Casa Bonita doc debuts at Tribeca Film Festival

Casa Bonita will be the subject of a new film, and this one isn’t a cartoon.

A documentary about the Pink Palace and its journey to reopen under the ownership of “South Park” creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker debuts at the Tribeca Film Festival this week, offering moviegoers a glimpse behind the scenes of the historic restaurant’s revival.

Premiering Friday, “¡Casa Bonita Mi Amor!” follows Stone and Parker from the time they first considered buying the Lakewood landmark they visited as kids growing up near Denver to last summer when it officially reopened, albeit in a limited capacity.

A year later, diners can still only snag a reservation by being invited to do so via an email lottery — but that’s poised to change soon.

In an interview with The Denver Post, Stone and Parker said they hope to open reservations to the general public by late summer.

Given that, the duo said “¡Casa Bonita Mi Amor!” spotlights the first segment in a much longer saga. Since purchasing the eatertainment complex in 2021, Stone and Parker have been humbled by the experience of bringing it back to life, especially after watching it back on film.

“It’s about us getting kicked in the nuts a little bit,” Stone said of the documentary.

“¡Casa Bonita Mi Amor!” was directed by Arthur Bradford, who also created 2011’s “6 Days to Air: The Making of South Park.” Originally, the idea was to film behind the scenes at the 50-year-old Casa Bonita as part of a bigger project about Stone and Parker, but the story took on a life of its own.

“‘Kitchen Nightmares’ is probably the easiest go-to reference,” Stone said.

“Like, this could take five years, so we could have five seasons’ worth of slowly watching it fail,” Parker added.

In one scene, when the two are touring the restaurant before purchasing it, Stone comments that all the venue needs is fresh carpet, a fresh coat of paint, and some new lighting to start its new era. Little did he know it would cost upward of $40 million and take several years to complete renovations.

“I’m like the dumbest person ever in this shot,” Stone said with a laugh. “You know I’m wrong when watching it, that’s what’s funny about it. I cringe when I watch that now.”

At times, it felt like Casa Bonita would never come to fruition, Stone and Parker said, so if nothing else they would have footage of what happened. Now that the restaurant is operating, rewatching the drama it took to get there is less painful.

The release of “¡Casa Bonita Mi Amor!” comes as thousands of fans await highly coveted invitations to book reservations. Parker emphasized Casa Bonita was not a vanity project for making a documentary.

“We don’t want everyone in Colorado to be like, ‘Well, nice documentary guys, where is our (expletive) restaurant?’” he said.

The screening at Tribeca is intended to get feedback outside of the echo chamber of superfans. Plus, Stone and Parker are movie buffs and studied film at the University of Colorado in Boulder. They wanted Bradford, a longtime friend, to have an appropriate stage to showcase the documentary.

“We thought it was funny to show it in New York ’cause New Yorkers are like what the (expletive) is this? Like what is Casa Bonita,” Parker said.

Though Casa Bonita has remained in a soft-opening phase for a year – or “beta-testing” as the owners call it – it’s already served 150,000 patrons. Stone and Parker have been endlessly tweaking things to improve the customer experience, from small elements like the timing of magic and puppet shows to large logistics like paying for and picking up food, adjusting as more people came through the doors.

“We just needed to go through these kind of preview audiences to watch how people react to stuff and watch how it works. It’s amazing how hard it is to get all those pieces moving together,” Stone said.