If you are one of the millions of people who suddenly went puzzle-crazy during the pandemic lockdowns of 2020, then you may have heard of Liberty Puzzles, a 19-year-old Boulder company that specializes in manufacturing high-end, hand-cut wooden jigsaw puzzles.
Liberty’s works became highly sought-after commodities for people who were looking to spend their time doing something creative during their downtime. As veritable pieces of art, many of the puzzles ended up in frames, on coffee tables or otherwise displayed in homes nationwide.
Related: Meet the Denver chef behind Casa Bonita’s sopaipilla-scented candles
The demand for Liberty’s puzzles nearly killed the company, though, according to a December 2023 story by online media company Slate. “It was like a stratospheric explosion,” Liberty co-founder Chris Wirth told Slate. “[Orders] were coming in so fast, and we were watching, helpless, because we didn’t have a kill switch for our website.”
“By the time Wirth and his business partner, Jeff Eldridge, managed to track down their web developers to get them to turn off the online ordering system, they’d racked up about 10,000 orders,” the story continued.
The firm recovered, though, and is thriving. In fact, Casa Bonita has teamed up with Liberty on a 317-piece puzzle (it measures 12 1/2 inches by 13 3/4 inches) “adorned with a delightful array of ‘whimsy’ pieces, showcasing iconic elements of The World’s Greatest Restaurant, from our cherished sopaipillas to fearless cliff divers, and beyond,” the famed Lakewood restaurant writes on its website.
In other words, some of the pieces are literally shaped like the Pink Palace’s tower, the divers, the fountain out front, a gorilla, palm trees and more.
But the puzzle will set you back $99, which is high for a regular puzzle, but perhaps not for the wooden variety — a style that dates back to the 1930s, according to Liberty.
The majority of Liberty’s puzzles cost between $75 and $155, although there are a few in the $40 range and others that are upward of $250. So the Casa Bonita version is actually on the lower end. Want to check it out? Go to shop.casabonitadenver.com.
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