Casa Bonita

Casa Bonita
The front facade of the Lakewood, Colorado Casa Bonita
Restaurant information
Established	1968-1993 (original restaurant) 1971-2011 (Tulsa location) 1974 (Colorado location)
Current owner(s)	Star Buffet, Inc.[1]
Food type	Mexican
Street address	6715 West Colfax Avenue
City	Lakewood
State	Colorado
Postal code/ZIP	80214
Country	USA
Seating capacity	1,100
Website	Official website

Casa Bonita (Spanish; literally means "pretty house") is a former chain of Mexican-themed "eatertainment" restaurants which originated in Oklahoma City. As of 2015, only one location remained open, in the western Denver suburb of Lakewood, Colorado.

There was also a northern Arizona chain of Mexican restaurants using the Casa Bonita name founded in 2003. Locations included Flagstaff, Cottonwood, Lake Havasu, Prescott, Prescott Valley, Sedona, and Paradise Valley. They were not related to the eatertainment franchise, and in 2011 they changed their name to Plaza Bonita.

Another unrelated restaurant of the same name is located in Libertyville, Illinois.

History

Founder Bill Waugh opened the first Casa Bonita restaurant in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, in 1968. By the mid-1970s, the chain had expanded to locations in adjacent states and was known for its "all you can eat" beef or chicken plates and offering sopapillas—small squares of fried bread served with honey—with every meal.

In 1982, the company (including Taco Bueno fast food restaurants) was sold to Unigate (now Uniq plc). In 1992, Unigate sold the restaurants to CKE Restaurants, owners of Carl's Jr.^[2] In 1997, the two remaining Casa Bonita restaurants were spun off by CKE as part of Star Buffet.^[3] The Tulsa location closed in September 2005,^[4] then reopened for a 2-year run under the name Casa Viva, and went out of business in December 2007. Casa Bonita was reopened by Star Buffet under the original name in late July 2008.^[5] In March 2015, It was announced that the Lakewood Historical Society decided to make the restaurant a historic landmark of the city.

Locations

Tulsa, Oklahoma

The Tulsa location opened in 1971 near the intersection of 21st and Sheridan.^[6] The interior was designed to create the outdoor nighttime atmosphere of a Mexican village. Its various themed dining areas, with seating for over 500, included a village square with fountain, a 2-level lantern-lit cave, a tropical garden with 20-ft waterfall and stream, and a room resembling an aristocratic dining hall with strolling mariachis. The Tulsa location also included a puppet and magic show theatre, a video arcade, a working carousel, and a gift shop.

It closed on September 30, 2005,^[4] due to a reported inability to reach suitable lease terms with the property owner. It was reopened, as Casa Viva, in May 2006^[7] and then closed again in December 2007. In late July 2008, the restaurant, having been sold back to its previous owner group, reopened under the original Casa Bonita name.^[5] In February 2011, the restaurant failed to reopen after lengthy snowstorms hit Tulsa, and a sign on the door said it was closed for business.^[8]

Lakewood, Colorado

Casa Bonita interiors, Lakewood

The Lakewood location opened in early 1974 on Colfax Avenue west of Denver.^[9] Similar in architecture to the Tulsa location (both were previously large retail store locations), the Lakewood restaurant seats over 1000 people at a time, and features strolling mariachis, flame jugglers, and a 30-foot (9.1 m) waterfall with cliff divers. It also has a small puppet theater, a "haunted tunnel" called Black Bart's Cave, an arcade with a large skee-ball room, and a magic theater. It was designated a historic landmark of the city in March 2015.

Former locations

• Oklahoma City, Oklahoma (1968–1993)^[10]
• Hulen Mall, Fort Worth, Texas^[11] (?–c. 1986)
• Little Rock, Arkansas (1969–1993) (1995–2005) ^[10]

Similar restaurants

• Casa Bonita founder Bill Waugh founded a similar restaurant concept, Casa Viva. Unrelated to the Florida fast-food chain of the same name, it operated in the former Casa Bonita locations in Little Rock^[12] (1995–2005) and Tulsa (2006–2007).^[5][13]
• Larry H. Miller, owner of the Utah Jazz, opened a restaurant called The Mayan Adventure (usually just shortened to The Mayan) in Sandy, Utah, in 2000. Casa Bonita sued Miller for trademark infringement;^[14] Miller was found to have visited Casa Bonita several times.^[15] The Mayan Adventure eventually closed in late 2011.^[16]
• Restaurante Arroyo, in Tlalpan, Mexico, a "super-size" Mexican restaurant.

In popular culture

The South Park episode "Casa Bonita" prominently features the Colorado branch of the restaurant. Other episodes that mention it briefly are: "Quest for Ratings" (where a clock is labeled as showing the time at Casa Bonita), "You Have 0 Friends", "201" (where the restaurant is reportedly destroyed), and "Let Go, Let Gov". Additionally, the building that houses South Park Studios was named after the restaurant.^[17]

In Eureka, a reference to "Casa Bonita" is made, where an 'Artificial Intelligent' love-struck Andy who is the deputy of the town Sheriff in the new alternate timeline regards the sheriff's 'Artificial Intelligent' house S.A.R.A.H. as his "Case Bonita" when stuck on Titan (Saturn's moon) by an accidental journey using the series' fictional 'Faster Than Light' technology.

References

External links

• Official website

Coordinates: 39°44′31″N 105°04′15″W / 39.741927°N 105.070828°W / 39.741927; -105.070828