For some folks who were raised in the Denver area, the restaurant Casa Bonita evokes fond memories of childhood. Once called the Disneyland of Mexican restaurants, Casa Bonita opened in 1974 and quickly became the star attraction of a Lakewood, Co., strip mall.
Among those smitten by Casa Bonita were Trey Parker and Matt Stone of South Park fame. The restaurant appeared in a South Park episode, a touch of nostalgia garnished with the series' satirical hot sauce.
In 2021, Parker and Stone purchased the dying restaurant for $3.1 million. They then embarked on a restoration project that wound up costing $40 million, a major leap from an initial estimate of $6 million.
Casa Bonita Mi Amor! documents the restaurant's history while providing a lively and entertaining chronicle of what initially looks like one of history's worst investments.
More guided by passion than spreadsheets, the South Park creators stuck with their venture, reopening the restaurant in 2023. They brought back a 30-foot indoor waterfall and restored other signature attractions that make the current version seem less like Disneyland than something on the order of Meow Wolf with Mexican food.
It wasn't easy. The restaurant Parker and Stone purchased might be likened to a corpse left to fester in the desert sun. Pipes oozed ... well ... ooze, and the building's infrastructure was so deteriorated, it had become gross and dangerous.
Anyone who has ever been caught in a cycle of escalating costs during a home renovation project will recognize the problems Parker and Stone faced. At one point, they wondered whether it might be wise to pull the plug and cut their losses.
Like most possessed people, they proceeded with their outlandish pursuit of resurrecting the past while giving it contemporary polish and a new infusion of imagination.
Was it insane? Probably, but director Arthur Bradford understands the passion, commitment, and, yes, love, necessary to achieve a cockeyed goal.
Casa Bonita Mi Amor! put me in mind of collectors who remain undeterred by the oddity of their quests. I once met a woman who prided herself on her collection of doors. (Don't ask about storage.)
A large dose of idiosyncratic passion explains why Parker and Stone's nostalgia trip was more inspired by Elvis's 1963 movie, Fun in Acapulco, than anything that might be called authentically Mexican. To yearn for Casa Bonita, at least as it was during its heyday in the 1970s and '80s, meant reveling in a collection of unashamed kitsch.
To me, there's something irresistible about folks who pursue eccentric ventures; Casa Bonita Mi Amor! thrives on the contagious fondness for the place displayed by Parker, really our guide through the story.
Casa Bonita wasn't known for haute cuisine, but Parker and Stone hired Dana Rodriguez, a multiple James Beard award nominee, as the restaurant's executive chef. I've read mixed things about the food since the restaurant's opening.
But food was never the entire focus: The Casa Bonita experience created ardent devotees, including Stone and Parker, two exceptionally creative guys who refused to let the embers of childhood delight smolder.
Parker and Stone indulged a heartfelt belief that some dreams don't deserve to die -- no matter how crazy they might seem or maybe because they are too crazy to abandon.
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