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[glitching]
There's a feast!
There's a festival!
*There's a feastival
*At Casa Bonita!
[man VO] Why do so many kids like Casa Bonita?
It's the rides!
Casa Bonita is the only place of its kind in the world.
It's a fantastic Mexican village,
alive with fun and excitement.
Goodness gracias!
*There's a feastival
*At Casa Bonita
[parrot] Goodness gracias!
Psyched.
Fuckin' psyched.
I almost bailed about half an hour ago,
and then I rallied.
Let's go eat some sopapillas.
*mellow curious music
We're back, honey!
[Matt] It's that-- it's that...
-that smell. -[woman] It's horrible.
That Casa Bonita smell.
[woman, laughing] Ew!
Chlorine and beans! [laughs]
Everyone that grew up in this area of Colorado knew
Casa Bonita -- everybody. But also, people even from,
like, Nebraska and Kansas know about Casa Bonita.
You know, we don't have Disneyland.
[Trey VO] People call Casa Bonita
"the Mexican restaurant Disneyland."
You walk in, and it's this...
Mexican village at night, lost in time to the '70s.
It was this magical town that you,
as a kid, could run around and kind of explore,
and see what was in it.
[Matt] Ooh, there's spiders!
Oooh, look at that.
[kids chanting]
[Trey VO] There are cliff divers,
and then there's, you know, caves to explore...
***
You know, it just seems to keep going forever.
And then, there's things that don't quite make sense,
like a gorilla running around... [chuckles]
and a sheriff that might arrest you.
It made it feel like a dream.
[laughter]
It was absolutely my favorite thing to do as a kid.
Yeah.
Because it was just-- part of it was just, like,
it was always-- when I was a kid,
it was a dream that one day I could own Casa Bonita,
or, like...
Actually, this would have been-- I was telling Toby--
[Matt] You probably could own Casa Bonita.
Yeah, I-- I...
Lemme tell you: your dreams can come true.
[Trey, laughing] I was just gonna say that...
[dramatic whoosh]
[female reporter VO] Fans of Casa Bonita have been missing
this iconic restaurant for more than a year.
It's been closed since the beginning of
the COVID-19 pandemic.
Earlier this month, the restaurant's parent company
filed for bankruptcy.
Court documents show Casa Bonita faces
4.4 million dollars in debt.
[male reporter VO] Rumors just began swirling that it
might never reopen again.
*upbeat Latin music
[dramatic whoosh]
*sparse curious music
[woman VO] There's a group of people in Denver trying to save
Casa Bonita, 'cause we just don't want it to go away.
[male reporter VO] When it comes to Casa Bonita,
passions for keeping the Lakewood staple open are strong.
I was actually very sad that it was closed down;
I was like, "No, I need to go there with
my family and my friends."
Jeff Todd on the story in Lakewood tonight.
Jeff?
Jim, this is how many people love this place.
The effort is to try and get the restaurant open at some point
this summer.
[woman VO] Casa Bonita's such a big, integral part
of Colorado tradition
that it would be really sad to see all of the tradition gone.
[female reporter VO] Now, we haven't actually confirmed
this, but...
Casa Bonita may get some new owners,
and you wouldn't believe who is rumored to be interested.
***
[Trey] How do we get the bike parade cancelled?
How do you get anything cancelled?!
You bitch about it being insensitive!
[laughter]
Hey, yeah!
We can go to the mayor and-- and force her to cancel it!
What's offensive about a bike parade?
"What's offensive about a bike parade?"
Kyle! You small-minded piece of shit!
We should cancel you just for saying that!
[Matt] Oh, I get it!
[laughter]
You didn't tell me there was Tegridy here, Mayor!
[Trey VO] I had heard that Casa Bonita's closing down forever.
I mean, that would really bum me out.
"You know, someone should do something about that."
At first, it was really just a "Hey,
there might be this group trying to buy it,
and, oh..."
You know, I was just immediately with Matt like,
"Oh, yeah, dude, we gotta get in on that!
Like, let's do it!"
And that slowly became "Okay, they're all out."
And so the kid in me was just like,
"Hey, you wanna buy Disneyland?" [laughing] You know what I mean?
It was just like, "I could do that?!"
*mellow curious music
[laughs]
Ohhh!
[Trey] Careful!
[Matt] My kids would fucking love this place.
How much would your kids just love this?
[Trey] Oh, yeah!
For a kid, it's just, like, endless.
You know, it seems endless.
It's pretty fucking big!
[Matt VO] Trey's into that kind of stuff more than I am.
But now, I'm like, "This is cool,
and this can be super cool and
retain all of that vintage vibe,
but, like, the better version of it."
[Matt] And how many people go through a day,
do you think, on a busy day?
5,000 people come in and out a day.
Yeah, definitely.
So nice to meet you, and I'm sure we'll speak some time soon.
Trey and I were up all night feverishly negotiating.
We're at the Governor's Mansion; we're about to walk in!
Everyone's gonna learn right now;
we're about to drop it.
We're gonna tell the governor, like,
live on the-- like, he won't even know.
[Gov. Polis VO] Now, on the elephant in the room -- 'cause
this has been a big, uh-- big deal in Colorado,
as you know.
We have taken our kids to Casa Bonita,
I grew up going there...
[Matt laughs]
Coloradans would love any details about,
you know, what's going on with our iconic institution and...
We've come to, uh...
an agreement with the owner, and we bought it.
Congratulations!
[cheers and applause]
Oh my gosh, congratulations!
That's awesome!
*breaking news music
[female reporter VO] Breaking news this morning:
the creators of the popular cartoon South Park say they've
reached an agreement to purchase Casa Bonita.
[male reporter VO] Trey Parker and Matt Stone are buying it for
$3.1 million.
[female reporter VO] The iconic Mexican restaurant is featured
in a well-known season seven episode of the show.
Well, it appears that Eric here is responsible for Butters
missing because he wanted to go to Casa Bonita!
What?
Eric, the South Park Police are already on their way to here to
have a little talk with you!
But... Stand back!
Cartman, stop it.
I...am going...to Casa Bonita!
[sirens] It's too late, fat ass.
They'll be here in less than a minute.
[grunting]
No! Ahh!
[Cartman] Less than a minute! Less than a minute!
[man] If, like, the younger self of you could have known that you
guys would be owners of Casa Bonita...
Oh...
It's the greatest achievement of all time.
Yeah, [chuckling] I mean, I don't know what could be better
-- like, owning the Broncos, maybe?
Thank you!
[grunts] Okay. Gotta get to Black Bart's Cave!
[grunting] Excuse me! Excuse me!
Coming through! Black Bart's Cave!
Oh, scary!
Look, a skeleton!
Oh, man, I'm so scared!
Oh, cliff divers!
C'mon, dive, asshole!
Oh, awesome!
[panting] Ooh, puppet show!
Ahh!
Cartman! Whaa!
[grunting and panting]
All right, kid, end of the line!
Yay!
Jesus Christ!
[coughing and sputtering]
Well, kid, you made an entire town panic,
you lost all your friends, and now,
you're going to juvenile hall for a week!
[scoffs] Was it worth it?
Totally.
*upbeat Latin music
[male reporter VO] Casa Bonita's gonna be
[clapping] back in business!
But hopefully, they don't ruin the ambience of the place
because, you know...
Yeah. That's what made it special.
***
[din of chatter]
[woman] I think we're all sort of worried that is it
gonna be...
our Casa Bonita?
Even if it changes, like, stuff has to change.
I hope it looks exactly the same.
[laughs]
I hope they don't change anything.
[man] I think it would be cool to see the marriage of old with
a little bit of the South Park flair, I hope.
And maybe make the arcade area bigger.
I can't wait to see what they do with it.
I will definitely be there.
I think the one thing that probably bothered me the most:
your food just slides out from the middle of nowhere through
this little hole.
It is very important that the food comes out of
the little hole.
And if it does not come out of the little hole,
we decided that you're fired.
[female reporter VO] Dennis says, "Just don't change the
food; it's all part of the experience."
I don't know...
This is gonna be a big money sink,
and it's probably the one thing that the South Park guys do
that's gonna be the hill they die on;
this thing is not gonna be a success.
[man] Okay! Well, thank you very much!
[Matt VO] We're starting to, like,
feel the pressure of what Denver thinks about it.
Everybody remembers going to Casa Bonita,
and when you grew up in Colorado,
you just remember how awesome it was.
*upbeat exciting music
*We wanna walk on down to Casa Bonita*
*Gonna have a holiday...
The first time I went to Casa Bonita was the opening day in
1974.
I'd just had my first baby.
*Casa Bonita
*The fun family restaurant...*
[laughing] And so, picked the baby up,
and the baby has to see Casa Bonita.
We can't even eat we're so excited.
People went nuts; [chuckling] they loved it!
They absolutely loved it.
They'd never seen anything like that,
and so the crowds were insane.
[Patricia VO] We were just like, "Who made this?!"
Yeah. "Who thought of this?!"
*cool swinging music
[Bill VO] I decided to design a little restaurant called
Casa Bonita.
We moved to Denver in about '73...
to a closed 50,000-square-foot Joslins Department Store.
People would come to me and say, "Son,
you made a bad mistake." [man laughs]
[chuckling] "Nobody goes to that shopping center."
Every single person from Denver said,
"Why are you doing this?!
This is not gonna work!
Nobody's gonna come here!"
[Paul L VO] When we finished building the tower,
then the question came up: "What color is it gonna be?"
And you can imagine hearing people exclaim:
"Pink?!"
We painted that tower "dusty pink" --
was the name of the color.
It was different all right!
[Paul V VO] As we were building these atmospheres,
we became more and more fascinated with Mexico and
made trips to several parts of it.
*upbeat curious music
It took a long time.
[Paul L VO] And then, when we decided to build all the
stalactites and stalagmites, that was a really big challenge.
[Frances VO] It just kept taking longer,
'cause Phil's a perfectionist.
And finally, the banker said, "I'm flying up next weekend,
and I expect to eat food."
[laughs]
*upbeat Latin music
We opened up with such a bang.
There would be lines all the way down to the end of the
shopping center.
[Bill VO] Casa became the highest-volume Mexican
restaurant of their day.
In fact, Casa Bonita of Denver still is the highest-volume
Mexican restaurant in the world.
It's the most visited attraction in the state of Colorado.
[Don VO] But 1982,
Mr. Waugh sold it to a company in England called Unigate.
*ominous somber music
[Bill VO] It was a mistake.
The biggest mistake that we ever made was selling the
company.
When the ink dried on that contract,
he and I were on the concord,
flying back to Britain to see if they wanted to change
their minds.
After we got over the shock of it...
We never did get over the shock of it.
[Don VO] The guys who bought it cut back on the maintenance they
were doing on the restaurant.
Things began to go downhill.
***
And it took a few decades before it got to that point,
but by the early 2000s, you know,
you'd look at the floor and it's all kinda trashed.
[Dan VO] I remember I went in, and I said,
"There's duct tape.
What's up with that?"
And they're like, "They don't give us some money to fix it."
I mean, technically, I think they probably should have been
shut down for the working conditions.
There was tripping hazards, carpet would peel up.
I mean, the cave smelled like urine.
It was a hole by the time I worked there.
It became a running joke of a place that, like,
should be awesome but is weird and this gross,
rundown place.
On the highest level -- the corporate level --
they didn't care; it wasn't being loved.
[JB VO] I was so disturbed by what I saw one night I wrote a
letter to the corporate office, and I asked,
"Is there any way I can have my name removed from the
honor roll?"
'Cause I no longer wanted to be associated with it.
My name's Scott Shoemaker, I'm the...
owners' rep, construction manager for Matt and Trey.
We are doing our first walkthrough of Casa Bonita
to see what going on inside.
*mellow curious music
50 percent of the smell in this place is just this carpet;
it has to be.
Such a labyrinth.
You can walk through and you think you're somewhere and
you're somewhere different.
It's such a big facility; I think it's 52,000 square feet.
Crazy, right?
All right, should we try to make our way to the kitchen?
As it is now, I'm more concerned about back of house,
when you get into all the systems.
This is a big sand filter, and I think these are a couple of...
boilers.
Hey, problem solved; there's the diagram,
we're good!
It's really just trying to understand the guts of this.
So here's where the divers diver in.
[woman] And then this ladder goes all the way to the top of
the waterfall. [Scott] Yup.
[woman] But, yeah, this is where they come out.
[Scott] They have four-- three feet to get through here?
[woman] Something like that.
I think it's a little bit harder coming through when we're in
costume versus the dive shows.
Like, I would be going in as Bertha,
wearing pretty much this, trying to get through all that.
Wow!
Yeah, and it's kind of a tight squeeze in there,
so it's a little [laughing] claustrophobic.
So the divers dive off...
underwater, they swim through here with all these mechanical
pipes, trying not to get their suit hooked on them...
[Rochelle VO] Yeah.
[Scott VO] They immediately step into here,
and there's hundreds of amps of power while your feet are wet on
this concrete floor directly to your left right here.
And then, to clean up, they shower in this luxury shower
right here. [Rochelle] Mm-hm.
Yeah.
[man] Wow. [Rochelle laughs]
It's the single most dangerous thing I've ever seen in my
whole life.
[Scott] Yeah, we should call it the Death Room.
[Rochelle laughs]
There's a lot of deferred maintenance in here,
so I think some of the systems we'll see,
we're like, "That's how that works?
Really? For...
50 years, it's been working like that?"
*curious music
[buzzing]
What's that buzzing noise?
It's this electrical thing back here.
[loud buzzing]
[laughter]
[buzzing continues]
Oh, whoa.
***
Wow, look at this.
[Scott, laughing] Right! Right, yeah.
I know that they wanna open the place up in six to nine months,
and then after I stopped laughing...
I was like, "Okay, well, we'll see what we can do."
[laughs]
We get all of our experts in here -- subcontractors,
consultants -- pulling this stuff down to really get the
extent of what's wrong.
[man VO] What do you hope to see in the new Casa Bonita?
Just reflections back to the original,
better food...
The food was not great for me.
The food is...
really horrible.
I know that they have tacos and sopapillas,
and they're fire!
No, I'm kidding. The food sucks.
The food?!
It's like that frozen food!
Everyone in Colorado would love to take their kids to
Casa Bonita if the food wasn't so fucking gross.
We sort of put out feelers, and this name kept coming up.
This name, just "Loca."
That's all we kept hearing was "Loca."
*upbeat Latin music
[Dana VO] I'm Dana Rodriguez, chef and owner of Work & Class,
Super Mega Bien, Cantina Loca.
And one day, I blew up, and I was like,
"Well, fuck you fuckin' fuck!"
He say, "You're fuckin' loco!"
And I say, "No, it's fuckin' 'loca.'"
Just so you know!
When I meet Trey the first time, he was eating the green chili.
I keep looking at him, just, like,
staring at him to see his reaction,
and he's very quiet, he's very...
you know, he was eating, and I'm like,
"Do you like it or you didn't like it?!"
[Trey VO] I was just like, "Oh, she's awesome.
The food is amazing."
I just felt in my gut, I'm like, "This is the right person."
Cheers!
Thank you so much!
[female reporter VO] Part of the new beginning for Casa Bonita:
today, we learned the new owners have hired a new executive chef.
[male reporter VO] Dana Rodriguez is a three-time
James Beard Award nominee.
She says the idea is to change nothing and improve everything.
*upbeat Latin music
*band playing festive music*
[Dana VO] We're here in Oaxaca.
Oaxaca is South Mexico, and it's a beautiful town.
I want Trey to come over here and understand,
you know, like, what we do here --
learning our food, drinks, and culture.
*bouncing Latin music
[Trey VO] For me, it was kind of like the same as
The Book of Mormon.
I was like, "I need to just go to Uganda,"
so I just planned a trip and went there.
And, um...
You know, and it's not like I'm trying-- it was like,
"No, I need this to be...
authentically Ugandan," [laughing] you know,
or anything like that, 'cause it's obviously not,
and it's not like we're trying to make Casa Bonita
authentically Mexico.
It's just like, you know, you go and you get ideas.
[Dana] Aw! [chuckles]
And I was like, "Well, I hope so, honey."
[laughter]
*mellow curious music
[Scott] We're really trying to get everything opened up.
It's such a complex space that you gotta drop the ceiling tiles
to see what's above the ceiling.
[tools whirring and buzzing]
What is this stuff?
Is this stuff oozing out of the crack?
It's like a foam!
[Scott VO] It's an amazing space.
It's just really hard to retrofit a building of 30 years
of deferred maintenance.
When this was all installed, for the most part,
it was done in, what, the '70s?
[man] '73?
Rules were a lot different then.
Back in those days, it wasn't illegal,
but today, it is illegal.
If you look at that, that pipe right there is busted
right there.
This whole entire building's not done.
It's all gonna have to be done.
There's 11 or 12 major HVAC units on the roof.
I don't think any of 'em are really salvageable.
Wall to wall flex duct.
How they crammed all that in there...
So, yeah, this is the main kitchen,
and our opinion is pretty much this entire floor...
is gonna have to go away.
What a job.
I-- I don't know how many people got hurt in here,
but I could imagine that this is a problem where the rocks are
really right under your dive platform.
You peek your head over the rock and there's live 120-volt
electrical sitting right there, literally about in contact with
the splash zone.
Very, very surprising.
So here's the water level right here,
and there's lightbulbs -- high-voltage lightbulbs --
right here.
Yeah, so if you're not hitting your head on the rock,
you're probably getting electrocuted.
There's a lot of dead pigeons on the roof here,
and there's a hawk that lives up there on top of that statue or
around it, and it just kills 'em,
and just drops 'em everywhere.
[hawk screeches]
Over here is another awesome pigeon graveyard.
[man] Oh, yeah.
***
So things like this, with all this sort of pigeon shit down
here, we've gotta get that cleaned up.
This is the kitchen right below.
We've got a meeting with Trey when he's back from Mexico to
sort of give him the bad news.
This thing is way too expensive.
With the current budget, we can't do all this work.
*Acapulco
*Sleeping in the bay...
It was my dad that brought up the movie Fun in Acapulco
with Elvis.
I was like, "There was an Acapulco one?!"
He was like, "Yeah, and they're, like,
diving off the cliffs and stuff!"
And I was like, "What?!"
*dramatic music
And then, the music in that, I was just like,
"Oh my God, this perfect!"
*Viva, viva
*El
*Amor
***
*I like to drink wine
*And money is fine
*I like the girls even more*
*Viva el vino
*Viva el dinero
*Casa Bonita mi amor
[laughter]
[laughs]
But I'm trying to do, like, lines that are half English and
half Spanish, so it's-- so it's...
[singing] *Pass me mi bebita*
[laughter]
*At Casa Bonita
*Casa Bonita mi amor
[laughs]
***
*Mexico
*Mexico...
This, to me, is Casa Bonita.
*We live it up and love it up, amigo*
*Life begins when you're in Mexico*
*You never order... [Dana] Oh, that's cool.
[Dana] Yup.
You're so happy with that thing!
***
*I aim to kiss a lovely señorita*
*Oh, do the samba
*La bamba
***
[man speaks Spanish]
*Life begins
*When you're in
*Mexico
*tense music
[Victor over radio] This is Victor.
[Scott] Uh, we've got one of our owners showing up on site here,
so be on the lookout, let me know when they get here,
please.
[Victor over radio] They're on their way;
they just got out the vehicle and they're headed into the
building right now as we speak.
[Scott] Well, I think we were just gonna have you, uh,
just sort of start at the front.
Tell me, while we're here, tell me about the ceiling.
So...
[Scott] The HVAC in this place is-- is trashed.
It-- it's 20 years past its useful life.
And so just the HVAC, we're looking at, like,
four million bucks?
Four million for HVAC;
um, to do electrical in this place,
bring it up to code, two million;
2.3 in plumbing;
you know, doing a new kitchen,
that's probably in the two range;
the pool and the front fountain, just to put new equipment in and
sort of clean it up is three quarters of a million dollars.
So, looking at HVAC stuff...
[Matt] Uh-huh.
This is just an example of what every single air duct looks like
here. [Matt laughs]
[Trey] Um... [chuckling] so...
Matt and I would laugh like that no matter what,
even if it was like, "I just got back from my cancer
screening..." [laughing] Right, right!
[both laugh]
[Matt laughs]
[Trey] That's what the inside of all 10 or 11 of the air handling
units look like.
[Matt] Ooh, Jesus.
[Scott] That's what people have been breathing in here for 20
years, probably, yeah.
[Matt] Wow, fuck, look at that.
That's so gross.
We got in there, and it was "We're gonna make this
better and this better and this better and this better,"
and it's like, "Well, first of all,
that's gonna kill people, that's gonna kill people,
that's gonna kill people."
This beam is disconnected; it had been rotted to the point
where it had flaked off, not supporting anything.
There was going to be catastrophic failure.
Just picture this place filled with kids as the place
collapses.
It wasn't a matter of if, it was a matter of when.
So there was a leak, so they hung a bucket with a string,
they put a garden hose on it, and they wired the garden hose
over a sink, and that's their leak mitigation:
a bucket with a garden hose over the sink.
This is what everything looks like behind everything in the
kitchen.
And, by the way, that's what all the soda was running through
when they closed a year and a half ago.
Pull this out, and all the wood behind it...
It's all just rotted, because it's been there for years.
Are you getting my face right now?
[laughing] Yeah. Get-- get my face.
[laughter]
Get my face.
I'm just gonna do long blinks.
[Scott] Yeah.
[Trey VO] What started as just, like,
"Okay, we're gonna have to just do a lot of structural work
first" has turned into millions and millions of dollars,
just to make the place...
livable,
before we can put one penny into making it cool again.
[Scott] And when you get over to where the kitchen zone is here,
you can see there was a fire over here that we found behind
the wall.
[Trey] The pool is so fucked.
So, I don't know if you can see that...
[Matt laughs]
[Scott] You can see the cracks down there,
and see how those cracks are wet?
[Trey] Yeah.
[Scott] That's all groundwater seeping in.
[Matt] Wow.
[laughter]
All right. [Matt] All right.
All right.
[Matt] I'll call you later, okay?
Okay. [Matt] Thanks. All right, bye.
I better go start making some new TV shows.
[laughs]
[Scott] We originally thought the budget would be around
six and a half million dollars.
But with this much infrastructure replacement,
it's way bigger than we thought.
We started adding it all up, we're like,
"What's the very least we can spend?"
And at this point, we're looking at over $20 million.
Well, why don't you and I just go talk?
[Scott] Yup. 'Kay.
We can go in the office.
[Scott] We've inherited this building that is fucked.
[Trey] Yeah.
[Scott] Like, pipes are clogged and drained and piped into the
wrong place.
It's stuff people can't see.
[Matt VO] When we started tearing out the walls,
we realized the whole thing needed to be replaced --
basically every system.
It's like...
five times more money than we thought we were gonna have to
put in.
[man] Was there an inspection, like,
when you bought the place?
Like, did you, like...?
No, 'cause we bought it out of bankruptcy,
and it was kind of an as-is thing,
so we knew we were gonna-- we knew we were gonna inherit
something that was fucked up, but we didn't know it was near
that fucked up, you know?
And honestly, the landlord kinda should have said something about
that stuff, you know what I mean?
The problem is that, at this point,
I'm like,
"If we can't do it, I honestly don't know who can."
[man] So is it, like, a possibility that it just...
never opens, it just, like...
Yeah. [man] It's...
yeah.
It is.
As ridiculous as it sounds, it's better for us to take a
10-million-dollar loss than to keep going,
'cause that's how crazy expensive we found out it was
gonna actually be.
The smart thing to do here is to get out.
[female reporter VO] Casa Bonita is working on its comeback after
the creators of South Park bought it out of
bankruptcy court.
I'm really looking forward to whatever Trey and Matt
have planned.
Everyone's super excited, um,
the community is buzzing about it.
Employees are being asked -- and paid -- to do other work around
the community until those doors open again.
[Luis VO] They're all excited to go back to Casa Bonita;
we all are.
We wanna see what happened to our restaurant and what the
future brings to it.
We like it say it's our restaurant 'cause it's our
family, and that's one big thing that we're grateful for:
that they've let us stay together throughout this whole
experience.
[Trey VO] It's starting to look like it might not happen,
which makes it all the worse when people are like,
"Oh, you guys are great, thank you for doing that!"
And we're literally gonna have to go,
"Yeah, you know what? Never mind, we can't."
*melancholy curious music
[woman VO] What's the latest?
When can we go back to see what you guys have done with the
place?
Have you ever seen Kitchen Nightmares?
[laughs]
So imagine the very, very, very worst one of those you could
possibly ever imagine.
Any savvy businessperson would say,
"Get out now!"
You know? [laughs]
But I'm not savvy.
And it was just like, "That's not the point."
It's trying to save something; it was trying to
restore something and bring it back.
And also, it starts from a personal place;
I was like, "This was my childhood," right?
And I want it for my daughter, I want it for her grandkids,
I want it for my friends' kids.
Matt's always been the money guy in our partnership.
I was like, "So, what are we gonna do?"
And Matt said kind like, "I don't know."
I was like, "Oh, you don't know!
So that means there's a chance!"
We hired a few extra people who knew stuff about restaurants,
and we started doing, like, "Okay,
well, this is how much we think the restaurant could make."
If we do it right, there is a viable business there,
so at least it was like, "Oh, okay.
Like, this isn't just a...
for-sure money loser."
I saw in Matt that he's like, oh, he might--
he might say we can still do it,
[laughing] you know what I mean?
And then...
and then, we decided, you know, let's go forward.
It's really dumb; we should...
[Matt laughs] We should bail.
We absolutely should bail and stop spending money,
but we're just committed now, so...
Yeah, we just have to do it now, so...
Yeah. [laughs]
[Trey VO] So we're in; we're in deep.
[laughs]
With all the money in the world, what I would do is do some
forced perspective, more buildings up there,
you know, so you make these look like they're two and three
stories that have a bit of a forced-perspective look to it.
Let's look!
This part of the door could be open...
[Trey] Yeah.
And have a little bit of story or...
Hey, guys! Welcome to Casa Bonita!
[laughter]
I reckon you're pretty hungry!
And we can't afford to build that,
so let's just get a dude to do that.
[laughing] Right, right, right.
[laughter]
Well, tarnation!
I got me some good tacos!
[laughter]
I could use an enchilada, partner!
[mimics gunshot]
But at this point, they also have a host saying--
Tarnation!
You're almost there, partner! [laughs]
But they've got a host saying--
Tarnation!
You're almost there, partner!
Tarnation!
Howdy, partners!
Welcome to Casa Bonita!
What was that up there? Do we know?
That was nothing.
[Trey] That is definitely tarnation.
[Scott] That's a tarnation.
I mean, a triple tarnation.
[laughter]
Tar-- tar-- tarnation!
[laughs]
Is that? That is that?
Okay.
Sopapillas!
Can I get some sopapillas, please?!
[Trey] I had an idea that that table never gets sold,
and that's a photo opp.
That table's not for sale.
Instead of taking out tables to make more exclusive spaces,
I love taking out tables to make more places that kids can run
around.
[Scott] Mm! You know what I mean?
Welcome to the arcade, buckaroo!
There's no cussin' in here!
[laughter]
Tarnation!
Looks like you won a prize!
What I wanted to do in here -- at one end or the other or both
-- was a shooting gallery.
Mm!
I know that'll be pricey, but...
I'll pay for the shooting gallery, I guess.
I guess I'm paying for everything, never mind.
[laughs]
[female reporter VO] As we wait to see the iconic restaurant
reopen, documents and photos reveal some substantial
renovation plans.
And, man, are they costly.
*Here's to bein' free
*Here's to bein' free, la la la la la la la*
*Zorro's back
*Here's to flying high, la la la la la la la*
*Zorro's back... 48 inches tall.
I'm gonna put this in terms of South Park 'cause we do this all
the time; that's almost too pretty.
If they immediately walk in and everything's completely
different, they're like, "You liars..."
[laughter] "You changed everything."
Everything.
"Everything's different."
And the food is good now, you stupid bitches!
[laughter]
*Here's to being free, la la la la la la la*
*Zorro's back
*Here's to flying high, la la la la la la la...*
Talking about fancying up tables,
or we could just go back to old school.
I think that's kind of a cool idea;
the other one looks like a old, kitschy restaurant,
you know, but I think we should-- I like that idea.
***
[man] Our old building, everyone,
had about three- or four-thousand-foot of this
flex pipe.
[laughter]
[Trey VO] Funny; you know, the fountain hadn't worked in years,
and...
we brought out the best people to go,
"How can you fix this fountain?" And they're like, "You can't."
So we dig up the fountain and, of course,
helicopters caught it and they're like,
[gasps] "They're taking away the fountain!
They're taking away the fountain!"
[male reporter VO] Out at Casa Bonita in Lakewood,
something is missing, though.
Copter 4 was over the restaurant today,
and right now, there is no fountain!
Ripping that down, it literally upset quite a few people.
We had the news out here, we had people coming from all over the
place to just kinda...
give us the Riot Act for what we were doing.
We're gonna have a fountain outside in front of Casa Bonita,
but it's just like...
the only way we could do that was to completely start over.
It's just gonna be a little bit of a microscope,
you know, in Denver, which is, like,
that's a great problem to have in some ways,
but it's just still, like, you know...
I've never done anything like this before so I'm--
I'm anxious.
[cheering]
[Gov. Polis] By a...
official proclamation on behalf of the state of Colorado...
[cheering]
"Whereas in 2021, the creators of South Park purchased the
iconic Casa Bonita, a fine dining restaurant and
entertainment mecca, money pit, and jobs program for Colorado
contractors."
[cheering]
True story: we went from ninth lowest unemployment rate to
fourth because of all the contractors and subcontractors
working at Casa Bonita.
[cheering]
*tense curious music
That's gonna be the volcano!
I don't know what it's gonna look like but...
[man] Are you planning to do the same menu as the old Casa?
It's a mix of both; I'm gonna keep a couple of the plates that
they used to have, but I'm gonna do it in-house, you know?
Like, Casa Bonita's a Mexican restaurant,
and before, it wasn't speaking that with the food,
so I'm trying to express that to everybody.
But, you know, I never managed anything like this.
My fear is like what if...
it doesn't work?
[Trey VO] I-- I think that...
where I wanna start is just reviewing,
again, the characters.
So, I think...
at least just to open, we basically have four characters
and a gorilla.
[laughter] Right?
So, um, if we look at Black Bart,
there is a historical Black Bart.
The bowler hat was sort of his thing.
[woman VO] Oh, interesting.
[Trey VO] We got their sort of Bible...
that was "Here's the characters of Casa Bonita,"
you know, which was like 20-something characters,
[chuckling] I think.
But they weren't well thought-out,
and they were just like "Oh, they're silly 'cause they're
dumb."
And I'll go track down that no-good son-of-a-gun
sopapilla-stealin' Black Bart!
And you can have a good look...
at the wonders of Casa Bonita.
Hi, Sheriff! Bart!
Now, just get back here!
I just didn't want that thing of like "Oh God,
here they go..."
If you're a kid and you're in the arcade,
you might look next to you and Black Bart's playing a game,
and you're like, [gasps] "There he is!"
And you know you're supposed to go tell the Sheriff.
But by then, Black Bart's serving drinks down in the bar.
[laughter]
Those are the kind of things we're thinking about.
We don't have them fleshed out yet,
but it's that kind of thinking.
So we have an audio animatronic one going in,
and it gives fortunes -- bad fortunes.
[man] Since no one was in this space,
this stuff's, like, way too much.
[Trey VO] You know, Matt and I have always had the most fun
figuring out things on a technical level.
Part of what we get off on is getting in there and going,
"Yeah, but what if you did this?"
The good thing with Casa Bonita: there is a lot there.
It's not like you're starting from zero.
And I was super surprised when I saw for the first time --
like, the whole craftsmanship is amazing.
So we try to incorporate some of the stuff that is already there,
bring it to what is new.
[Trey] I mean, I wanna keep it this.
They just had a big treasure box in there,
and you got to go up and take your piece of candy,
which little kids went fuckin' nuts for.
It's not too different, whatever we do.
We're making stumps of the trees,
and there's air pressure in there so that it's like you're
getting bit by the snake, so kids can mess around with this
thing.
I mean, it's supposed to be Black Bart's cave,
and then there's nothing Black Bart about it.
It's just a little [laughing] haunted house,
you know what I mean? Right.
But it should be like, "Oh, there's Black-- that's all his
treasure back there, and there's where he kept this,
and there's where he kept that!" You know.
I'm just thinking something better than just heads.
Yeah, this becomes a new diorama.
This is where we spend our...
our 200 bucks.
[laughter]
A pin light is basically highlighting on the map
"Here's where they were, here's where they were,
here's where they were."
[Randy VO] It's amazing.
It's fun to watch him, for sure.
[laughs]
Oh, yeah!
He aways would say things about "I would change this,
I wouldn't do this this way," [chuckling] or something.
[man] Did you ever see it when it was, like,
in its glory days?
You know, I probably...
It must have been...
I think I was in third grade,
so it was '78 the first time I came,
so it was still close to its glory.
*tender music
[man] Why do you think Casa Bonita is so important to Trey?
[laughs]
I don't know, Trey's just-- he's that guy more than I am.
He just, um...
Of anybody who has those kind of, like,
gauzy memories of something,
Trey's probably that, who probably remembers the best
possible version of it.
Do you know what I mean?
And he's a romantic, and so...
that kid in him is very much alive.
***
[Trey VO] The main thing I still try to do every time that I go
is I go, "Okay, I'm seven years old,"
and I just walk around.
***
I'm trying to create the Casa Bonita that it was when I was a
kid.
The nice thing about Casa was that,
since it's an enclosed place, your parents could just sit at
the table and you could just go roam around by yourself,
which, to a six-, seven-year-old, was a lot.
It felt big.
***
You know, and as a six- or seven-year-old,
you're walking and you're like, "I'm in this little town,
and I'm gonna explore this little town."
It was all about the nooks and cranies.
That's the magic.
Except now, I walk around and I'm like...
"That's the wrong color blue."
[laughs]
You know, and I go, like, "Wait, that sucks,
I don't--" you know, "Why is that there?"
We just need, on each side, for it to-- instead of being like
this, it needs to be like that.
I do like that it's giving us the greenery up there and feels
like a big, nice tree, which is why I like it here,
because it still does that thing and gives you a canopy.
[Scott] Let me get a price... [Trey] Okay.
[Scott] Just so we understand what that means,
if we...
cut that tree down and plant a new one over here, right?
[chuckles] [mimics chainsaw]
[Scott, laughing] Yeah, right, right.
[laughter]
[man VO] Are you really gonna write the puppet show?
[Trey VO] Yeah, I mean, I was looking at the puppet shows they
were doing before we bought it, and it's literally just,
you know, basically a sock puppet,
and you can't even understand what's going on.
You know, I wanna have it where there's still a live
person doing it and there's still a live person talking and
doing voices, but it's all kinda done to a soundtrack and...
backgrounds and things like that so that it stays on...
[man] Yeah. Like a Broadway show.
[woman] Oh!
Mi nombre es...
Diabolo!
[laughter]
Hello! [laughter]
Welcome to Casa Bonita!
Does anyone have a birthday out there today?
[man] Me, me, me!
Oh, all right! I knew that!
[laughter] Thank you, thank you!
*triumphant music playing
[laughter]
Welcome to Casa Bonita.
We hope you are having a fun time.
Okay, today, we're going to talk about domestic violence...
[laughter]
[man] Boys and girls... Boys and girls...
[laughter]
*quirky curious music
[Scott VO] Now, we're really ramping up.
We are probably...
80 people on site a day right now,
we're strengthening the roof, getting our rooftop units in,
running overhead, all of our mechanical ductwork,
running cable trays for our low volt wire...
***
[tools whirring and grinding]
We've got our rock experts; they're working on sort of
augmenting all the different rocks around the pool.
All the rock over here has been touched up.
[chuckles] The rock people have a bucket of gum that they have
chipped off all the areas.
It's disgusting.
***
We enlarged the pool.
We've removed some of the stones that sort of jutted out that we
felt were unsafe.
Because we found the pool had leaks,
we're actually gonna be pouring another pool inside of it.
***
So this is the sort of secret way the divers come out.
They'll swim through below that arch.
It's safer for them, there'll be a little ladder here,
they've gotta come up, shower, change,
and go back out.
Ah, it's so nice to not see that gross ceiling that was in here.
I know.
[Matt] Look at this, wow!
It's so much nicer!
[Scott] Crazy, right?
[Matt] It seems like a nice place you might wanna be now!
[Scott, chuckling] I know.
This is my favorite piece, and when you come on this side,
you'll see exactly why.
***
[Matt] Wow, this is so different than when I was here last time!
This looks like a really nice restaurant all of a sudden!
[laughter] Hey!
So, when you shoot that target, this'll go...
[train whistle]
[laughter]
[gunshot]
You sure shoot a heck of a lot better than you look!
[Scott] Wow, this is fuckin' sweet.
[Trey, laughing] Yeah! I told you!
[laughter]
I think it's good to have them back a little bit,
and then we can frame 'em. You know, it's like having
these... [Scott] 'Kay.
[Trey] A couple more foreground pieces.
[Scott] Even further?
[Trey] That's great; no, that's good.
[Scott] Things are starting to take shape around here;
it's pretty exciting.
[laughs]
Don't go in the cave!
There's a giant gorilla thing in there!
Gorilla thing?
I thought it was a dragon!
It was a dragon but they changed it 'cause it didn't make any
sense.
Don't go in the caaaave!
They keep going in the cave!
Yeah, nobody listens. They keep going in the cave.
[laughter]
The worst part about being a skeleton is I can't kiss anyone
'cause I don't have rips.
You don't have what?
[skeleton] I don't have rips!
What are "rips?"
No, not "rips," rips!
I can't understand you 'cause you don't have rips!
What are "rips?"
This is more fun than South Park right now.
Yeah, this is way more fun.
[laughs] It's like, I don't know...
It's so cool every time we come here;
it's, like, just coming alive.
[Dana] Hey, Matt, last time we talk a little bit,
like, we're thinking, like, "Oh, that would be fucking cool if we
open on Cinco de Mayo."
[man] What could stop us from opening by May?
Literally it's insane the amount of things that we have to get
done through -- numbers, financials,
phone calls, invoices, like...
It's crunch time.
It's a lot.
I just wanna be able to grab my phone and say,
"Financial person, fucking figure this out."
Yeah, yeah.
[Dana] "Legal, someone fell in the fucking pool."
[woman] Yeah.
I think that's gotta be one of those, like,
banned-for-life things.
[woman] Yes, definitely.
Like, fell in the pool, banned for life.
[woman] Yeah.
And that might not be worth it to you.
[laughter]
Was it worth it? Totally.
[laughter]
Some big news today, from Casa Bonita...
We now have a reopening date for what many call "the Disneyland
[chuckling] of Mexican restaurants."
[male reporter VO] The wait is over.
They're gonna be opening up in May!
The iconic pink castle restaurant on Colfax.
[male reporter VO] If you're looking for a new job,
you could join the iconic Colorado Casa Bonita team as
they get read to reopen.
Yeah, they're holding a job fair today,
looking to hire more than 500 workers.
[female reporter VO] There is a line out the door.
Only roughly 40 employees stayed on from old Casa.
We need to hire a custodial staff,
facilities, entertainment, servers,
kitchen staff, just a lot.
Today, we are having auditions for all of our potential cast
and performers.
Bienvenidos a Casa Bonita!
Yeehoo!
Oh God, here we go!
Get!
Stay!
I have roamed the Caribbean Isles!
Whoop! Whoop!
[grunts]
Yah!
[laughter]
I think, in this context, being a good diver is being a good
performer.
[laughter]
[Dana] We're going to test all of you guys.
When you walk into the kitchen, once in a while,
I'm gonna say, like, "Tell me what's in the molé.
Tell me what's in the camarones.
Tell me what is in this."
*upbeat jaunty music
Yeah.
I'll ask if he can build permit concurrently,
just 'cause we're under the gun, and if he says no for some
reason, then, Dan, I'll call you back...
[Scott VO] The next eight weeks are gonna be...
very busy.
Like, literally, [chuckling] I'm probably gonna get a couple of
mattresses for one of the offices,
'cause we're probably gonna be here 12 to 16 hours a day just
trying to complete things.
You know, we're supposed to be done with construction and we
still have, like, five major projects that we are in the
middle of.
[Scott] Now, just so you guys know,
February 13 is, like, when this building is done.
Mm.
Yes, and...
[man] 'Cause the fountain is gonna run a little beyond that.
*tense music
[Dana VO] They made the floors too quick.
They wanted to show that they can do it fast,
but they didn't do it right.
So we, as a team, like...
"We don't accept your floors, you have to redo it all over
again," so they have to bring these big machines kind of to
grind everything down, and then start all over.
I just sorta-- you know, I sorta had this week on my calendar as
"This is the week everything's showing up,
and it's all showing up at the same time,
and that'll be crazy, and this will be amazing,
shit's just gonna be flying in here,
and trucks on top of each other."
Did-- did we just not get all the deliveries we thought we
were gonna get?
So there's four days' worth of deliveries stuffed in the
kitchen. There is?
But the kitchen floor...
Wasn't ready. Is...
They said it was ready and we rejected it 'cause the quality
wasn't there.
***
[man] Who's the supplier getting it from?
[Scott] Yeah, where is it gonna ship from?
When it's ready, what country?
What supplier? What's their name?
[Scott] And I hate to say it, but...
you are holding our end date up.
Well, then, getting the information on where the fuckin'
distributor's coming from should be pretty simple, then.
Shaw's got people working 80-hour weeks in here;
we're burning money.
***
When we filled the pool up originally,
it lost 10 inches the first day, which means there's a leak
somewhere.
They'll get in there with dye and they'll actually swim around
in scuba gear, and put dye and see if dye gets sucked into
certain areas so they can patch those leaks.
***
[phone ringing]
[Matt over phone] Hello?
[Scott] I just wanted to bring you up to speed.
Our pool...
is leaking 5,000 gallons a day.
So what we-- [Matt] Wow!
[Scott clears throat]
I just wanted you to sort of hear that directly in case--
sometimes, you know, if the message gets to you guys--
[Matt] How long is the delay do you think?
Uh, well, it's gonna delay...
It delays sort of the aesthetic team about a week.
[Matt VO] Fucking hell. All right.
[Scott VO] All right. Talk soon.
[Matt VO] All right, bye. [Scott VO] Bye.
***
We've just hired literally hundreds of people --
kitchen staff, entertainers.
Some of these people quit their old jobs so that they could
start with us.
We were supposed to have them in the building over a week ago,
to start training, rehearsing, all that stuff.
And until we finish this shit up and get all our inspections
done, all of that is on hold.
All Matt hears right now is numbers...
[woman] Yeah.
And so yesterday, like, I talked to you,
it was like-- yesterday, when I was like,
"Oh, and by the way, we're $2 million over budget,"
he says, "What the fuck?!" Yeah.
"It's $32 million?" And they go, "Yeah,"
and I go, "Well, Friday, it was $30 million."
They go... "Yeah, duh duh duh."
I was like... [laughing] "That's $2 million!"
Just, like...
that was just, like, the casualness that that was
presented to me.
Ugh.
Tensions are high.
They're high with everybody.
Do we have some places already outlined for...
[Trey] Yeah, I don't know what the delay has been.
But, like, I keep saying, "The more we can get things dressed,
the sooner we can start reacting to things and putting things in,
and, like, let's just start throwing shit up,
because it will start to help us figure it out."
[Scott VO] Matt and Trey are leaving town to work on South
Park, so we have two weeks to get all this shit fixed and get
things back on track.
***
[Trey] Okay.
[clears throat]
Kenny, we should open a restaurant!
[laughs]
[muffled] Why the fuck would we open a restaurant?!
We could make it awesome, with, like,
fun things for kids to do, and rides, and games!
A places that people from all over Colorado would wanna come
and see!
And we would be the owners.
And we could have all the hot dogs we wanted.
[muffled] Wow!
Well, we built the write around...
allowing them time to go to Casa Bonita so they could make this
May opening.
[Matt] Are you guys just playin' around?!
No!
We are renovating and opening an amazing restaurant that will
be extremely profitable!
Then why did you name it "DickinBaus?!"
Butters, you are the investor.
We are the creatives.
[laughs]
Well, stop being creative and open the damn restaurant so I
can get my money back!
Just stop dickin' around and wasting--...
Just stop dickin' around and wasting my money!
Butters, at DikinBaus, dicking around is all we do --
dicking around the competition.
[laughs]
We're definitely busy right now, but Trey's pretty good at
focusing on what he needs to do, which,
you know, with South Park, he's just totally focused on this
right now.
But Casa Bonita's about to enter, like,
Shitsville.
[Cartman] Butters, we're about to reopen a historic landmark
that means something to people!
You think I'm just doing all this for the fun of it?!
Hang on a second!
Weeee!
We're creating jobs, Butters!
And we're helping people!
Then open the stupid place, Eric!
[laughter]
*curious music
Yeah, right? It feels good.
I know.
[Scott VO] We pulled it off somehow;
inspections are done, permits are in place,
and now, what's important about that is we can move in.
Good morning!
You guys are fully signed off on phase two.
You may move in!
Now, we have food, we can order drinks,
we can order whatever we want.
You can tell, in the kitchen, all the equipment is already in
place.
I think we can start with everyone just looking.
[Scott VO] We can finally get some of the actors,
kitchen staff, divers, everyone in here to start training and
get back on schedule.
How's it going?
Good, how are you?
I just wanna talk about tone, first of all,
'cause that's really the most...
Definitely, in comedy, to me, there's nothing more important
than tone.
We don't need to try and be funny,
because we'll figure out stuff that's funny.
And then, um, there's just, like,
nothing worse for most people than being around someone trying
to be funny, and it's just like, you know,
if you've seen the videos of the old character shows that
happened up there...
[high-pitched voice] Well, no, Sheriff, I haven't!
It was just like, "God, will you shut up, please?
I'm trying to eat horrible food."
[laughter]
Your character takes it seriously;
it's not a joke, but--
even though you will be doing funny things.
[laughs]
But to you, it's not funny.
Kids will react so much more to a moment where Amazon Ani's
really sad
than they will her being silly.
[chuckling] You know what I mean?
And so you'll walk up to a family,
and you'll be like, "Hey, I'm Amazon Ani!
I'm just really into things, knowledge.
Do you mind if I take your picture?" Right?
And you'll Polaroid and be like, "You know what?
You should keep this, this is great," whatever, right?
And then you look at the girl and you go,
[low voice] "I need to talk to you."
[laughter]
[singing softly] *By the light (By the light of the moon)*
*Of the silvery moon...
There's a new idea that Beef Plate might try to do some
acrobatics, so it's like...
*exciting humming
You know, that kind of thing.
[man] Yup.
Yeah, we can lose the shoes. Yeah, okay.
[Trey] Yeah, yeah.
"What's up with these soft tacos?"
What's up with these soft tacos?
[Trey] Oh, right, can't joke about them!
[laughter]
I had a friend who was a soft taco,
and then, all of a sudden, was a hard taco!
Yeah, what happened to you?!
[Trey] I'm gonna get cancelled...
[laughter]
[Ben] Now I have to call it a "tostada!"
[laughter]
How am I supposed to remember that?!
[laughter]
[Trey] Anyway, how are you doin', kids?
Hi, how's it goin'? [laughter]
[Trey] Anyone's parents divorced?
[laughter]
Who's having their one day with Dad today?
[laughter]
[Trey VO] To me, it is just like doing Broadway or doing
the show.
You're doing what you always do, which is trying to think,
"All right, what do people want?
And what are they gonna think is awesome?
What are they gonna think is funny?
And let's try to deliver."
And just, you know...
I know it's Casa Bonita, but it's our regular thing of, like,
"No, this isn't gonna suck!"
Could we see that timing?
Someone comes out, they praise, they jump in,
they cli-- as they're climbing, another person dives...
[Amber] Mm-hm. No...
[Trey VO] I'm watching the dive stuff and I start to go,
"Oh no, nothing's the way I want it to be,
nothing's the way I want it to be."
Even though I look at that and go,
"That's more impressive 'cause that's higher,"
we make that look more impressive, yeah.
[Amber] Yeah.
You're gonna do the same thing, but instead of the first one
being a rapidfire, we're gonna have one person come out,
dive, and then we'll sync her at the end,
just to see some timing on that.
*curious music
[Trey VO] It's been a long Thursday and Friday at
South Park, when it's just, like, spitballing and "Oh,
we could do this, we could do that!"
We're all laughing and whatever, you know,
and then, it gets to Sunday, Monday on South Park and I wanna
kill myself.
It's sort of Sunday morning now. [laughs]
***
[man] Oh, hahaha! [woman screams]
[indistinct shouting]
[woman makes gorilla sounds]
[Amber VO, laughing] We just...
We're barreling toward opening.
I think that was the gorilla.
[Amber VO] We're creating a whole immersive world,
and these people have to know their characters inside and out,
and they have to be able to respond to whatever audience may
throw at that, and...
be able to know where they are in the building,
which takes about a week anyway.
Time is very tight.
We're asking a lot from them.
[Trey] The coin machine is in here?
[laughter]
Now, remember: it's 1973!
We ain't got fancy things and such!
[laughing] Yeah.
[laughter]
[laughs] With the overalls.
It's like a total just mishmash.
Yeah, dude, fuck it!
Let's put some fuckin' 1973 stuff in there.
It's fuckin' rad!
[laughter]
You know, I always pivot 'til the last minute, right?
'Til I find the thing exactly. Sure.
And...
I've come to find out...
It really happened when I did the fucking stupid prospector in
the mines.
I'm like, "This is what Casa Bonita is."
It's a place in 1973 trying to be a place in the late 1800s,
[chuckling] you know what I mean?
So we need '70s flourishes everywhere!
I would love to get at least our A cast in here to start hearing
what you have to say about that so that they can start training
everyone on how they need to portray these characters,
'cause we're kind of getting to a crunch time with them.
We just got a little bit of a switch up,
so the time period is now 100 years later.
It makes it a little bit harder from what our original direction
was.
We're still trying to figure out what the '70s angle is for Bart
and for Captain Isabella.
But we'll figure it out.
People in the entertainment side of it are getting frustrated.
"They're saying that you kind of change your mind a lot."
And I'm like, "Well, tell 'em to get used to it!" [laughs]
It's a fun challenge.
I-- I do wish we had a little more time to pivot but...
we're gonna make it work.
It's gonna be-- yeah, it's gonna be a brutal May.
*tense curious music
[female reporter VO] Now that it is May,
we are counting down the days until the ever-famous
Casa Bonita reopens.
We still don't have a concrete opening date yet,
but we will let you know when we know,
'cause I know everybody's excited about it.
[woman VO] The buzz right now,
everyone's talking about it reopening.
Even people who've moved away from Colorado are talking
about it.
When is it opening back up? Do you guys know?
[male reporter VO] If Casa Bonita stays true to their May
opening, then we should see something happening pretty soon.
[girl VO] On the news, they said
that Casa Bonita's gonna open in May.
Is it opening any time soon?
[man] Soon, soon, that's all I can say.
Soon, but not this week?
[Amber VO] I need them here; there's so much to do.
What do we need to get Trey's sign-off on?
We just need time with them!
We keep getting cut short on time, so--
[Dana] We haven't had any time.
I know, I know, I get it, I get it!
You guys have had eight times the time of anyone else.
I get it, but, like, they gotta suck it.
Like, sorry.
We are having all sorts of problems within our departments.
After this conversation we have today,
I expect all the drama to cease!
We're gonna put a bunch of shit on the board,
and our job every day is to empty the board.
I'm hesitant to show it to you.
When they put the eyes in, he's wall-eye,
and one ear is bigger than the other.
That's literally what they did.
What in the name of fuck?
I know!
That's why I said, "We're..."
[man] Hey, language, Trey!
[man] Four months?
N-- yeah. [woman] Yeah.
No, two, two. I'll give 'em two.
[man] Yeah, that's what they wanted it to look like?
Goddamn it, dude.
Jesus Christ.
Black Bart's Cave is a signature and we've been trying to get it
right, it just-- it's taken so much time.
[Trey VO] But he's working on getting this so that you can...
go-- we can do the thing: get a fortune,
have it talk, give you the fortune.
Yeah, so what the process is, you come over here,
you swipe your card...
I know, but I wanna see it happen.
He said, "Every time I come, they say it worked,
but when they went to show me, it didn't work."
The volcano kind of erupted, but then,
the smoke didn't come out properly.
And then, we went to look at the matador bull,
and it sorta stopped in the middle.
*triumphant horn plays
I thought he was gonna fall.
[man] That's what we thought, too.
He was gonna do this.
That's the first time I've really seen him frustrated.
[Trey VO] I really need this hung;
I told them last week.
[man VO] Okay.
[Trey] I need it hung so we can start fucking around with it.
[man] Do you want just temp hung?
I mean, if someone can hang it, let's fuckin' do it.
[man] Okay.
[Trey VO] As I walk around, I'm like,
"Well, that's not done, that's not done,
it's not even..."
[chuckles] They're talking about "Oh, we're changing the sched--"
It's like, "You guys, we're not done!"
[laughs]
And everyone seems to be like, "Mm."
You know, it's like, look! Look at this.
This is not done.
I started, like, hanging pictures up,
because I'm like, "Okay, this is what this is supposed to be,
remember?"
And they're like, "No, we should just open!"
It's like, "That's not done, you guys!" [chuckles]
First impressions are gonna be really important with this,
you know?
And it's like, everyone's worked so hard to make it so cool that,
like, why fuck it up now, you know?
*tense music
My last two trips out, I've said,
"My next trip out, I wanna go up with a card,
do the thing, get a fortune." [man] Okay.
And they've not been able to get close to that.
And the fucking assayer to do a fucking coin.
Like, it's-- it's that shit.
***
[door shuts]
[Anne VO] I'm worried for them!
This is a huge thing, and I think they're not quite ready,
and I wish we had a little more time.
But in the meantime, the entire Denver press will be here --
over 100 people.
[Kristian VO] We are so excited to be able to give you the first
look at the new Casa Bonita.
Now, we are limited on what we can and can't show you,
but it so amazing in here!
We still don't know when they will officially be opening.
Well, I don't know about that.
[Trey VO] I feel like Cartman a lot here;
you know, just going, "And we could do this,
and we could do that!
You know, and we could do this! [laughs]
Watching Trey walk around, you know,
he's feeling it as much as Cartman would.
[laughter]
People will be lined up all the way to downtown Denver!
Well, the permits are cleared, the staff is hired,
and now, it is a waiting game to see when Casa Bonita will open
for business.
It's all anybody's talking about in the newsroom, right?
Let's go, guys! "When is it gonna happen?!"
[female reporter VO] Well, get this: fans are literally waiting
outside the restaurant daily to try and get in.
We have definitely been stalking Casa Bonita...
[laughs] for the opening.
Most definitely.
We knew it was opening in May, so we were hoping that this
would be the weekend and we booked our tickets.
[man VO] I've been camping out in my car here since Monday.
I called my boss and said, "Hey, is it cool if I take my vacation
for the rest of the month?"
So, uh, hopefully I'll be the first one in the door.
People are getting ready to line up outside because it's the end
of May and say, "They said they'd open in May!"
We're still doing things; there's still a lot of work
being done.
*curious music
[Matt VO] We're having like a hundred,
150 people tonight, just come through the line,
put their credit card in, even though it's a dud --
it doesn't really charge them --
get their water, come and sit.
And then we'll...
There's a few little things open,
and we'll have the music on, and try to make it a nice time,
and then it's like that's it.
We're a little nervous.
*sparse tense music
***
[man] Molé chicken, Christmas enchilada,
and the brisket suadero!
Who got the brisket?
No?
[woman] You are all set. Thanks so much.
You have a great evening.
[man] Is this real? [woman] I don't know.
[man] Okay.
So don't make it yet, don't make it yet!
No, that's a different ticket, so...
which one is it?
***
Isabella, I'm here for you!
[Isabella] All right, see ya later!
Good luck getting down!
There's one thing I wanted to talk to you ab--
I have a question, Isabella!
All right, sir, I'll be right behind you.
[chuckles]
[Sheriff] Sorry about that, folks.
Enjoy your dinner.
[man, singing] *Casa Bonita! Casa Bonita!*
*Na na na na!
*Casa Bonita! Casa Bonita!*
*Da da da da!
Oh, cool, ahh!
[cheering]
[hawk screeches]
[man VO] How did you feel about it last night?
It just was so not Casa Bonita.
It felt like...
It felt like a nightclub in San Diego.
The steps that we have to do on the cashier is nine steps per
individual.
It takes for-fuckin'-ever.
I have six cashiers trying to assign tables at the same time,
which means what happens is sometimes the same table gets
assigned at the same time.
[woman] Like three times, yeah.
When the characters were interacting with each other and
doing their little sketches, always failed.
When the characters really interact with the kids and the
kids know what it is, that's when it works.
[Dana] Hopefully we fix one problem,
and then we can attack the next one.
[woman] That's what this is all about, right?
[Matt] Yeah. [laughs]
And after eight million years...
[Dana] We will open in a few years!
[laughter]
*tense curious music
[Trey VO] As soon as we opened the doors and brought people in,
that's when it was just like, "Oh,
this is completely wrong."
***
Now we have two days to figure out what do we need to fix and
what do we wanna make look better and what do we wanna add?
***
It's like, "Are you kidding?
We're gonna have the public come in?"
You know, and it's just like, "Oh my God!
Like, this isn't ready!"
But it just makes you go.
[beeping]
[explosion]
Yeah, if we can, it'd be nice to get some over there, too.
[man] Over there also?
***
[Trey] So first, the lights dim.
Then, it lights up there.
Then, it starts to explode and go off.
There's part of me that feels like the doors are gonna open
and I'm gonna bolt,
because this isn't perfect or that isn't perfect.
***
Holy shit, man, I'm so tired.
***
[hawk screeching]
***
I'm excited to see, um, how Casa Bonita has changed.
I had my seventh birthday here,
which was my lucky birthday, actually!
[man] I like your t-shirt!
[boy] Yeah! Thanks!
We've been coming here since he was about that high, so...
[man] Oh, really? Oh, yeah.
Yeah.
I'm excited for her to experience what I did all those
years.
[Dana] All right, everybody!
This is our first night! Whatever you're doing, have fun!
But also, don't fuck it up!
[laughter]
Today is your day to lead your teams!
Certain things, we can fix!
Certain things, we cannot!
So it's important that we're all together in this as a team!
We are doers!
We're here to make shit happen!
Okay?!
[crowd] Yes!
[cheers and applause]
*tense exciting music
Yeehaw, baby! Everybody to spots!
First guests are coming through security!
[man] Let's go!
[man] Everybody get your smiles on!
Everybody get ready!
Get to your spots!
*upbeat nostalgic music
How you doin', Phil?
[chuckles] How you doin'?
Okay, how you doin'? Great!
You look good!
***
I like this sky -- the little stars in the sky.
[Phil] Oh, yeah, yeah. [woman] Were they always there?
***
[man] Chili relleno.
***
[man VO] First time I came here, I was disappointed because the
food wasn't that good.
But right now,
yeah, it's on point!
I enjoyed it.
*"Mexico" by Elvis Presley playing*
*Mexico
*They've got muchas mucha-chas, amigos...*
[Trey VO] The dives [chuckling] I'm super happy with,
'cause I think that was a real collaborative thing that became
something that was different than any of us thought but was,
like, "That's Casa Bonita."
***
[cheers and applause]
That was the best thing ever!
That went well!
The crowd's so much bigger than earlier!
Did you see up here, Daddy?
You don't wanna go in there.
Yeah, there's a ghost in there!
[both] Scary!
[both laugh]
[buzzer] [girls scream and laugh]
[ghost] There's no treasure there!
[shrieking]
[skull] You may have found my treasure,
but you'll never escape!
[load roar]
Oh my God!
[laughing] Are you okay?!
What do you think of Casa Bonita, Betty?
I love it.
It's the best restaurant I've ever been to!
*upbeat funky music
Ah!
[laughs]
[disembodied voice] Someone up there has just made a wish!
Well, I'm here to tell you that your wish will be granted
tomorrow afternoon at 1:30.
We hope it's everything you hoped for.
[woman] Yeah!
You don't mess with Isabella!
[girls] You don't mess with Isabella!
Come on! We're giving it the Sheriff!
It's mine!
No, it's mine!
It's yours!
[Sheriff] No, it's yours!
[Bart] Thank you very much! [Sheriff] You're welcome!
Hey, wait a minute! [kids laugh]
Go get him!
Tarnation!
Looks like someone wants a coin!
[coin jingles]
What coin did you get?
My turn!
I went on a treasure hunt with Isabella and I got a treasure!
***
Yeah!
[man's voice] It's gonna blow!
[explosion]
***
[squawk] Bad news!
[woman] Oh, no!
One, two, three...pull!
***
The volcano...
is about to erupt!
[rumbling]
***
[chanting] Puppet show!
Puppet show!
It reminds you what it's all about.
You kinda...
I think, you know, we lost...
[chuckling] we lost a bit of track of that.
You forget that-- that...
you know, it's like doing theater without an audience.
*Welcome to the puppet show*
*It's about to start
*Get ready...
[Trey VO] Watching little kids run around having the time of
their lives is fun for everybody.
And now, please give a big welcome for...
a taco!
[cheers and applause]
I think a lot of it is like, "I remember that feeling,"
[chuckles] you know what I mean?
Especially if you came here as a kid.
This is about...
This is about kids.
*tender mellow music
[cheers and applause]
Pretty big success tonight.
Congratulations.
Can we hug?
I think that's what success looks like.
It was really good.
[Trey] Ladies and gentlemen, let's hear it for everyone
working so hard at Casa Bonita!
[cheers and applause]
*mellow cheery music
Cannonball!
***
[cheers and applause]
*mellow cheery music
[Matt VO] It's super cool; we're super proud of it.
I don't know anybody who could come there and be like,
[nasal voice] "Well, it was better before,"
'cause it fucking wasn't, you know what I mean?
[chuckles] It's so much better now.
But, I mean, we're not gonna be here making it happen.
You know, we don't even live here.
All you can do is-- it's kind of like having a child,
where you get them ready to go out in the world,
and then you let go.
***
No one would've done it like the way we did it...
'cause it didn't make any sense and it wasn't smart.
[laughing] You know what I mean?
So it's like... You know?
But it's so... I'm really, really proud of it.
It's cool, man. It's a really cool thing, so...
***
[Trey VO] I never let myself try to think that, like,
I own Casa Boni-- that Casa Bonita's mine in any way.
'Cause it's not; it's fleeting, and it's like,
I know-- I know that this is just a moment in Casa Bonita's
life.
***
A lot of the work and the money was just saving it,
was just making it be able to be there in another 50 years.
***
[bull grunting]
[man screaming]
***
Honestly, I could do this for the rest of my life,
and I could probably be pretty happy doing it -- you know,
move to Denver, I'm just sort of creatively in charge of
Casa Bonita.
And, you know, that's a cool life.
But...
this really crazy thing happened where...
we kinda had the first just like "Okay,
we're gonna let a lot of the public in tonight,"
and people were coming in and going,
"Look, there's the waterfall!
Look, there's the mines!
Look, there's Trey Parker!"
And, you know, they would just come up and go,
"I'm gonna get a picture of my son with Santa now,"
and it was just like, oh, yeah, I'm just, like,
a distraction.
And it was just this really-- [chuckles] this kind of really
sad moment of, like, "Wow...
I can't be here!"
***
It really was like a breakup, because I was so intensely
involved -- emotionally and physically and all of this stuff
-- with Casa Bonita.
And then it was suddenly like...
this place that had brought me so much happiness...
I kinda can't go.
***
It ended up being just like the episode of South Park,
because it's like the cops come to me,
and they say, "Well...
you've spent millions of dollars
you might never get back,
you-- you've spent a ton of time and, uh--
when you, you know, could have been doing a lot of other
things,
and you now have made Casa Bonita a place you can't
even go enjoy yourself.
Was it worth it?"
Totally.
[laughs]
*upbeat exciting music
*We wanna walk on down to Casa Bonita*
*Gonna have a holiday
*When you step inside, it's another world*
*Bet you're gonna wanna stay*
*Casa Bonita! Casa Bonita!*
*The fun family restaurant
***
*Casa Bonita! Casa Bonita!*
*The fun family restaurant
***
*Casa Bonita! Casa Bonita!*
*The fun family restaurant