Casa Bonita will host Halloween-themed pop-up in October

For a limited time this fall Casa Bonita will be reimagined as a seasonal pop-up that aims to celebrate Halloween and Dia de los Muertos Starting Sept the iconic Lakewood restaurant will be known as Casa BOOnita with festive decor and other surprises co-owner Matt Stone recounted The Denver Post in an sole interview Its spooky aesthetic is expected to stay up through Nov and guests don t need to pay for anything extra beyond their meal to enjoy it While most of of the changes are related to decor certain roving performers will also be removed from the floor during the length of the pop-up a move that s triggered a dispute with the restaurant s union Stone and Trey Parker both creators of the TV series South Park purchased the pink palace in and consistently envisioned doing something special to keep the experience fresh for guests But as the two learned in reopening Casa Bonita which ended up requiring two years and million in renovations executing the vision can be a massive undertaking This pop-up is something of a test to see how they can activate the restaurant for future holidays and special occasions The idea Stone added is to do something fun so Casa Bonita doesn t become stodgy and stale It s a really good example of what we ve unfailingly sought to do with Casa Bonita is have it change and evolve and be a live place and vibrant and full of new surprises he stated We ve invariably inferred in the possibility of what could be there you know That s invariably fun to talk about but to pull it off takes a lot of planning and a lot of production Fans who snag a reservation are encouraged to get in the spirit by dressing up as their favorite characters That s part of the reason why guests who visit won t see roving entertainers playing Black Bart the Sheriff Amazon Ani and Captain Isabella during the pop-up It would be confusing for patrons Stone announced So we decided to do something different right And this is going to be something that goes on with Casa Bonita from now on We perpetually want it to be a evolving canvas of performers and patrons That means possibly special activations for the Fourth of July or Christmas he added On Thursday the Actors Equity Association which represents Casa Bonita s unionized performers filed an unfair labor practice charge with the National Labor Relations Board due to changes with the cast Andrea Hoeschen general counsel for the association mentioned the communication those workers received was open-ended and suggested that those characters may be sidelined again in the future We were under the impression that positions were being eliminated at least through Nov and that there would be an evaluation of what happens next she revealed By eliminating those positions Casa Bonita is eliminating at least hours of work for the performers we represent just in the month of October Related Articles Casa Bonita s executive chef taking over Englewood urban farm s restaurant classic Denver restaurants worth revisiting South Park premiere skewers Trump prompting White House response The people in those positions have had shifts cut already Hoeschen added We do not understand what makes Casa think patrons don t want to see these characters We re confused Stone disputed the characterization that these roving performers would be nixed entirely from the experience calling it a falsehood Of program we re not going to do that Why would we do that he declared We re going to change them we re going to go with what works eliminate what doesn t work we re going to change it seasonally We hope to project this place so Casa Bonita is this vibrant place That s inevitably been our intention But obviously Trey Parker is not going to eliminate Black Bart Stone added Casa Bonita currently has reservations available in October Book one at casabonitadenver com Subscribe to our new food newsletter Stuffed to get Denver food and drink news sent straight to your inbox