The creators of South Park bought a restaurant and it’s impossible to get in

Opening in suburban Lakewood, near Denver, in 1974, Casa Bonita was 5202 square metres of Barbie-pink Spanish Mission-style themed restaurant that two generations of Denver’s youngest and most easily influenced adored.

Locals took out-of-town visitors to the “exotic” outlet for Mexican food served cafeteria-style in a “Mexican village” with a more-than-nine-metre indoor waterfall with costumed high divers.

Back then, Denver Post food critic Barry Morrison summed up the restaurant-cum-fun park thus “Casa Bonita’s forte is definitely atmosphere.” There were food poisoning rumours. Soon it became known as Casa NoEata. The running joke was always eat before.

But Casa Bonita, which turns 50 this week, was about something other than the food. For predominantly suburban white kids it was the unbridled chaos of cave divers, fake gunfights, replica Mexican villages, puppet shows, Black Bart’s Cave and the sopaipillas – a traditional, leavened bread dessert with pour-your-own honey. There was something for everyone – strolling mariachi bands, a puppet theatre and a gorilla with a sheriff in hot pursuit. Irreplaceable, lifelong memories were made.

Then, in 2003, when South Park creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker devoted an entire episode to their favourite spot for birthdays, the world discovered Lakewood’s fabled family restaurant. Stone and Parker’s childhood memories motivated South Park’s Cartman to kidnap Butters and dive into Casa Bonita’s deep pool of make-believe.

By then, the chlorine and honey had turned the carpet into a rock-hard mess – much like the restaurant itself. Reeking of chlorine and crumbling from years of neglect, the pandemic brought the magic to an abrupt end.

But the two local guys armed with Book of Mormon millions and television syndication fortunes came to the rescue. Like nearly every other kid from Denver’s suburbs, Casa Bonita held a special place in Stone and Parker’s hearts. In 2020, the pair took more than a walk down memory lane. They bought the site and took up the challenge to make it just like before, “only better”.

The renovation had all the hallmarks of a modern-day fairytale: local-boys-made-good save a landmark that guaranteed the Mile High City’s Gen X a trip down memory lane. They pledged to “Change Nothing. Improve Everything”. The spend was rumoured to be more than $US40 ($61 million). Stone and Parker said it was more like “infinity dollars”.