South Park creators rescue famed Colorado restaurant Casa Bonita trends now
South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone are set to unveil their Mexican restaurant in Colorado, after spending upwards of $40 million renovating the quirky children's favorite.
Casa Bonita in the Denver suburb of Lakewood, first opened in 1974 and with its 52,000 square feet of caverns, caves, waterfalls and diving pools became a fixture of children's birthday parties and family dinner's out.
The restaurant even won recognition with its own dedicated episode of South Park, the show created by Parker and Stone, who stepped in when Casa Bonita was declared bankrupt in 2020.
Parker, 53, and Stone, 52, both Colorado natives initially thought they would need $10 million to renovate and reopen their favored childhood haunt that had fallen into disrepair and was finally killed off by the pandemic.
When it doubled to $20million they were advised to pull out, but the pair said they ended up committing 'infinity dollars' to the passion project.
Trey Parker and Matt Stone spent upwards of $40 million renovating Casa Bonita
The restaurant's 52,000 square feet features caverns, caves, waterfalls and diving pools
The creative duo told the New York Times 'we could have rebuilt this twice as big, for half as much money, but we spent so much restoring it, like a piece of art.'
Some of the most demanding renovations included the cliff-diving pool, where divers perform while visitors eat, which before closing in 2020 had the swimmers exiting the waters through a 30-inch-wide underwater tunnel brimming with pipes, into an electrical room.
'There were 200 amps of power directly to the left,' Scott Shoemaker, who oversaw the renovations said.
'When I saw it, I called Matt and told him, "This is the most dangerous room I’ve ever seen"' he added.
The new pool is 14 feet deep and offers the divers a wider and safer exit route.
Another tricky part of the restoration was finding the
