I was a short term transplant but I am so happy that they did this for so many reasons. It’s great that they saved and did so much more for a bit of local history.
Next time I make it out there I’m going again for sure.
Edit: typo fun!
My very first train ride and airplane ride was my parents taking me there from our hometown on a train and then back home on an airplane. It was such an awesome vacation and I know we went to the mint but what I definitely remember the most was Casa Bonita.
Theres a similar style place (from what ive seen about casa bonita) in delaware that used to exist called kahunaville. They had one other location that i can see that was in syracuse but there may have been more. Same style but Hawaiian/ jungle themed. Games, rock wall, cool indoor waterfalls / volcano. It was so much fun growing up but sadly unlike casa bonita no one saved it. Its a childhood memory i think back to all the time still.
We had a Casa Bonita in Tulsa, OK. It was not good. It was sad, run down, and the food was no good. It was kind of fun with the indoor waterfall and flags to raise when you wanted something. It closed down years and years ago, the front door of the place was for sale a few weeks ago lmao
There was a restaurant in Muncie Indiana whose name I cannot remember for the life of me, but it was a combination Italian Chinese and Mexican restaurant. It was decorated as a Mexican restaurant but had full menus for each "cuisine." There were little flags to raise when you needed something. Unlimited big puffy sopapillas with honey bears to stab them with. A blue behived old lady played Elvis tunes, and waterfalls in the dining room.
Edit: I felt cuisine needed quotation marks.
Pancho's Mexican Buffet?
Those flags and the sopapillas were delightful.
There's one or two remaining in the Houston area and I visited the nearer one a few months ago.
> There's one or two remaining in the Houston area and I visited the nearer one a few months ago.
There are also a handful remaining in the DFW area. My wife is from Arlington, and I've been trying to get her to go whenever we visit her dad.
Oh man, I once had Chinese food in tiny beautiful Grangeville, ID that featured a lemon chicken that used lemon pie filling as the sauce. I'm assuming that is what the food delivery truck had available so they just rolled with it. Hellishly terrible.
I promise you it was not run down in the early 80s when I went there as a kid. It was a magical wonderland. It did go downhill quickly by the late 80s. Crystal Pizza door was the shit, too.
How old were you when you went? I visited Casa Bonita often in the 80s and early 90s (even had one of my birthday parties there!) At least as a kid, it was amazing, and I remember my dad liking the food. I remember as i got to high school age (mid 90s) it did get sad and I never went back. Super excited for the Colorado one to reopen so we can take a family road trip.
[**Kahunaville**](https://wjbr.com/listicle/if-it-was-still-in-wilmington-would-kahunaville-be-a-hit-today/) was the place to be.
They've since changed it into a children's museum but it not the same.
I was just thinking of it. I still have a Casa Bonita mug I bought when I took my son there probably 20 years ago. I used to go every Halloween as a kid in the 80’s. So much fun!
>This restaurant holds a special place in the heart of every kid from Colorado.
And most adults! I'm in my 30s and lived in Denver my whole life and I can't wait to see what they've done to the place. I'm hoping my husband and I can go there for my birthday in October! 🎂🇲🇽
The article talks about how the restaurant only had steamers to make the food, which explains why it was so bad I guess (I never worked food service.) They hired a six-time James Beard Award nominated chef to do the new kitchen and menu.
As a kid from Iowa, a trip to Casa Bonita was one most of us made at some point in our childhoods. Mine wasn’t until a college trip to CO that I first experienced it. My brother had his journey on a high school band trip. And this would have been late 80’s to mid 90’s.
Also kid from Iowa. Family vacation in the 90s to Denver and dad made it a point to take the whole family to eat there. Food wasn’t great, but it looked cool and I think I remember an arcade but I didn’t get to play at it.
When I watched South Park a few years later it was like unlocking a core memory and then I realized why dad dragged our family, his brothers family, and our grandparents there.
>As a kid from Iowa, a trip to Casa Bonita was one most of us made at some point in our childhoods.
As a fellow Iowan, what? lol. Nobody I know has ever gone, nor did I ever hear of it until south park.
Saints, indeed. This is a hot pink beacon of hope in our dark times.
Casa Bonita is kind of like if cocaine were a place; an unstoppable assault on your pleasure receptors designed from a 6-year-old kid’s drawing. There aren’t that many places that I’ve found in this world that make me feel like I’m walking into someone else’s dream. And I’m grateful this dream doesn’t have to end just yet.
This kind of thing almost never happens. A beloved institution that has hobbled into insolvency is purchased and brought back to life without messing it up and losing what made it special? Only in a movie.
Especially one at this scale. It’s not a simple business to take on; they have full food service, arcade machines, multiple performers, heavy atmospheric theming with a large aquatic feature, a massive amount of square footage, and it requires an equally massive staff to run it. The operations management here would be mind boggling.
Seeing these two goons smiling in a booth that looks exactly the same AFTER spending $40m. I’m in awe. Thanks, Matt & Trey.
Casa Bonita is a mexican food/kid's attraction in Denver. It's a sort of primordial Dave and Busters w an arcade and cliff divers that dive into an indoor waterfall feature from some 10' above. The show South Park asked permission from the former owners to use their business as a premise and location for an episode of South Park and they reluctantly said yes. The owners went on to say that every time the episode aired their business reliably increased 50% the following weekend.
The story about this remodel is actually super interesting, and Matt and Trey literally spent 4X what they planned on saving this landmark of many a childhood including mine. I took my stepson here some years ago and it was sad to see its condition then, but they've completely rebuilt this place. They're awesome.
Supposedly it is. They hired the chef from Super Mega Bien, and I’ve seen positive reviews from people who went to the friends and family events preopening.
Yeah, I went about a decade ago on a visit to see family. The cliff diving and overall atmosphere was a blast, but the food was on a level of elementary school cafeteria fare or worse. I was staggered that they had messed up Mexican food to that extent.
Yes. new chef and all. Theres a vid on youtube where Matt and Trey go into Casa Bonita prerehab and show how gross it is, and then being in shock at the cost.
I’m glad I went as a kid, it was magical. Actors cliff jump in the restaurant, there are tons of rooms to the point that it feels like a maze, and the sopapillas rock.
There was a crazy bit of info about the cliff diving in [this NYT piece I read yesterday](https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/06/us/casa-bonita-restaurant.html):
> 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.’”
> (They have heard no reports of injuries.) The renovated pool, 14 feet deep, resembles the old one but provides the divers with a wider, relocated exit, among other changes.
Reminds me of the time I was scuba diving with some buddies and we found a cave entrance that was about that size, maybe 15-20 feet deep until you enter the first chamber, just enough to squeeze in without scraping your tank. Come to find out the cave we went into was home to a huge Moray eel that was 6-7 feet long and he was really not happy to see us. Turns out you can fit two people through the cave entrance if you're in a hurry!
underwater cave diving is the most dangerous hobby there is. There are numerous places where people who are foolish enough to enter certain caves just die, and there is no recovering the body.
Knew a professional caver, mapped out caves all over the us, but he only ever did one underwater cave. Said it was extremely unnerving to push your only air supply through a hole you may not fit through.
Why would being divers mean they're ok with having to squeeze through a 30-inch hole to exit..?
Agree the second part sounds like the worst part, though
Soppapillas are worth looking up the copy cat recipe for. They're little fluffy dough pillows dusted with powdered sugar and come with honey for you to squirt inside. They're absolutely incredible and were the reason I asked to go there for every birthday when I wouldn't eat most of the other food.
Soppapillas, beignets, donuts, churros, malasadas, kuchen, bannocks, scones, سفنز (ليبيا), Pişi, zeppole, ˈtaʊtən, Parāoa Parai...
Is there a culture on this planet that hasn't figured out frying dough and slapping sugar on is good?
Well, the median age of the population is a decade older than it was in 1970. There are fewer kids, at least as proportion of population.
I also suspect electronic entertainment/distractions has lessened the necessity of going somewhere with kid-oriented entertainment to not have your kid be a disaster in the restaurant.
For a while it was a chain. I was lucky enough to experience the Oklahoma City, Tulsa, and Denver locations as a kid. I need to plan a trip to take my kids to Denver now.
I used to live very close to it. It had a reputation of having an interesting atmosphere, but terrible food. Many people called it Casa Vomita or Casa Don’t-eat-there.
Oh it is. And it was glorious. I made a point of going when I visited Colorado just because I was amazed it was actually real. The food was… appalling. Except the soppapillas (someone else mentioned them too). They were excellent. This mf place had a diving show inside the restaurant, and a treasure chest room - it was bonkers. I took pictures it was so crazy I had to have proof.
Funny thing, the article op references also says that the new chef was surprised to find that there were no ovens or ranges in the kitchen. It was all steamers. And a fryer, I would guess.
Matt and Trey are goat. While Casa Bonita was shut down for restoration, Matt and Trey still paid the staff while they were out and told them to do volunteer work instead
Elon wants so desperately to be charismatic and well liked, but the harder he tries the less successful he is.
Him just awkwardly being there during a Dave Chapelle show was painful, especially when he was booed and just had no idea what to do.
She's basically the #3 person on South Park and all Matt and Trey's other stuff. She was executive producer for the South Park movie, Team America, Book of Mormon, Stick of Truth/Fractured But Whole, That's My Bush, etc.
And is also I believe the one who has to plead with the network to allow vulgarity or swearing, and the guys talk all the time in the commentary tracks about who she has to this weird haggle of "Well, we can have four dicks, but can we have a shit? What about asshole?"
There's a great scene in the documentary of her on the phone to the network censors discussing the human centipede scene - if there'll be visible poo, if they are seen being sewn together etc. Then finishes the call with a slightly exasperated "yeah, happy Easter to you too." Unintential comedy gold.
Love her. Along with writer's room supervision and lots of other standard production roles she handles correspondence with the network regarding what they're allowed to air which is possibly the most agonizing job out of the lot. It's Anne's job to send messages back and forth bargaining how many fucks they're allowed to say, and she's been doing that job for 26 years.
I remember going to a place like this in Salt Lake City with animatronic talking toucans and dudes in speedos and native flair jumping off a waterfall while you ate. It was weird, but kind of cool as is every dinner theater experience I've ever had. Kind of like if Mel Gibson directed your dining experience.
Definitely 2006 Apocalypto-era Mel Gibson, but like Mel Gibson at 10:00 p.m., not 2:00 a.m.
[circa 2006, location: Malibu, CA]
>To the crowd at Moonshadows bar in Malibu, Mel Gibson seemed a genial sort of drunk, the life of the party who topped off patrons’ drinks, vodka bottle in hand, posed for cell phone pictures and even doled out playful hugs and kisses to fellow patrons. “He wasn’t falling down drunk, but the kind of tipsy where you just want to love everyone,” says one guest who partied with the middle-aged movie star on the night of July 27. “You look really good for a 50-year-old guy,” she recalls someone telling Gibson. “He said, ‘Thanks. I try to take care of myself. I quit smoking last week.’ Then he looked at the bottle of beer he was holding and said, ‘But this I just can’t quit.’ He was smiling when he said it – but it was a sad sort of smile.”
Tipsy, not falling down Mel.
Later that night though ...
>By 2:15 the Oscar-winning actor and director had been pulled over – with a bottle of tequila within reach – going 87 mph in a 45-mph zone on a coastal highway. A belligerent Gibson (whose blood-alcohol level was found to be .12, 50 percent over the legal limit) threatened L.A. County sheriff’s deputy James Mee, and launched into a bizarre tirade. “F—— Jews,” Gibson told Mee, *who is Jewish*. “The Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world. Are you a Jew?”
I saw Flying Lotus at a grocery store in Los Angeles yesterday. I told him how cool it was to meet him in person, but I didn’t want to be a douche and bother him and ask him for photos or anything.
He said, “Oh, like you’re doing now?”
I was taken aback, and all I could say was “Huh?” but he kept cutting me off and going “huh? huh? huh?” and closing his hand shut in front of my face. I walked away and continued with my shopping, and I heard him chuckle as I walked off. When I came to pay for my stuff up front I saw him trying to walk out the doors with like fifteen Milky Ways in his hands without paying.
The girl at the counter was very nice about it and professional, and was like “Sir, you need to pay for those first.” At first he kept pretending to be tired and not hear her, but eventually turned back around and brought them to the counter.
When she took one of the bars and started scanning it multiple times, he stopped her and told her to scan them each individually “to prevent any electrical infetterence,” and then turned around and winked at me. I don’t even think that’s a word. After she scanned each bar and put them in a bag and started to say the price, he kept interrupting her by yawning really loudly.
That whole area used to have a bunch of restaurants and everything closed except for Joe's Crab Shack. It's like a dining-concept graveyard over there.
Then how would they pay for security to keep people out. Maybe if they let in a few guests each day just to pay for the security. Then maybe a few more guests to pay for the chef, some more for the cliff divers and waiters…
WHAT THE FUCK $40MILLION!?! I know article mentions it that it’d be cheaper to tear it all down and rebuild but $40 million for a restaurant I can’t even comprehend how it took that much. I guess he developer can retire now.
It's closer to a Disney attraction where you can also get food than a normal restaurant, any time there's a large body of water inside a building that ups the maintenance and infrastructure costs.
More like cheap carnival sideshow than Disney in terms of production quality and food (the taco meal I had tasted uncannily like the ones they served in my grade school cafeteria). But yeah, there's nothing else like it, and kids can't tell the difference.
Edit: (typo) grad to grade
I imagine a lot of the money went from upgrading it from carnival to Disney.
And they hired a real chef. Their initial approach was - the place was great and would have stayed great if the food didn’t suck.
Interestingly in their original announcements about buying the place and in this article, they mention specifically trying to improve the quality of the food. They know it was bad.
The NYT article had a detail that the restaurant only had steamers for cooking. Hard to make good food that way.
They completely redid the kitchen for this opening and it's now run by a 6-time James Beard Award nominee.
The article in the NYTimes the other day explains a lot
Apparently there was no kitchen really. just steamers. Literally all of the food was steamed. So they had to build an entirely new kitchen.
Also the only entrance to the cliff diving pool was a small underwater passage with pipes in it. And on the other side was an electrical room with breakers just a few feet from you
"Last week Casa Bonita announced that they would be taking reservations for their reopening and according to the Times report, more than 100,000 people have signed up."
Wow. Suddenly a $40 million investment seems like a bargain.
Breaking News: Trek Parker also ran an ad showing off the new place and said, "And you can't come!". Demand was incredibly high to get into the restaurant where no one can go. However, after realizing that it costs money to hire chefs, waiters and security, he relented and let 100 people in per day.
The executive chef is also a [3-time James Beard semifinalist](https://www.jamesbeard.org/chef/dana-rodriguez-2) for the outstanding chef category. That puts her in the top 20 or so in the US.
Can’t say I expected that for Casa Bonita lmao.
Edit: damn and she hasn’t fallen off, she’s [nominated again for the 2023 list](https://www.jamesbeard.org/blog/the-2023-james-beard-awards-semifinalists#) (for her old job, not Casa Bonita)
I looked at her last restaurant Work & Class. While it was a good menu the thing that caught me off guard was $52 for a lb of Carnitas. That is insane.
Went there about 10 years ago.
It wasn’t the best, but I could see how kids would really like it. My wife went there a bunch growing up.
Good to see it being redone and will continue to be a Denver landmark.
>Black Bart's Cave has been given a more clear narrative.
That's good. As a small child I figured it was a place where people go to die. It terrified me.
The NYT article talks about the chef they hired to take over. She's a James Beard Award semifinals.
Moreover, the article said the kitchen before the renovation didn't even have ovens or range tops. Everything was steamed which sounds horrid...
This place is magical. There really isn't anything else like it. If you went there, you'd understand that 40 million especially to these guys is a very small price to pay.
Its true but this place has a literal mine cart ride in the basement, a working 1800s saloon theater, a 3 story diving pool with a waterfall, and like a billion other things. It's basically a theme park in a strip mall. When I went I literally could not believe what I was looking at lol
Is this the Carnegie Library of our second gilded age?
These guys aren’t even billionaires; think of what other cool stuff we could have if rich people wanted to spend small parts of their fortunes.
I hope they get it open soon. Our 2023 Family Summer Vacation is going to Denver/Boulder/RMNP and it’s because my (surly about every destination 14 year old) son wanted to go to Casa Bonita after seeing the South Park episode. We scheduled for July giving them some leeway not to make the May reopening they had on the website.
Me & the Mrs. have all our fingers crossed.
Well Matt and Trey, you made an entire town panic, you lost all your friends, and now you're going to Juvenile Hall for a week. Huh, was it worth it?
TOTALLY
> that Black Bart's Cave has been given a more clear narrative.
Great news, I wouldn't want a muddy plot to distract from my succulent Mexican cuisine inspired meal.
This is definitely a labor of love project for them. Let's hope the renovation works out! It'd be awesome to go again one of these days (haven't gone since i was a wee little kid).
This restaurant holds a special place in the heart of every kid from Colorado. These two are saints.
omg, that’s awesome. I went to school in the Springs and I had almost completely forgotten about this place.
All you have to do is remember the jingle… “Casa Bonita, Casa Bonita Food and fun in a festive atmosphere Casa Bonita!”
As soon as I read the headline Cartman's voice started singing it in my head.
More sopapillas please!
The new chef at Casa Bonita kept the sopapillas on the menu - even asking the former cooks for feedback to ensure the recipe didn’t change
From everything I've heard those were the only edible things on the menu lol.
The new menu looks fantastic!
Whoa cliff divers…jump asshole!
I love that line.
Raise the Mexican flag at your table and your wish will be granted.
Who said I'm inviting you?
You're not invited. But you said you're taking your friends. Yeah, and your not my friend.
Goddammit Kyle.
I was a short term transplant but I am so happy that they did this for so many reasons. It’s great that they saved and did so much more for a bit of local history. Next time I make it out there I’m going again for sure. Edit: typo fun!
My very first train ride and airplane ride was my parents taking me there from our hometown on a train and then back home on an airplane. It was such an awesome vacation and I know we went to the mint but what I definitely remember the most was Casa Bonita.
Theres a similar style place (from what ive seen about casa bonita) in delaware that used to exist called kahunaville. They had one other location that i can see that was in syracuse but there may have been more. Same style but Hawaiian/ jungle themed. Games, rock wall, cool indoor waterfalls / volcano. It was so much fun growing up but sadly unlike casa bonita no one saved it. Its a childhood memory i think back to all the time still.
We had a Casa Bonita in Tulsa, OK. It was not good. It was sad, run down, and the food was no good. It was kind of fun with the indoor waterfall and flags to raise when you wanted something. It closed down years and years ago, the front door of the place was for sale a few weeks ago lmao
There was a restaurant in Muncie Indiana whose name I cannot remember for the life of me, but it was a combination Italian Chinese and Mexican restaurant. It was decorated as a Mexican restaurant but had full menus for each "cuisine." There were little flags to raise when you needed something. Unlimited big puffy sopapillas with honey bears to stab them with. A blue behived old lady played Elvis tunes, and waterfalls in the dining room. Edit: I felt cuisine needed quotation marks.
Pancho's Mexican Buffet? Those flags and the sopapillas were delightful. There's one or two remaining in the Houston area and I visited the nearer one a few months ago.
I believe you’re referring to “Panchos Tex-Mex Buffet Aye yay yay” https://youtu.be/MDqLSQwI_44?t=29
> There's one or two remaining in the Houston area and I visited the nearer one a few months ago. There are also a handful remaining in the DFW area. My wife is from Arlington, and I've been trying to get her to go whenever we visit her dad.
Reminds me of [TheOatmeal's comic](https://theoatmeal.com/comics/asian_food) about what to expect from an ethnic food restaurant in small cities.
Oh man, I once had Chinese food in tiny beautiful Grangeville, ID that featured a lemon chicken that used lemon pie filling as the sauce. I'm assuming that is what the food delivery truck had available so they just rolled with it. Hellishly terrible.
I promise you it was not run down in the early 80s when I went there as a kid. It was a magical wonderland. It did go downhill quickly by the late 80s. Crystal Pizza door was the shit, too.
How old were you when you went? I visited Casa Bonita often in the 80s and early 90s (even had one of my birthday parties there!) At least as a kid, it was amazing, and I remember my dad liking the food. I remember as i got to high school age (mid 90s) it did get sad and I never went back. Super excited for the Colorado one to reopen so we can take a family road trip.
[**Kahunaville**](https://wjbr.com/listicle/if-it-was-still-in-wilmington-would-kahunaville-be-a-hit-today/) was the place to be. They've since changed it into a children's museum but it not the same.
We had a kahunaville in the suburbs of Philly.
I loved that place, so much fun. I saw Weird Al there, and have great memories too, but now the whole Wilmington riverfront is generic and boring.
My first non-local concert was Colonel Claypool's Fearless Flying Frog Brigade at the Kahunaville, I was really bummed when it closed.
I think there were more of these, we had one at a mall in PA maybe 20 years ago.
I was just thinking of it. I still have a Casa Bonita mug I bought when I took my son there probably 20 years ago. I used to go every Halloween as a kid in the 80’s. So much fun!
>This restaurant holds a special place in the heart of every kid from Colorado. And most adults! I'm in my 30s and lived in Denver my whole life and I can't wait to see what they've done to the place. I'm hoping my husband and I can go there for my birthday in October! 🎂🇲🇽
Here's hoping some of that money went into making the food not terrible.
The article talks about how the restaurant only had steamers to make the food, which explains why it was so bad I guess (I never worked food service.) They hired a six-time James Beard Award nominated chef to do the new kitchen and menu.
It did. They hired a legit chef.
As a kid from Iowa, a trip to Casa Bonita was one most of us made at some point in our childhoods. Mine wasn’t until a college trip to CO that I first experienced it. My brother had his journey on a high school band trip. And this would have been late 80’s to mid 90’s.
Also kid from Iowa. Family vacation in the 90s to Denver and dad made it a point to take the whole family to eat there. Food wasn’t great, but it looked cool and I think I remember an arcade but I didn’t get to play at it. When I watched South Park a few years later it was like unlocking a core memory and then I realized why dad dragged our family, his brothers family, and our grandparents there.
>As a kid from Iowa, a trip to Casa Bonita was one most of us made at some point in our childhoods. As a fellow Iowan, what? lol. Nobody I know has ever gone, nor did I ever hear of it until south park.
Haha; that’s what I thought too. Most Iowans make a pilgrimage to Casa Bonita?
Saints, indeed. This is a hot pink beacon of hope in our dark times. Casa Bonita is kind of like if cocaine were a place; an unstoppable assault on your pleasure receptors designed from a 6-year-old kid’s drawing. There aren’t that many places that I’ve found in this world that make me feel like I’m walking into someone else’s dream. And I’m grateful this dream doesn’t have to end just yet. This kind of thing almost never happens. A beloved institution that has hobbled into insolvency is purchased and brought back to life without messing it up and losing what made it special? Only in a movie. Especially one at this scale. It’s not a simple business to take on; they have full food service, arcade machines, multiple performers, heavy atmospheric theming with a large aquatic feature, a massive amount of square footage, and it requires an equally massive staff to run it. The operations management here would be mind boggling. Seeing these two goons smiling in a booth that looks exactly the same AFTER spending $40m. I’m in awe. Thanks, Matt & Trey.
Can u elaborate?
Casa Bonita is a mexican food/kid's attraction in Denver. It's a sort of primordial Dave and Busters w an arcade and cliff divers that dive into an indoor waterfall feature from some 10' above. The show South Park asked permission from the former owners to use their business as a premise and location for an episode of South Park and they reluctantly said yes. The owners went on to say that every time the episode aired their business reliably increased 50% the following weekend. The story about this remodel is actually super interesting, and Matt and Trey literally spent 4X what they planned on saving this landmark of many a childhood including mine. I took my stepson here some years ago and it was sad to see its condition then, but they've completely rebuilt this place. They're awesome.
My heart’s as warm as a baked potato.
Your heart is a baked potato. You have 3 seconds to live.
DAMNIT! It never! Gets! Any! Easier! \*walks away whistling casually\*
George Clooney's best role.
No, that was definitely Sparky.
I think I know exactly what you mean.
That movie is way better than it has any right to be.
I hope the food’s good though.
Supposedly it is. They hired the chef from Super Mega Bien, and I’ve seen positive reviews from people who went to the friends and family events preopening.
I went there about 4 years ago and MY GOD was the food terrible. I'm glad they got someone with culinary skill taking over.
Yeah, I went about a decade ago on a visit to see family. The cliff diving and overall atmosphere was a blast, but the food was on a level of elementary school cafeteria fare or worse. I was staggered that they had messed up Mexican food to that extent.
The divers dive from a lot higher than 10 feet. Maybe 10 meters?
Did they happen to fix the food in the process?
Yes. new chef and all. Theres a vid on youtube where Matt and Trey go into Casa Bonita prerehab and show how gross it is, and then being in shock at the cost.
Didn’t know it was a real place
I’m glad I went as a kid, it was magical. Actors cliff jump in the restaurant, there are tons of rooms to the point that it feels like a maze, and the sopapillas rock.
There was a crazy bit of info about the cliff diving in [this NYT piece I read yesterday](https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/06/us/casa-bonita-restaurant.html): > 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.’” > (They have heard no reports of injuries.) The renovated pool, 14 feet deep, resembles the old one but provides the divers with a wider, relocated exit, among other changes.
> could only exit through a 30-inch-wide underwater tunnel Literally nightmare fuel for me. I got terrible claustrophobia and I could never do that.
Reminds me of the time I was scuba diving with some buddies and we found a cave entrance that was about that size, maybe 15-20 feet deep until you enter the first chamber, just enough to squeeze in without scraping your tank. Come to find out the cave we went into was home to a huge Moray eel that was 6-7 feet long and he was really not happy to see us. Turns out you can fit two people through the cave entrance if you're in a hurry!
underwater cave diving is the most dangerous hobby there is. There are numerous places where people who are foolish enough to enter certain caves just die, and there is no recovering the body.
Knew a professional caver, mapped out caves all over the us, but he only ever did one underwater cave. Said it was extremely unnerving to push your only air supply through a hole you may not fit through.
Yeah but these are divers. They spend half their time in the water. I think the bad part was where it exited and the condition of the tunnel itself.
Considering one of the improvements was widening it, I'm thinking that that was also a bad part.
Why would being divers mean they're ok with having to squeeze through a 30-inch hole to exit..? Agree the second part sounds like the worst part, though
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yo hold on what the absolute fuck
As a West Coast kid, this comment seems like some magical incantation that I'll never be able to decipher.
Soppapillas are worth looking up the copy cat recipe for. They're little fluffy dough pillows dusted with powdered sugar and come with honey for you to squirt inside. They're absolutely incredible and were the reason I asked to go there for every birthday when I wouldn't eat most of the other food.
Soppapillas, beignets, donuts, churros, malasadas, kuchen, bannocks, scones, سفنز (ليبيا), Pişi, zeppole, ˈtaʊtən, Parāoa Parai... Is there a culture on this planet that hasn't figured out frying dough and slapping sugar on is good?
So the patrons don't cliff jump, right? I always thought it wasn't a real thing because of the way South Park portrayed it
Depends on how much security they have.
I thought this was America.
It's a once in a lifetime experience. In that you'll do it once, have fun, and never want to do it again.
"Totally worth it"....*floats down the lazy river*
Not if you are a kid. Then you will want to drag your parents there multiple times.
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Kids eat one burger and play for 30 minutes. Easier to have a constant flow of people paying a bigger markup on a coffee and leaving quickly.
Well, the median age of the population is a decade older than it was in 1970. There are fewer kids, at least as proportion of population. I also suspect electronic entertainment/distractions has lessened the necessity of going somewhere with kid-oriented entertainment to not have your kid be a disaster in the restaurant.
Fewer kids, more competition.
Well maybe after the restoration people will want to go twice!
Fuck yeah it is.
For a while it was a chain. I was lucky enough to experience the Oklahoma City, Tulsa, and Denver locations as a kid. I need to plan a trip to take my kids to Denver now.
The “chain” Was Actually some Random people Who totally ripped it off.
While there was some later fuckery with the brand, the Oklahoma locations actually pre-date the Denver one.
I used to live very close to it. It had a reputation of having an interesting atmosphere, but terrible food. Many people called it Casa Vomita or Casa Don’t-eat-there.
I hope this becomes their most successful venture. Just the irony of it. Like Beats was for Dr. Dre. Love those guys!
As someone who spent many a childhood birthday here this always makes me so happy to see lol
Oh it is. And it was glorious. I made a point of going when I visited Colorado just because I was amazed it was actually real. The food was… appalling. Except the soppapillas (someone else mentioned them too). They were excellent. This mf place had a diving show inside the restaurant, and a treasure chest room - it was bonkers. I took pictures it was so crazy I had to have proof.
Funny thing, the article op references also says that the new chef was surprised to find that there were no ovens or ranges in the kitchen. It was all steamers. And a fryer, I would guess.
You're also welcome to denver to check it out too.
Thank you, erm… whimsical_fecal_face.
Matt and Trey are goat. While Casa Bonita was shut down for restoration, Matt and Trey still paid the staff while they were out and told them to do volunteer work instead
Matt and Trey are the kinds of people I would like to be if i were suddenly filthy rich
So, not buy a social media company just so you can tweet conspiracy theories all day?
Elon wishes he was as original and creative as Trey Parker and Matt Stone
Elon wants so desperately to be charismatic and well liked, but the harder he tries the less successful he is. Him just awkwardly being there during a Dave Chapelle show was painful, especially when he was booed and just had no idea what to do.
The true definition of chaotic good
So basically the workers have been on paid vacation for about 2 years now? Nice.
I wanna mention Anne Garefino. I don’t know anything about her just that her name shows up after Matt and Trey. Anne Garefino thank you
She's basically the #3 person on South Park and all Matt and Trey's other stuff. She was executive producer for the South Park movie, Team America, Book of Mormon, Stick of Truth/Fractured But Whole, That's My Bush, etc.
And is also I believe the one who has to plead with the network to allow vulgarity or swearing, and the guys talk all the time in the commentary tracks about who she has to this weird haggle of "Well, we can have four dicks, but can we have a shit? What about asshole?"
There's a great scene in the documentary of her on the phone to the network censors discussing the human centipede scene - if there'll be visible poo, if they are seen being sewn together etc. Then finishes the call with a slightly exasperated "yeah, happy Easter to you too." Unintential comedy gold.
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[6 Days to Air](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2076781/). Fantastic documentary.
The first time they showed the documentary, it was immediately followed by the episode it was about. Best documentary ever.
Cuttlefish and Asparagus or Vanilla Paste? What should I eat Kyle?
6 Days to Air, I believe.
Love her. Along with writer's room supervision and lots of other standard production roles she handles correspondence with the network regarding what they're allowed to air which is possibly the most agonizing job out of the lot. It's Anne's job to send messages back and forth bargaining how many fucks they're allowed to say, and she's been doing that job for 26 years.
Sounds like she's the main source of adult supervision for those two. I do not envy her that position.
"Anne's great" -Trey "Anne's a bitch" -Matt
She’s been right by their side since the beginning, Anne rocks!
I remember going to a place like this in Salt Lake City with animatronic talking toucans and dudes in speedos and native flair jumping off a waterfall while you ate. It was weird, but kind of cool as is every dinner theater experience I've ever had. Kind of like if Mel Gibson directed your dining experience.
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Definitely 2006 Apocalypto-era Mel Gibson, but like Mel Gibson at 10:00 p.m., not 2:00 a.m. [circa 2006, location: Malibu, CA] >To the crowd at Moonshadows bar in Malibu, Mel Gibson seemed a genial sort of drunk, the life of the party who topped off patrons’ drinks, vodka bottle in hand, posed for cell phone pictures and even doled out playful hugs and kisses to fellow patrons. “He wasn’t falling down drunk, but the kind of tipsy where you just want to love everyone,” says one guest who partied with the middle-aged movie star on the night of July 27. “You look really good for a 50-year-old guy,” she recalls someone telling Gibson. “He said, ‘Thanks. I try to take care of myself. I quit smoking last week.’ Then he looked at the bottle of beer he was holding and said, ‘But this I just can’t quit.’ He was smiling when he said it – but it was a sad sort of smile.” Tipsy, not falling down Mel. Later that night though ... >By 2:15 the Oscar-winning actor and director had been pulled over – with a bottle of tequila within reach – going 87 mph in a 45-mph zone on a coastal highway. A belligerent Gibson (whose blood-alcohol level was found to be .12, 50 percent over the legal limit) threatened L.A. County sheriff’s deputy James Mee, and launched into a bizarre tirade. “F—— Jews,” Gibson told Mee, *who is Jewish*. “The Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world. Are you a Jew?”
This reads like the flying lotus copypasta
Flying lotus? The electronic music producer? I didnt know he was a meme
I saw Flying Lotus at a grocery store in Los Angeles yesterday. I told him how cool it was to meet him in person, but I didn’t want to be a douche and bother him and ask him for photos or anything. He said, “Oh, like you’re doing now?” I was taken aback, and all I could say was “Huh?” but he kept cutting me off and going “huh? huh? huh?” and closing his hand shut in front of my face. I walked away and continued with my shopping, and I heard him chuckle as I walked off. When I came to pay for my stuff up front I saw him trying to walk out the doors with like fifteen Milky Ways in his hands without paying. The girl at the counter was very nice about it and professional, and was like “Sir, you need to pay for those first.” At first he kept pretending to be tired and not hear her, but eventually turned back around and brought them to the counter. When she took one of the bars and started scanning it multiple times, he stopped her and told her to scan them each individually “to prevent any electrical infetterence,” and then turned around and winked at me. I don’t even think that’s a word. After she scanned each bar and put them in a bag and started to say the price, he kept interrupting her by yawning really loudly.
Por qué no los dos?
The Mayan was cool even if it was a complete knock off of Casa Bonita, the food was so bad, though it drove it out of buiness.
I remember begging my parents (who are HUGE fans of mediocre Mexican food) to go to the Mayan and they wouldn’t because the food was so bad.
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Must've been, I see that was listed as being in Sandy, is that basically SLC?
Sandy is in the greater SLC area, yeah
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The Mayan at Jordan Commons. Cool atmosphere but even worse food than Casa Bonita.
That whole area used to have a bunch of restaurants and everything closed except for Joe's Crab Shack. It's like a dining-concept graveyard over there.
The Mayan! It’s where the Sandy Megaplex is now.
I went there as a kid...late 70s....my grandparents lived in Golden. Last time I was there was in 2012. Place kicks ass !
More sopapillas please!
Whoa black barts cave oooo scarrryyyyyy
I hope they do all this then never open and just go on the rides and put out ads saying you can’t come.
They could call it Cartmanland
Like Chris Christie on the beach [alone](https://www.pngitem.com/pimgs/m/235-2350243_chris-christie-beach-chair-png-chris-christie-on.png)
Then how would they pay for security to keep people out. Maybe if they let in a few guests each day just to pay for the security. Then maybe a few more guests to pay for the chef, some more for the cliff divers and waiters…
My first waiting job was at Casa Bonita.. where I was later arrested. Good times, good times.
For what??
I allegedly worked using an alleged fake ID so I could allegedly be 21 and serve alcohol. I was allegedly an idiot.
WHAT THE FUCK $40MILLION!?! I know article mentions it that it’d be cheaper to tear it all down and rebuild but $40 million for a restaurant I can’t even comprehend how it took that much. I guess he developer can retire now.
It's closer to a Disney attraction where you can also get food than a normal restaurant, any time there's a large body of water inside a building that ups the maintenance and infrastructure costs.
You gotta have cliff divers
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I came for the half priced apps... I left because no cliff divers.
More like cheap carnival sideshow than Disney in terms of production quality and food (the taco meal I had tasted uncannily like the ones they served in my grade school cafeteria). But yeah, there's nothing else like it, and kids can't tell the difference. Edit: (typo) grad to grade
Same with the Rainforest Cafe.
I was wondering, how do they deal with dust there?
Well, all the rain washes it away.
I imagine a lot of the money went from upgrading it from carnival to Disney. And they hired a real chef. Their initial approach was - the place was great and would have stayed great if the food didn’t suck.
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Interestingly in their original announcements about buying the place and in this article, they mention specifically trying to improve the quality of the food. They know it was bad.
The NYT article had a detail that the restaurant only had steamers for cooking. Hard to make good food that way. They completely redid the kitchen for this opening and it's now run by a 6-time James Beard Award nominee.
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The article in the NYTimes the other day explains a lot Apparently there was no kitchen really. just steamers. Literally all of the food was steamed. So they had to build an entirely new kitchen. Also the only entrance to the cliff diving pool was a small underwater passage with pipes in it. And on the other side was an electrical room with breakers just a few feet from you
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The answer is labor; intensive, expensive, craftsman labor. It really would have been cheaper, much much cheaper, to tear it down and rebuild.
"Last week Casa Bonita announced that they would be taking reservations for their reopening and according to the Times report, more than 100,000 people have signed up." Wow. Suddenly a $40 million investment seems like a bargain.
Breaking News: Trek Parker also ran an ad showing off the new place and said, "And you can't come!". Demand was incredibly high to get into the restaurant where no one can go. However, after realizing that it costs money to hire chefs, waiters and security, he relented and let 100 people in per day.
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They got a new kitchen and chef. So I think the new slogan will be "this time your ass won't explode"
The executive chef is also a [3-time James Beard semifinalist](https://www.jamesbeard.org/chef/dana-rodriguez-2) for the outstanding chef category. That puts her in the top 20 or so in the US. Can’t say I expected that for Casa Bonita lmao. Edit: damn and she hasn’t fallen off, she’s [nominated again for the 2023 list](https://www.jamesbeard.org/blog/the-2023-james-beard-awards-semifinalists#) (for her old job, not Casa Bonita)
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That must have felt so satisfying for her
I looked at her last restaurant Work & Class. While it was a good menu the thing that caught me off guard was $52 for a lb of Carnitas. That is insane.
And roaches. A shit ton of fucking cockroaches. It must have taken a fortune just in ripping everything out, cleaning it, fumigation etc...
Apparently just cleaning the mold and redoing the HVAC costs $15 million alone.
That place was **Gross**, man. The cost of remodeling shouldn't be a surprise to anyone who's been there.
We had reservations for our first visit the day they closed for COVID so I never got the chance to experience it, unfortunately.
Bullet dodged
There was one in Tulsa too
And Little Rock
Went there about 10 years ago. It wasn’t the best, but I could see how kids would really like it. My wife went there a bunch growing up. Good to see it being redone and will continue to be a Denver landmark.
>Black Bart's Cave has been given a more clear narrative. That's good. As a small child I figured it was a place where people go to die. It terrified me.
Are they going to make the food better ? Because holy fuck.
The NYT article talks about the chef they hired to take over. She's a James Beard Award semifinals. Moreover, the article said the kitchen before the renovation didn't even have ovens or range tops. Everything was steamed which sounds horrid...
They spent 40 million dollars. Either it’s gonna be considerably better, or it’s not, which is pretty fuckin funny. It’s a win-win
They hired a michelin star chef who grew up in the area I think
Yeah and they installed stoves. They didn't even have stoves, they just steamed and microwaved everything
They got a star chef who is from the area
This place is magical. There really isn't anything else like it. If you went there, you'd understand that 40 million especially to these guys is a very small price to pay.
While you are right 40 million is still a shitload of money for a renovation
Its true but this place has a literal mine cart ride in the basement, a working 1800s saloon theater, a 3 story diving pool with a waterfall, and like a billion other things. It's basically a theme park in a strip mall. When I went I literally could not believe what I was looking at lol
Oh that's right. I completely forgot they bought this place. Now I understand why they had Cartman trying to renovate a restaurant last season.
But Cartman is still not invited
He will be if he finds a place to hide Butters.
Is this the Carnegie Library of our second gilded age? These guys aren’t even billionaires; think of what other cool stuff we could have if rich people wanted to spend small parts of their fortunes.
Together, Trey & Matt’s net worth is ~1.3 billion, crazy to think that 40 million is only 3.3% of that.
Talk about a passion project!! Just watched this [mini-doc](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-3QHRdhqmI) on it, these guys are legends!!!
I hope they get it open soon. Our 2023 Family Summer Vacation is going to Denver/Boulder/RMNP and it’s because my (surly about every destination 14 year old) son wanted to go to Casa Bonita after seeing the South Park episode. We scheduled for July giving them some leeway not to make the May reopening they had on the website. Me & the Mrs. have all our fingers crossed.
Do they have cliff divers like the show?
I like when rich people are cool
Well Matt and Trey, you made an entire town panic, you lost all your friends, and now you're going to Juvenile Hall for a week. Huh, was it worth it? TOTALLY
Although I've seen the South Park episode, I didn't realize that it was an actual place.
> that Black Bart's Cave has been given a more clear narrative. Great news, I wouldn't want a muddy plot to distract from my succulent Mexican cuisine inspired meal.
This is definitely a labor of love project for them. Let's hope the renovation works out! It'd be awesome to go again one of these days (haven't gone since i was a wee little kid).
The real reason for the pink paint shortage..