the Lakewood location as the last Casa Bonita. The Lakewood Historical Society chose to designate the restaurant as a city landmark in March 2015.
In March 2020, Casa Bonita closed temporarily due to the COVID-19 pandemic, during which Colorado Governor Jared Polis had placed a ban on in-person dining during the two-month span between March 17 and May 26. In March, several employees reported that their most recent paychecks had bounced due to insufficient funds in the Casa Bonita payroll account. The restaurant's website disappeared during the summer of 2020 sometime between July 7 and July 30.
On April 6, 2021, Summit Family Restaurants, Casa Bonita's owner, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Arizona. On September 23, 2021, South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone reached an agreement to purchase the restaurant for $3.1 million. A group named "Save Casa Bonita" filed an objection to Parker and Stone's purchase, pointing out that they had in fact made an offer first. Their objection was later withdrawn, and the sale was completed by November 19.
Parker and Stone spent $40 million renovating the restaurant and hired Chef Dana Rodriguez to update the menu. The restaurant had a soft opening on May 26, 2023. In early June, Casa Bonita began taking reservations for weekends beginning June 23. Stone and Parker amended the employee compensation system at Casa Bonita, removing the need for wait staff to earn tips, instead paying every employee $30 per hour, much higher than the Colorado minimum wage, $13.65. This came on the heels of a nationwide campaign to eliminate tipping in food service, owing to "tipping fatigue" on the part of customers who came to oppose the practice.
Location
The Lakewood location was built in 1973 and opened in early 1974 on Colfax Avenue west of Denver, along U.S. Route 40/I-70 Business. Similar in architecture to the Tulsa location (both were previously large retail store locations) features strolling mariachis, flame jugglers (no longer allowed in 2019 for violating fire code), and a 30-foot (9.1 m) waterfall with cliff divers. The website Roadside America mentions that the restaurant has "Wild West shootouts, brawling pirates, [and] a dancing gorilla" that "can be viewed while you eat." It also has a small puppet theater, a "haunted tunnel" (Black Bart's Cave), an arcade with a large skee-ball room, and a magic theater. Since 2023, as a nod to its new owners, the restaurant has references to South Park, such as a prop of Eric Cartman having food in his iconic table and a ManBearPig meet-and-greet. The restaurant is 52,000 square feet (4,800 m) and can seat up to 1,100 patrons.
Defunct locations
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
The first Casa Bonita was opened in the summer of 1968 in Oklahoma City, at a time when Mexican food was considered a novelty in the area. The restaurant was located along U.S. Route 66 at the intersection of NW 39th and Portland. On opening, it featured themed rooms, including the Garden Room and El Pokey, a room themed as a Mexican jail. The Oklahoma City location closed in 1993. After housing other businesses, the building was demolished in 2015.
Tulsa, Oklahoma
The Tulsa location opened in 1971 near the intersection of 21st and Sheridan. The interior was designed to create the outdoor nighttime atmosphere of a Mexican village. Its various themed dining areas, with seating for over 500, included a village square with fountain, a 2-level lantern-lit cave, a tropical garden with 20 foot (6.1 m) waterfall and stream, and a room resembling an aristocratic dining hall with a porch along with strolling mariachis. The Tulsa location also included a puppet and magic show theater, a video arcade, a working carousel, and a gift shop.
It closed on September 30, 2005, due to a reported inability to reach suitable lease terms with the property owner. It was reopened, as Casa Viva, in May 2006 and then closed again in December 2007. In late July 2008, the restaurant, having been sold back to its previous owner group, reopened under the original Casa Bonita name. In February 2011, the restaurant failed to reopen after lengthy snowstorms hit Tulsa, and a sign on the door said it was closed for business.
Little Rock, Arkansas
The Little Rock location opened in 1969 at the corner of University Avenue and Asher Avenue (at the time U.S. Highway 67/70), just south of the University of Arkansas-Little Rock campus. This location had many of the same features as its sister locations including a Garden Room, an El Pokey (a room themed as a Mexican jail), a fully functioning video arcade, and a gift shop. In its heyday, the Little Rock location was reported to have been the highest volume Mexican restaurant in the United States with annual sales of up to $2,500,000. That distinction would later go to the Denver location which would go on to post nearly $8,000,000 in sales on an annual basis.
The restaurant closed and rebranded under the ownership of the Waugh family as "Casa Viva" on August 2, 1993, after a reported $250,000 was spent in renovations. It would revert to the original Casa Bonita branding in 1995, until closing permanently in 2005.
Fort Worth, Texas
- Hulen Mall, Fort Worth, Texas (1982–1985)
In popular culture
The South Park episode "Casa Bonita" prominently features the Colorado branch of the restaurant. Other episodes that mention it briefly are: "Quest for Ratings" (where a clock is labeled as showing the time at Casa Bonita), "You Have 0 Friends", "201" (where the restaurant is reportedly destroyed), "Let Go, Let Gov", and “South ParQ Vaccination Special”. Additionally, the building that houses South Park Studios was named after the restaurant. In August 2021, the show's creators, Trey Parker and Matt Stone, announced they would purchase Casa Bonita. In one of downloadable content packs to the video game South Park: The Fractured But Whole, the restaurant plays a central role in the story.
In 2009, rock band The Fray held the release party for their eponymous second album at Casa Bonita.
In the reboot of Roseanne, Casa Bonita is featured as the workplace of Becky Connor in Episode 4.
The music video for Collapsing Scenery's "Resort Beyond the Last Resort", directed by Kansas Bowling and starring Boyd Rice, was partially filmed at Casa Bonita.
Punk rock band SPELLS performed their song "A Huevo" at Casa Bonita.
In 2018, the Denver Broncos announced their draft picks at Casa Bonita with the help of the resident magician.
For several years, artist Andrew Novick has hosted a Casa Bonita-themed art show at Denver's NEXT Gallery. Novick has been to the restaurant more than 300 times and has given tours of it. He says of the restaurant, "every time I go there, I have a sense of wonder all over again because it's so big and there's so many things in there—like the waterfall—and you feel like you're outside, and the sounds and lights and everything in there. It's just ... it's unmatched."