10 JUNE 13-19, 2024 westword.com WESTWORD | MUSIC | CAFE | CULTURE | NIGHT+DAY | NEWS | LETTERS | CONTENTS | Nostalgia Is a Bitch ¡CASA BONITA MI AMOR! FOLLOWS SOUTH PARK CREATORS THROUGH A $40 MILLION RESTAURANT RENOVATION NIGHTMARE. BY CRISTIAN SAL AZAR People who went to Casa Bonita as kids before it closed during the pandemic mostly remember the disgusting beef tacos served through a slot, the creepy dark caves that seemed like a groper’s twisted fantasy and, of course, the cliff divers. One big reveal of the new documentary ¡CASA BONITA MI AMOR! — about the years-long, $40 mil- lion renovation of the restaurant that was purchased by the creators of South Park — is that the divers could have been risking death by electrocution every time they performed. Not only did they have to swim past live wires at the pool’s edge, but when divers exited, they walked dripping wet and bare- foot into a room that was fi lled with high- voltage equipment. In the fi lm, Casa Bonita construction manager Scott Shoemaker says, “It’s the single most dangerous thing I’ve seen in my entire life. We should call it the ‘death room.’” After shutting down Casa Bonita in March 2020 for the pandemic, owners Sum- mit Family Restaurants fi led for bankruptcy in April 2021. That September, South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone, who grew up in the Denver suburbs, bought Casa Bonita at what they term a “fair” price. The news was greeted with enthusiasm — after all, if anyone could do the palace of gringo tacos justice, it was these dudes. They had introduced the res- taurant at 6715 West Colfax Avenue into the annals of pop culture with their classic 2003 episode when Cartman does nearly everything he can to get invited to Kyle’s birthday party (in- cluding by disappearing wide-eyed blondie But- ters in a bomb shelter), birthing the apt descrip- tor of Casa Bonita as the “Disneyland of Mexican restaurants,” where you could always get more sopaipillas, please. ¡CASA BONITA MI AMOR!, which had its world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival on Friday, June 7, is about the renovation night- mare that the South Park creators found themselves in after making what both admit was a stupid decision to buy Casa Bonita and try to bring it back to life as a place where you would actually want to take your kids to eat Mexican food. It is a sometimes hilari- ous, sometimes heartbreaking documentary directed by Arthur Bradford. It’s also full of interesting factoids about the restaurant (who knew that its iconic color is called “dusty pink”)? It also doesn’t take itself or its subject too seriously. The audience ate it up, so to speak. The movie raises the question of how much a person will pay to bring back child- hood memories out of nostalgia. A lot, ap- parently. By the time the budget for the renovation has blown past the $20 million mark, it’s clear that this project isn’t about restoring a restaurant with famously gross food; it’s about restoring a childhood haven where white kids like Parker and Stone could play without parental oversight in an exotic, carefree simulation of Mexico. The movie opens with video footage of old ads, a bit of background on the heroic purchase of the restaurant by the South Park creators, and snippets of historic images showing lines around the strip mall shortly after Casa Bonita opened in 1974 in all its gar- ish pink glory, with a golden-domed tower topped by a statue of Cuauhtémoc, an Aztec emperor of Mexico. After their purchase, Parker and Stone visit the closed space, and Parker naively remarks that all it basically needs is new carpets. If only! After professionals inspect the place, the reality is shocking. Over the years, Casa Bonita has been literally held together with strategically placed duct tape and danger- ously rigged electrical wiring. Pigeon excre- ment covers the roof. The HVAC system is in dire condition. The walls are corroded. The pool is potentially lethal. It’s a fucking disaster. And what was projected to be a $4 million renovation of the 52,000-square-foot space turns out to be ten times that. But rather than deciding to bail, Parker and Stone forge ahead. “I’d better start mak- ing some new TV shows,” Parker jokes at one point after learning NEWS continued on page 12 KEEP UP ON DENVER NEWS AT WESTWORD.COM/NEWS Is Casa Bonita ready for its close-up? SANTIAGO FELIPE/GETTY IMAGES FOR PARAMOUNT+ SOUTH PARK EASTER EGGS AND WHAT ROBERT SMITH THOUGHT OF CASA BONITA The audience at the world premiere of ¡CASA BONITA MI AMOR! consisted largely of movie-industry types, members of the fi lm’s crew, and South Park fans. After the screen- ing, Trey Parker and Matt Stone, along with the documentary’s director, Arthur Brad- ford, spoke during a Q&A moderated by Andy Cohen. A few highlights: The documentary wasn’t planned: Bradford has known the South Park creators since the 1990s, and shot the Emmy-nominated 6 Days to Air (2011), about the making of an episode of the cartoon. He continued recording them over the years, and decided to make a documentary after they bought Casa Bonita. “I fi nd what they do so funny,” Bradford said. A South Park-themed restaurant or amuse- ment park would be too “dirty”: Asked whether they would ever create a South Park-themed restaurant or amusement park, the cartoon’s creators responded that the show was too adult. Because of the 2003 Casa Bonita episode, Parker said that the restaurant had basically become a South Park destination and started selling “little crappy kinds of plush dolls” of South Park characters. “It became sort of this place that people would go, ‘Oh, I want to see a South Park thing.’” While they intentionally avoided showcasing South Park in the renovated Casa Bonita, “there is some hidden stuff, especially for a South Park fan,” Parker admitted. The Cure visited Casa Bonita while on tour in 2023: For the renovated Casa Bonita Day of the Dead amusement, the Cure’s song “The Blood” was used without permission. The South Park creators had kept in contact with singer Robert Smith after the band’s frontman famously appeared in the last episode of the show’s fi rst season to defeat Mecha-Streisand (go watch it), and Parker invited the band to Casa Bonita when it was in Denver on tour last June. The musicians showed up in black SUVs, and after he saw Casa Bonita, Smith told Parker, “Wow, this is mental” (he thought they were “just having tacos”). When Parker showed him the Day of the Dead feature, Smith responded with this: “That’s the greatest thing I’ve ever seen.” Parker and Stone scripted the new puppet show and voiced talking skeletons: In one hilarious scene in the documentary, Parker and Stone voice talking skeletons that can’t understand each other because they don’t have lips. They also scripted an entirely new, G-rated puppet show. “It was cool,” Parker said. The diver swimwear will be available in the gift shop: The South Park creators said they’ve made a deal with Jantzen swimwear to bring back the original diver swimsuits from the 1970s. Yes, you will be able to buy them. One audience member described herself as a “child survivor of Casa Bonita”: When she asked the South Park creators how much nostalgia infl uences their writing, Parker said that you just had to watch the show to catch all the ’80s references. But the show has changed over the years, he noted: “Now there are ’90s references and 2000s references.” — SALAZAR
