YOU CAN’T TELL THE STORY OF TREY PARKER AND MATT STONE’S OWNERSHIP OF CASA BONITA WITHOUT TALKING ABOUT SOUTH PARK.
Yes, there is the famous episode from 2003 that introduced so many people outside of Colorado to Lakewood’s iconic Mexican restaurant—you know, the one in which Cartman convinces his friend Butters that a meteor is going to hit Earth, so Butters needs to stay in a bomb shelter. And while he’s hunkered down, Butters will conveniently miss Kyle’s birthday party, which just so happens to be at Casa Bonita, Cartman’s favorite place in the world. So Cartman gets to go to Casa Bonita in Butters’ place. Well, sort of. The police find Butters and figure out Cartman’s plan, which means he has to rush through the eatery’s various attractions, ultimately eluding authorities by diving off the restaurant’s famous waterfall. When, at the end of the episode, the cops ask Cartman if it was all worth it, he says, floating on his back in Casa Bonita’s pool, “Totally.”
But there’s a more recent episode of South Park that, if you were watching closely, alluded to Parker and Stone’s challenges as new restaurant owners. The episode, called “DikinBaus Hot Dogs,” aired in March of this year, a bit more than a month before Parker and Stone were originally scheduled to reopen Casa Bonita. The plot loosely follows Cartman and Kenny’s attempt to turn the Coney Island Boardwalk hot dog stand (yes, of Bailey, Colorado, fame) into a destination restaurant complete with a massive slide and a zip line and a mermaid grotto. Hilarity ensues. Eager local television reporters say “DikinBaus” on air during the media frenzy; Cartman and Kenny go way over budget; and myriad, ridiculous logistical hurdles come up as they renovate the place. (“I think you gotta re-asphalt the entire parking area or just lose the zip line,” one of the contractors tells Cartman. “Well, obviously, we’re not going to lose the zip line,” Cartman says, “so let’s see what we can do.”)
The episode stands on its own as a sendup of post-pandemic workplace culture and as yet another example of Cartman’s narcissism (once again, he screws over Butters), but it was difficult to watch “DikinBaus Hot Dogs” and viewers something about how things were going at Casa Bonita. “The cool thing about is it’s always where we are in our lives,” Parker said in an interview this past May. “It’s like a band making an album. We’re always going, We were like, And then it was like, exactly ”
