Creators of the animated series South Park, Trey Parker and Matt Stone, purchased the actual Casa Bonita restaurant in Colorado after it filed for bankruptcy in 2021.

A closer look

Creators of the animated series South Park, Trey Parker and Matt Stone, purchased the actual Casa Bonita restaurant in Colorado after it filed for bankruptcy in 2021. The eccentric Mexican dining establishment, famous for its indoor cliff divers, pirate caves, and highly questionable food quality, had been featured in a legendary 2003 episode of the show. After spending upwards of forty million dollars on renovations to fix the aging plumbing and actually hire a respectable chef, they reopened the nostalgic fever dream to the public. It is the ultimate flex of ridiculous wealth to spend a Hollywood fortune saving a wildly chaotic childhood memory, essentially proving that if you make enough crude cardboard animation jokes for twenty-five years, you too can own a poorly ventilated indoor pool where teenagers dive for minimum wage!