Well, we finally made it to the updated and vastly improved Casa Bonita! Thank you Trey Parker and Matt Stone for giving so much love, and more critically, millions and millions of dollars to make it just right, like going through more than twenty shades to get that perfect pink!
Growing up in the Denver Metro, Casa Bonita was an important part of our childhoods. It was all over the television, with exciting commercials (!), and the first field trip I ever remember taking, when we studied Mexico, probably in second grade. Friends worked here in high school, rolling silverware, bussing tables, and roaming in nurse shoes. Greg and I, in our typical nerdy fashion, spent our fifth anniversary here, for the sheer joy of it, because, aside from the beans and sopaipillas (for which you raised a yellow flag), the food was downright terrible.
Oh, how things have changed! First off, there is a massive line to get in these days, and that is with an 11:15 reservation for lunch on a Friday! But will ya looky there. Now, the food is downright delicious, and there is plenty of it, too. There are still flags on the table (upper right hand corner), and you bet your bottom dollar we raised ours to get our bowl of hot-from-the-fryer sopaipillas. They are as delicious as I remembered.
In updating and bringing the woefully constructed Casa Bonita of yore up to code (some legit horror stories of fryer oil poured directly down the drain and pools of water next to electrical panels – yikes!), they absolutely retained the magical childhood feeling of the place. It remains big and small at the same time, with a wonderful air of whimsy.
Black Bart’s Cave seems bigger and more windy, and, of course there’s an Evil Knievel lunch box amongst his treasures!
There’s also live music, with a mariachi band and this magnificently talented Spanish guitarist just going and going. Beautiful!
Last but not least, the cliff divers, which are definitely better than ever!! Hooray and huzzah for memories and creating new ones for the generations to come.
