Casa Bonita

Tucked into a strip mall in Lakewood, just west of Denver, sits one of the most improbable restaurants in America. Casa Bonita opened in nineteen seventy-four and grew into a fifty thousand square foot spectacle built around an indoor waterfall some thirty feet tall, off which costumed cliff divers plunge into a small pool, an imitation of the cliffs of Acapulco. It was once part of a small chain, but the Lakewood location is now the only Casa Bonita left.

The place earned national fame in two thousand and three when an episode of the animated series South Park, created by Colorado natives Trey Parker and Matt Stone, built a whole story around it. The two grew up visiting Casa Bonita, and their affection turned into ownership. In two thousand twenty-one they agreed to buy the struggling restaurant for about three point one million dollars, then poured a fortune into a top to bottom renovation, with the creators later saying the project ran to roughly fifty million dollars.

They hired a respected Denver chef to overhaul the food, which had long been the punchline of the experience. The result is a place that is half restaurant, half theme park, and entirely Colorado.