Reader: Can't wait to return to Colorado's most famous restaurant...Casa Bonita!

On Friday, the 300 (or so) restaurants participating in Denver Restaurant Week will be posting their $52.80 (for two) menus for the two-week eating orgy that starts on February 25; we're offering $52.80 to both the diner and the restaurant employee who offer the best Denver Restaurant Week survival tip...

By Patricia Calhoun

January 18, 2012

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On Friday, the 300 (or so) restaurants participating in Denver Restaurant Week will be posting their $52.80 (for two) menus for the two-week eating orgy that starts on February 25; we're offering $52.80 to both the diner and the restaurant employee who offer the best Denver Restaurant Week survival tip.

But the most famous restaurant in the Denver area, the biggest restaurant in Colorado, the restaurant that looks likes Disney had sex with Tijuana and left the goofy-looking bastard to fend for itself in a random strip mall on Colfax, won't be participating...again.

Casa Bonita is not a part of DRW -- but somehow, its fame remains. A fan of the appropriately Pepto-Bismol-pink palace just posted this comment:

Says Matt:

My family used to go here every summer on our yearly trip to Colorado. I mentioned this place to friends and none of them actually believed it existed. They thought that Matt Parker and Trey Stone made it up for the South Park episode. I proudly told them it does exist and is exactly like the show. For some strange reason, I want to go back next time I'm back in the States.

In the meantime, Matt and other Casa Bonita fans can memorize our advice on "How to survive Casa Bonita, the world's weirdest Mexican restaurant." And the rest of you? Mark your calendars for Denver Restaurant Week -- when you can try all those restaurants that actually deserve fame for their food.

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Patricia Calhoun is editor-in-chief of Westword, the alt-weekly she co-founded in September 1977. She’s been inducted into the Colorado Press Association Hall of Fame, the Association of Alternative Newsmedia Hall of Fame and the Colorado Restaurant Association Hall of Fame. She’s also received dozens of local, state and national awards for writing, including first place for feature writing and first place for column writing with the Society of Professional Journalists. Patricia is a weekly commentator on Colorado Inside Out, PBS 12's public affairs roundtable, which has won two Emmys.

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