LAKEWOOD, Colo. — If you are still waiting to dine at Casa Bonita, you're in good company.
Dana "Loca" Rodriguez, Casa Bonita's culinary partner, said 400,000 to 600,000 people are on the waitlist almost a year after the restaurant's highly anticipated reopening.
"I think everybody's happy and excited to see what the new owners have done," Rodriguez said. "We try to change nothing and improve everything and make sure when people just walk into the door, they want to come back."
Local
The long-awaited reopening of Lakewood's Casa Bonita is finally here
Following its reopening, the restaurant only offered dinner service. Patrons were randomly selected from the waitlist and had to purchase tickets for select time slots.
Today, the restaurant is still only open to those with tickets. However, Rodriguez said they've been able to open for more days during the week and offer lunch service as well as dinner service.
On an average day, the restaurant will use 200 pounds of dough and whip up roughly 2,500 sopapillas.
"I'm going tell you one thing in the restaurant world, the first year when you open a restaurant, you're sitting there figuring things out. Casa is no different. One year, it feels like you've [been] open for a month," said Rodriguez.
Rodriguez said being a part of the reopening has been a dream come true for her.
"That was the first restaurant that I applied when I moved from Mexico. I didn't get the job because I didn't have experience. And when I got the call to come back and do this, it was literally like a movie going into my head," she said.
Lakewood
Employees: Casa Bonita reopening a 'masterclass in how not to open a restaurant'
Officials couldn't give too much away but said this is all just the beginning for Casa Bonita.
"You know, I'm sure [Matt Stone and Trey Parker] have great ideas and dreams about what else they want to do and present to Colorado. With the nature of the size of this restaurant, with all the employees that you have, I'm sure it's gonna take a long time. I'm pretty sure it's gonna be a lot of surprises. What they do for Casa Bonita is amazing. And Colorado should be very thankful," Rodriguez said.
If you'd like to join the restaurant's waitlist, you can do so by signing up for Casa Bonita's newsletter here.
