Casa Bonita has yet to announce a specific reopening date in May, but fans recently got a hint that progress at the beloved restaurant is moving in a promising direction.
Earlier this week, 9 News captured aerial footage of Lakewood’s pink palace, now owned by “South Park” creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker, showing the venue’s iconic fountain full of water. Fans may recall that the fountain was razed last June amid concerns about its structural foundation.
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The footage is fueling excitement for the reopening that’s been building now for years, especially since Stone and Parker purchased the local landmark in September 2021. The following December, they hired James Beard Award-nominated chef Dana Rodriguez to helm the kitchen.
The anticipation is so great that more than 10,000 people have RSVPed to a hypothetical event on Facebook called “The Great Wait in Line Event” expressing their hopes to eat at Casa Bonita on the first night it’s back open.
Count us among those anxiously awaiting the return of Casa Bonita’s famous cliff divers and sopapillas, and the advent of a potentially new menu. That’s why we’re looking for readers who want to share their favorite memories, photos and keepsakes for an upcoming story.
Whether you’re a Casa Bonita superfan or a former employee, we want to hear from you!
Specifically, we want to see your archival images and hear legendary stories from the times you visited Casa Bonita since it opened in the 1970s. Email cricciardi@denverpost.com with your name, contact information and pictures, and reporter Tiney Ricciardi (that’s me!) will make time to connect on other details.
In a show of good faith, we’ll go first. Here are two images from The Denver Post archive of the Casa Bonita fountain in 1988 and 2001, plus one from that time actor Macaulay Culkin stopped by to show his appreciation.
1988 photo of Casa Bonita restaurant (Denver Post file)
Casa Bonita at 6715 W. Colfax photographed in 2001.
Actor Macaulay Culkin stopped by Casa Bonita on a visit to Denver in 2018. (file)
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