Call it a Christmas miracle: Casa Bonita finally has an open date.
According to a Thursday announcement, the famous eatertainment venue in Lakewood will reopen in May for the first time since 2020, when it closed at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Guys, I saw a thing in the news about what Coloradans want for Christmas, and besides a new football team and fresh snow, they said they wanted an opening date for Casa Bonita,” said Trey Parker, co-creator of “South Park” and co-owner of Casa Bonita, in a video announcement. “So guess what?!”
“We’re opening in May!” said Parker, co-owner/co-creator of “South Park” Matt Stone and chef Dana Rodriguez said in unison.
Thursday’s announcement is the first fans have heard since November 2021, when Casa Bonita announced it had hired three-time James Beard-nominated Denver chef Dana Rodriguez to lead the kitchen.
It’s been a long time coming, too. The venue closed in March 2020 due to COVID-19 and the “South Park” creators purchased it in September 2021.
The original plan was to reopen by late 2022, but this summer, Stone and Parker said they couldn’t confirm an opening date due to unforeseen challenges with the building’s renovation. In June, for example, Casa Bonita’s iconic fountain was razed amid concerns about its crumbling foundation. According to city permitting documents and construction plans, the renovations are expected to cost about $12 million.
“Have you ever seen ‘Kitchen Nightmares’? It’s the very, very worst one of those you could possibly ever imagine,” Parker told The Post in August. “What we thought would be, ‘Oh this will be cool. We can buy this and open it and it’ll be around again,’ turned into ‘Oh this is going to be what we have to put all our money into and hope that it works.’”
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