The Refries That Bind: A cavernous cantina returns, divers and all

Colorado’s defining characteristics include glorious mountain peaks, vivid seasonal colors, skiing, and a pervasive compulsion to exercise and eat well. But for generations of Colorado children, possibly the most commonly shared experience involved Casa Bonita, a large, dirty, dimly lit underground restaurant with food many diners considered barely edible.

Casa Bonita, with more than 52,000 square feet in Lakewood, a Denver suburb, served steamed refried beans, tacos and enchiladas to thousands of people a day, buffet style. The dinner entertainment was a child’s fever dream: waterfalls, cliff divers, Black Bart’s Cave, fake gold and silver mines, puppet shows, and a person in a gorilla costume chased by a sheriff, who sometimes joined the diver. Casa Bonita’s curious childish grip is recounted in an episode of “South Park.”

After that episode aired, Trey Parker and Matt Stone, the show’s creators, were regularly asked if such a place actually existed. “Oh, that’s a place,” Parker would reply, he said recently. “It’s crazy. It’s weird.” Like so many Colorado kids, Mr. Parker had held his birthday parties there.

Then, in 2020, Casa Bonita went bankrupt, hit by the pandemic crisis. The place was already in disrepair, crumbling from deferred maintenance, riddled with electrical hazards, grease-smeared ventilation systems, and carpet encrusted with something resembling cement. The jokes about food had earned him the nickname of Casa NoEata. Still, his death was mourned.