For 50 years, a Pepto Bismol-pink tower has loomed large over the Lakewood shopping center marking the spot of the legendary Casa Bonita.
The tower is something of a beacon, calling to longtime fans and would-be diners with the promise of mariachi music, cliff divers, crispy sopapillas and the kind of fun that inspires childlike joy.
Next week will mark the 50th anniversary the day that Oklahoma City entrepreneur Bill Waugh opened Denver’s Casa Bonita in a former Joslin’s department store. The restaurant was part of a small chain that Waugh created in 1968. Today, it is the last one standing.
Right now, however, the only way to get into Casa Bonita is to enter a lottery and hope you receive an invitation by email to buy tickets.
For some, 50 years means you’re over the hill. But fans will tell you that Casa Bonita is entering its best days yet. The eatertainment venue reopened last June under the ownership of Matt Stone and Trey Parker, the native Coloradans who famously created the “South Park” TV show.
The building itself became a historic landmark in 2015, but for decades prior it was an institution not for its food — which was notoriously terrible — but for its festive atmosphere. The business’s fate was called into question during the pandemic when it closed and the owners filed for bankruptcy, spurring a wave of efforts to save Casa Bonita.
Stone and Parker ponied up $3.1 million to buy the building, recruited James Beard-nominated chef Dana “Loca” Rodriguez to reimagine the menu, and spent a not-so-small fortune restoring Casa Bonita to its glory days.
Locals spent the better part of two years counting down the days until the Mexico-themed eatery would reopen. So, in honor of its milestone, we’re counting down the numbers that help tell its story.
March 25 … or is it March 27?
Opened in 1974, Casa Bonita is indisputably celebrating its 50th anniversary, but on exactly which day is up for debate.
On July 2, 1974, The Denver Post ran a story about Casa Bonita citing its opening date as March 25. An article published in the now-defunct Jefferson Sentinel confirms that date. On March 28, 1974, the newspaper ran a story about the opening, stating the restaurant opened three days prior on a Monday, which would have been March 25.
However, Casa Bonita’s website lists March 27 as the date it made its original debut.
The Post’s 1974 story highlights how the food has always been something of a talker. Reporters spoke to a local health inspector, who debunked rumors that Casa Bonita was serving unapproved meat.
“We checked on several occasions, after getting many calls, and the meat is all from legitimate meat companies which are under inspection … we have no reason to believe there’s any malpractice there,” said Jefferson County Health Department’s director of environmental health at the time.
$40 million
Stone and Parker told The New York Times that that was the price tag for fixing up the beloved venue. Renovations included relocating the divers’ exit from the pool; investing in kitchen equipment like ovens and stove tops; fixing infrastructure like leaky gas lines and plumbing; and more. Casa Bonita’s owners also paid to level out the patio at WestFax Brewing Co. next door.
“Have you ever seen ‘Kitchen Nightmares’? It’s the very, very worst one of those you could possibly ever imagine,” Parker told The Denver Post in 2022.
In 1974, the Jefferson Sentinel put estimates for the value of the building somewhere between $1.4 million and $2 million.
400,000 to 600,000
That’s how many people are reportedly still on the lottery waitlist to dine at Casa Bonita, according to Denver 7. The station spoke with chef Rodriguez about how things are going nine months after opening, and it turns out demand for a table has not yet let up.
“I think everybody’s happy and excited to see what the new owners have done,” Rodriguez told the station.
40,000 to 52,000
Multiple stories from 1974 put Casa Bonita’s footprint at 40,000 square feet. Later reports say it encompasses 52,000 square feet of real estate. The consensus then and now is that the restaurant can hold up to 1,100 diners.
2,500
Rodriguez told Denver 7 in the aforementioned interview that, on an average day, the kitchen makes 200 pounds of dough that gets fried into about 2,500 sopapillas.
2003
On Nov. 12, 2003, the “South Park” episode that made Casa Bonita an international sensation aired and introduced TV viewers to “the Disneyland of Mexican restaurants.”
In the episode, Kyle Broflovski plans to celebrate his birthday with a trip to Casa Bonita. He can invite up to three friends, and when Eric Cartman doesn’t make the original guest list, he locks Butters in an underground bunker to secure a spot. Cartman enjoys all the signature Casa Bonita activities, rapid-fire, before being escorted out by police.
550+
As Casa Bonita prepared to reopen in 2023, management sought to hire more than 550 people to staff it. That’s not far off from the number of people Waugh needed originally. According to the Jefferson Sentinel, “Of the 300 anticipated to be hired by the restaurant, about 250 will be high school age.”
The restaurant is currently hiring for positions in the kitchen, on its entertainment staff and more.
$30
Upon reopening, Casa Bonita made the controversial decision to nix tipping and instead pay servers and bartenders a flat hourly wage of $30.
30
The restaurant’s signature feature is a 30-foot waterfall modeled after the cliffs of Acapulco, Mexico. According to our previous reporting, it pumps 26,427,000 gallons of water per year to supply its 14-foot-deep pool into which cliff divers and actors plunge during the shows.
$4.45
Back in the day, it cost diners less than $5 to enjoy the all-you-can-eat Deluxe Dinner at Casa Bonita, according to an old, undated menu from the Denver Public Library. That dinner included all the restaurant’s Mexican specialties, from refried beans, corn chips and Spanish rice to a tamale with chili, beef tacos, cheese enchiladas, guacamole and sopaipillas – plus “ALL THE SECONDS you may wish will be served … .”
The library sent us several iterations of the menu, all of which are undated, but $4.45 was the cheapest price for the house special. However, it’s not the original price. When Casa Bonita opened in 1974, “no meal, whether Mexican or American, exceeds $3.45,” the Jefferson Sentinel reported. Over the years, the deluxe deal increased to $5.75, $5.95, $7.99, $13.79 and $14.49, and maybe higher.
Today, entry costs $29.99 for adults and $19.99 for kids ages 3 to 12 during lunch, and $39.99 for adults and $24.99 for kids during dinner. The price includes one entree and one round of sopapillas.
