Casa Bonita Is Back!

[Zorba]

Casa Bonita in Denver is back, fully updated and improved. Bought by the South Park creators. I grew up in Tulsa where we had a slightly smaller, slightly older version. I loved going there as a kid, probably averaged once a month or so. In college my best friend was a waiter there, his dad was the kitchen manager, and his sister an assistant manager. My friend served Garth Brooks multiple times. I never went to the one in Denver, but will make sure to check it out next time I am in town.

Gift Link that is good for 14 days:

The Refries That Bind: A Cavernous Cantina Returns, Cliff Divers and All

With “infinity dollars” poured in by the creators of “South Park,” a fabled Colorado restaurant reopens with the same 1970s vibe and drastically improved food.

www.nytimes.com

 

[lxskllr]

Never heard of it, but it looks like a fun place that just got better.

An early pic of a customer in the cavern room...

 

[SteveGrabowski]

Now they just gotta bring Chinpokomon to market. Definitely want a Pengin or maybe Shoe.

 

[nakedfrog]

I might be in the Denver area come December, might have to go just for shits and giggles.

 

[Shmee]

Good news! Now to go visit.

 

[Muadib]

Never heard of it, but it looks like a fun place that just got better.

An early pic of a customer in the cavern room...

View attachment 81444

Where did you get this?!? This is sacrilege!!!

 

[Dr. Detroit]

I might be in the Denver area come December, might have to go just for shits and giggles.

Shiggles!

 

[darkswordsman17]

I got to go there (to the Denver one) in the mid 90s. I rather enjoyed it even though it was chintzy as hell. Hopefully they both made it legit better but also even chintzier. Based on the pics looks like they succeeded.

The sopapias (?) were the bomb. I think I ended up just eating a bunch of them with honey instead of eating any normal food (I wasn't into authentic Mexican food back then)

And kudos to the South Park guys for sticking with it. I think they said it ended up needing a LOT more work ($$$$$$$$$$$) than they expected and the costs to actually get it all back up are likely to make it never make money for them (but let's be real, its not like they need to worry about money, but still they easily could've justified just letting it die or just slapping the name on some new place - granted maybe they could have opened multiple ones that would've offered the experience so eh).

There's a restaurant in Scottsdale that I was hoping might be similar, "Carlsbad Tavern" but its not. There is a fish place (a few blocks away from there) that is somewhat neat in that its entirely underground. They talked up vintage wood being used, and was like "oh that'd be cool if it was built from an old ship" only to find out its from a barn from Nebraska. I also wanted to turn the old Fry's Electronics in north Phoenix into a like local kids game show facility, like "Legends of the Hidden Temple" since it had a Mayan (or maybe Aztec) style decorative exterior. There's also a kinda cool kid's place with a huge tree playhouse in the center called Makutu's Island. We need more cheesy places.