Some dreams can come true. A few short months ago, South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone declared their intent to purchase the last remaining Casa Bonita restaurant (from a chain originally founded in 1968 Oklahoma City). The long-running Comedy Central staples plucked up the remaining holdout in Lakewood, Colorado (a suburb of Denver) in honor of the Mexican restaurant from a 2003 episode, and they’re going in like gangbusters. There’s a particularly notable development, too, considering that most people who’ve ever eaten at one of these particular “eatertainment” restaurants have a lot to say about the fake volcanos and waterfalls and the arcade games, but the food? Not a huge hit.
Well, except for those sopapillas. It’s hard to mess those up, really, but Parker and Stone want to go much further while revamping the restaurant that filed for bankruptcy in 2020. They’re actually going to make the food good enough that it’s beyond “merely edible” and worthy of praise, perhaps even an actual reason to visit. Via the Denver local ABC affiliate, Parker and Stone not only dropped $3.1 million from the restaurant, but they’re investing heavily in revamping the menu with a renowned chef, Dana Rodriguez:
[A news] release said Rodriguez, “will oversee the kitchen redesign, new menu development and culinary team, promising a major overhaul of the culinary program that will ‘improve everything, but change nothing’ in the storied restaurant.”
“This is a dream come true,” Rodriguez said in the release. “Casa Bonita means so much to so many people here in Denver. I’m excited to work with Trey and Matt and reimagine the culinary program; I want to make sure this is a place where people will look forward to eating, drinking, spending time and bringing friends, family and visitors.”
Maybe they’ll even be different kinds of sopapillas? Let’s not get too carried away here, guys. But good on the South Park guys for resurrecting childhood memories for tons of people and supercharging their efforts in the process.
(Via The Denver Channel)