LAKEWOOD, Colo. – Last week, I was in Colorado to give a speech at the University of Denver about my career covering Mexican food in the United States. My hosts asked where I wanted to dine the night before my talk.
The choice was obvious, even if it surprised them: Casa Bonita.
It’s one of the most infamous Mexican restaurants in the country, a sprawling complex in a run-down suburban shopping plaza lampooned since its 1974 opening as everything from a Mexican Disneyland to a cultural hate crime for its forever fiesta atmosphere. The place seemingly closed for good during the pandemic, an aging relic in an era when people didn’t need to imagine themselves in Mexico for an evening because Mexicans were now all around them…