You wanna come on right down to the place, precisely? If the reply is “unincorporated Park County, Colorado,” an hour or two outdoors of Denver, nice information: Two guys from round there have been making a TV present about it for 26 years and counting.
Relatedly: Casa Bonita is again, kind of. For now, it’s in a restricted soft-open interval that provides tickets (not reservations) by an electronic mail checklist, by way of the web site. Folks, particularly Denverites and media shops, appear to be very enthusiastic about it, regardless of (or maybe due to) each facet of the continuing saga of this restaurant’s reopening having been over-the-top and parodical, not not like that present I simply talked about.
For these simply tuning in, Denver’s Casa Bonita is “the Disneyland of Mexican eating places,” a childhood treasure adored for its leisure novelties (cliff divers, a cave to wander round in) and fewer so its abysmal meals. Previously a part of a small chain and having been handed round in possession for many years, Casa Bonita was, like many eating places, threatened with everlasting closure earlier within the COVID pandemic.
In summer time 2021, nevertheless, assist arrived when Trey Parker and Matt Stone purchased the restaurant. Their garishly animated reactionary sitcom farce South Park has been, at numerous factors over its future, racist, sexist, transphobic, homophobic, classist, glib about dependancy, dismissive of local weather change, deeply centrist, and kinda humorous. The present was additionally just lately chosen by Farhad Manjoo, in a 17-part New York Instances opinion part survey, because the “one piece of tradition that greatest captures the nation.” So even in the event you don’t suppose it’s superb, in any sense, there’s no less than a compelling argument that it’s related.
Anyway, one Season 7 episode is about how determined a personality is to go to Casa Bonita. This created some nationwide consciousness of what had previously been a Colorado curiosity. So when Parker and Stone purchased the restaurant, the overall response was principally, certain, is smart. In a approach, the acquisition was a joke (cartoon guys purchase restaurant?) a few joke they made (“Casa Bonita,” South Park Season 7, Episode 11) a few restaurant that’s, truthfully, type of itself a joke (in that it’s enjoyable as a result of it’s ludicrous). In a South Park-typical gesture, each twist on this story enhances the absurdity of those earlier than it, even when Parker and Stone are honest about it.
The fervor spurred by the drawn-out and arguably chaotic reopening makes the absurdity clear. In Might, Parker and Stone began a publicity blitz of interviews and previews on the At present present and within the New York Instances. That month, and not using a onerous opening date introduced, individuals started touring to Lakewood, Colorado, simply in case perhaps once they acquired there, Casa Bonita could be open. (It wasn’t.) Some man parked himself in entrance of Casa Bonita over Memorial Day weekend, hoping to be the primary particular person to get in. A deliberate Fb occasion, The Nice Wait in Line Occasion to Eat the First Night time at Casa Bonita Opening Night time, attracted greater than 15,000 responses. The occasion’s dialogue is heavy with meme posts about how lengthy it’s taking to completely reopen the restaurant, principally from occasion instigator Jesse Vogel. “It may develop into this large sport show-type factor. … It may even be become an enormous South Park episode,” he instructed Denver publication Westword, maybe understanding the irony that desperation to go to Casa Bonita is already the subject of the South Park episode that made non-Coloradans conscious this place even existed, a type of theater of the ridiculous spilling out into actual life.
Except for nostalgia and the sheen of a pair of Gen X buyers who misplaced an Oscar to Phil Collins, it’s not clear what individuals look forward to finding once they get to Casa Bonita. The most important factors of curiosity are a brand new menu from James Beard-nominated chef Dana Rodriguez, new bars, an expanded ready space, and a few “narrative polish” in order that the points of interest “make precise sense.” In any other case, a lot of the restoration work has centered on structural or sanitation fixes, with the oft-stated purpose being to go away Casa Bonita largely because it was within the fond recollections of Coloradans, however improved. For instance, it took 27 tries to match the unique pink exterior paint job. Past that, a primary takeaway from the latest press round Casa Bonita has been how a lot cash Parker and Stone have spent on renovating and reopening the restaurant, as a result of they only need it to be actually, actually good. Per the Instances, the value tag has run over $40 million, an quantity that’s so absurd to spend on a roadside attraction that it’s primarily a joke.
Which leads me to the lingering query in all of this, two years in: Why would two guys who’re most likely already practically billionaires spend this sort of cash in a notoriously unforgiving business they don’t have any expertise in? Absolutely not only for funsies?
I beforehand theorized that perhaps this funding was an try to develop the South Park IP in an period the place franchises are anticipated to be bankable in perpetuity. Whereas solely a bit of South Park theming has been reported at Casa Bonita to this point, proudly owning experiential merchandise nonetheless broadens their footprint general. (They profess, as native Coloradans, to simply actually love this restaurant, and have figured into its advertising post-purchase.) A web based merch retailer is promoting Casa Bonita dishware, salsa, and a reproduction of the tabletop flag diners increase to point they’d like a serving of sopapillas ($19.95, delivery not included). Parker and Stone may financial institution on making $39.99 per grownup and $24.99 per child, which incorporates meals.
A lot of that can, in fact, go to the prices of operating a restaurant. Administration introduced in June that servers and bartenders could be paid $30 an hour and tipping eradicated, a fraught mannequin that’s nonetheless usually seen as corrective to the racist and inequitable observe of gratuity. Extra just lately, the Denver Submit reported that workers has introduced Parker and Stone with calls for to revert to a $14.27 hourly wage with suggestions, together with well being care and higher communication. In accordance with the Submit, the workers claims that Casa Bonita’s prolonged preview interval hasn’t left them with sufficient scheduled time to earn a dwelling wage even at $30 an hour, and there’s no clear plan for a full reopening.
If it manages to ever totally open, Casa Bonita would theoretically be a part of a portfolio that features a $500 million cartoon that produces roughly two hours of recent content material per yr, a $900 million streaming deal, and a $750 million Broadway present that continues to make a few million {dollars} every week. (That’s simply on Broadway; it’s additionally established in different cities.) In case you’re including this all up, odds are good that Ebook of Mormon ticket gross sales alone would recoup the price of shopping for and reopening Casa Bonita inside a yr. Parker and Stone might not, strictly talking, must make their $40 million again. (It’s additionally doable that shedding cash on it may gain advantage them, taxwise.) That stated, accounting on this scale is vastly extra advanced than that, even leaving apart that the small print of the Casa Bonita possession stake are unknown to me.
On South Park this previous season, its twenty sixth, a March episode featured two fourth graders, Cartman and Kenny, shopping for and reworking a sizzling canine stand Cartman and his mom had been dwelling in, based mostly on the precise Coney Island Boardwalk in Bailey, Colorado, which Stone and Parker thought of shopping for final summer time. A 3rd child named Butters had financed the operation, and he grew more and more offended as Cartman and Kenny screwed round, rising DikinBaus Scorching Canines into an elaborate amusements wonderland. (The stand’s title appears like a toddler saying “dick and balls,” a effectively this present likes to drink from.) When DikinBaus turned out to be successful, Butters offered it, leaving Cartman and Kenny ejected from the new canine stand enterprise.
There was hypothesis that this episode was Stone and Parker processing their expertise pouring cash into Casa Bonita. If that’s the case, it’s onerous to neatly map actual life onto the present: Would they be Cartman and Kenny, with desires of infantile grandeur however zero work ethic? Or have been they Butters, financing the entire thing, and laboring desperately to remain afloat? Studying South Park as parable may be difficult, but when Stone and Parker finally find yourself promoting Casa Bonita for greater than $40 million, effectively, there it was.
And but, finally, these dudes principally do no matter they really feel like — who is aware of what the tip sport is for them right here? Their signature present continues to be laced with a libertarian ethos, preaching that nice concepts left alone to flourish merely handle to succeed on advantage. It’s most likely an excessive amount of to hope that they’re dumping tens of hundreds of thousands of {dollars} into Casa Bonita or paying $30 an hour for sheer altruism. If that’s the case, they’re most likely the one libertarians to essentially imply it; that might be the largest shock South Park has managed to drag off in 20 years, additional extending the joke.
