Casa Bonita, the Lakewood, CO institution known as the “Disneyland of Mexican restaurants,” is finally taking reservations, more than a year after its soft opening in May 2023. So far, South Park The game, which creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker will release in 2021, will join a waiting list of more than 600,000 people and will be randomly selected via a drawing.
The restaurant will begin accepting reservations via its website on Monday, September 16 at 3 p.m., with reservations currently sold out from October 1, with the calendar extended into November. While guests will no longer be required to purchase tickets in advance, Denver Post The restaurant offers seven entrees that all cost the same price: $29.99 for lunch and $39.99 for dinner, with kids' meals costing $19.99 and $24.99, respectively.
The grand opening is the latest chapter in a $40 million-plus saga since Stone and Parker purchased the giant pink landmark after its previous owners filed for bankruptcy in 2021, but they found themselves stuck in a money pit. In addition to cosmetic upgrades like updating the interior, statues, faux trees, and artwork, the 52,000-square-foot restaurant also featured numerous safety hazards, like a 30-inch-wide underwater tunnel that cliff divers had to climb into the electrical room.
Then, just a few months after the opening, last July, employees took action with demands against the new owners on a number of issues, starting with fair wages.
Stone and Parker said in an interview that they didn't expect the grand opening to take this long: Denver Post Earlier this month, they said the delay was necessary to sort out the logistics of such a unique venue while hosting thousands of guests. They noted that Casa Bonita has served more than 500,000 clients to date and currently hosts 11,000 to 12,000 people a week.
In fact, the “comedy of errors” created by the costly investment wore out its new owners so badly that it became the subject of a new documentary. My Lover's House is Beautiful!“Tracking the rise, fall and revival of a beloved Colorado icon”
“We didn't do any due diligence,” Stone said, shaking his head as he spoke. Rolling stone “It was very similar, we got Casa Bonita, great! You know, we'll fix it up and Trey can build a new and improved Black Bart's Cave. How hard could it be? Well… you've seen the movie. The answer is millions and millions and millions of dollars worth of hard.”
Watch the trailer below. Or, Lakewood residents can head to Casa Bonita's website to try to make a reservation at the city's most popular spot.