Casa Bonita, Mexican restaurant in Lakewood, Colorado
Casa Bonita is a Mexican restaurant in Lakewood, Colorado, occupying a 52,000-square-foot building crowned by a gold dome and a statue of Cuauhtémoc, the last Aztec emperor. Inside, a multilevel dining room with plastic palm trees and strings of lights surrounds a 30-foot indoor waterfall with cliff divers modelled on the cliffs of Acapulco, alongside themed façades, Black Bart's Cave and a puppet theater.
The building opened its doors in 1974 inside a former department store in the area. The owners transformed over 52,000 square feet (4,800 square meters) of retail space into themed eating areas.
Casa Bonita means "pretty house" in Spanish, not "beautiful house." The name nods to the pink exterior and themed rooms styled after Mexican regional architecture, including Puerto Vallarta. A mariachi band plays while cliff divers plunge into the 30-foot indoor waterfall modeled on the cliffs of Acapulco.
Guests must buy food to enter and move through the restaurant; each table has a flag raised to call the server. Reservations are taken for weekends, and sopapillas arrive after the meal. The 52,000-square-foot building seats up to 1,100 people.
Puppeteers perform short plays inside small theaters built into the cave area. An arcade room offers mechanical coin games from past decades.
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