Trey Parker And Matt Stone Have Put Over $40 MILLION Into Revamping Casa Bonita And It Is BEAUTIFUL
This article today actually made me tear up a little. Not fully, because I'm a man and men don't cry, but reading Matt and Trey's quotes about Casa Bonita was actually sorta...moving? Well for starters, it must be super nice to be rich. No not rich...wealthy. They have more money than they know what to do with. So they saved Casa Bonita and when interviewed about it, you can tell they actually love the hell out of it:
NY Times - Then, in 2020, Casa Bonita went bankrupt, hit by the pandemic slump. The place was already in disrepair, crumbling from deferred maintenance, rife with electrical hazards, the ventilation systems coated with grease and the carpet encrusted into something like concrete. The jokes about the food had earned it the nickname Casa NoEata. Still, its passing was mourned.
But in the coming weeks, the enormous casita will reopen with new owners: Mr. Parker and Mr. Stone, both native Coloradans, who have spent upward of $40 million to tear it down, rebuild it and, they joke, to keep everything the same, except now sanitary.
“It doesn’t stink like chlorine anymore,” Mr. Stone said in an interview in late May, during the final, frantic stretch to reopen. “We could have rebuilt this twice as big, for half as much money, but we spent so much restoring it, like a piece of art.”
$40 million dollars!! That's an insane amount of money to restore a place that had terrible reviews, gave everyone food poisoning, and quite frankly, should have gone bankrupt as far as everyone who stepped foot into it was concerned. But Matt and Trey had a soft spot in their hearts and hundreds of millions of dollars in the bank, so they put 40 god damn million dollars into restoring it. Again, that's such an absurd amount of money for a restaurant, but that's what makes this so special.
They continued:
Isaac had just joined a dozen other children watching a puppet show, during which a friendly taco puppet introduced a somber burrito puppet that sang an Italian aria. The puppet stage was tucked next to Black Bart’s Cave, a windy maze minded by two skeletons. Steps away, the mercado sold Casa Bonita T-shirts, mugs and other trinkets. Every 20 minutes, divers splashed from faux cliffs into a blue pool.
“This is heaven on Earth,” Isaac said.
Mr. Stone, smiling, took in a mariachi band near the bar. The original cost of renovations was projected at $10 million. When the figure reached $20 million, business advisers encouraged Mr. Stone and Mr. Parker to pack it in. These days, Mr. Stone said, the investment was closer to “infinity dollars.”
They originally budgeted for $10 million, were advised to stop at $20 million, and ended up putting in infinity million. And the outcome looks absolutely unbelievable:
And obviously hidden penises…
Needless to say I can't wait to go. Been a lifelong dream of mine and though I never got to experience the original, I think paying homage to Matt, Trey, and South Park is even better. Plus I won't get food poisoning, so that's nice too.
PS: Never forget when I tried to go…and it was closed. Honestly I had never, and will never, be more devastated in my life.