'South Park' Creators Consider Buying Casa Bonita Restaurant

Life is starting to imitate art as “South Park” creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone are considering a plan to purchase Casa Bonita, a Colorado restaurant featured on their series.

What Happened: The Mexican-themed restaurant in Lakewood, Colorado, opened in 1974 but closed in March 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic struck and has yet to reopen.

Casa Bonita’s current owners, Summit Family Restaurants, had been the subject of labor complaints before the pandemic, including a lawsuit charging the company with discrimination, according to a Denver Post article. Several employees have also charged the company with not receiving wages after the restaurant was forced to close last year.

Casa Bonita’s parent company, Summit Family Restaurants, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on April 6. Since May, the restaurant’s staff has been conducting free tours of the cavernous venue’s interior, which features a haunted tunnel called Black Bart’s Cave and a waterfall used for cliff diving exhibitions.

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What's Next: Parker and Stone had visited Casa Bonita during their childhood years and featured the restaurant in a classic 2003 episode and later in the 2017 video game “South Park: The Fractured but Whole.”

“We want to buy Casa Bonita and treat it right,” Parker said in an interview with the Hollywood Reporter. “I feel like it was neglected even before the pandemic.”

Parker added that the duo would team with unidentified Colorado-based restaurateurs to remake Casa Bonita.

“We started talking about the changes we’re going to make — mostly with the food,” Parker continued. “We’re going to make really awesome food. I was already thinking about how I was going to make Black Bart’s Cave a little bigger.”

However, Casa Bonita may not require Parker and Stone’s aid. According to a KDVR.com report, the restaurant could be ready to resume food service later this summer after a boiler system is repaired and health and fire inspections are conducted.

“South Park” debuted in 1997 on Comedy Central, a division of ViacomCBS VIAC.

Photo: Comedy Central.