Matt Stone and Trey Parker, born and raised in Denver, were obsessed as kids like many with Mexican restaurant Casa Bonita, a massive, labyrinthine, Disneyland-ish local landmark that opened in 1974 in Lakewood, Colorado with roving characters, live shows, secret rooms and so-so food. It fell on hard times and then closed in 2020 during Covid. So they bought it after some soul searching and hoped a speedy renovation would delight their kids and others as they had been. The Denver area cheered.

It was not speedy and quickly soared past the estimated $6 million budget — ultimately passing $40 million. Floors, walls and ceilings were rotten, everything electric outdated and dangerous, and plumbing a disaster in the 54,000 square foot emporium. A falcon had been dropping pigeon carcasses on the roof since the 1970s. There is much footage of Parker wandering the site in distress texting pics to Stone. A lot of, “That’s so disgusting.”

In the new doc ¡CASA BONITA MI AMOR! director Arthur Bradford (6 Days To Air) follows the South Park creators on their journey as the budget swelled and the project often seemed impossible. To the bemusement of many, they stuck it out, refusing work to stay on track.

The restaurant opened a year ago to preview audiences and looks rather gorgeous. Parker wrote the script to the puppet show and to offbeat dialogue by two talking skeletons. The animatronic fortune-telling macaw isn’t quite right yet, said Stone after a screening at the Tribeca Festival where the duo talked with Andy Cohen in a rare public appearance. Casa Bonita is expected to open to the general public later this year.

“Friends were like, ‘What the f–k are you guys doing?’” said Parker. “’We’re opening a Mexican restaurant. Yeah. We’ve got this Mexican restaurant.’ We were turning a lot of cool stuff down.”

¡CASA BONITA MI AMOR! is from MTV Documentary Films and will soon head to Paramount+.

The two said they’d considered launching a chain but dropped the idea. “We’ve talked about it, but we still haven’t got this one right, and we don’t have an extra $40 million lying around,” said Stone. And “sometimes magic is magic.” We thought about other markets, “but there’s shit to do in New York and LA. In Denver in the 1980s when we live there, there was nothing to do.” Casa Bonia was such an influence it was featured in a South Park episode (Season Seven, episode 11). Cartman flips out when he’s not invited to Kyle’s birthday at Casa Bonita.

The South Park creators also talked about comedy, their process, their favorite voices from the long running show, and if they have an EGOT shot — they’ve got Emmys, Tony awards and Grammys, just missing an Oscar.

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