Employees of Casa Bonita, the restaurant/performance venue recently purchased by “South Park” creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone, are going on strike.
The news came Wednesday afternoon after employees said management “walked away from the bargaining table” amid contract negotiations. The strike will begin at 11 a.m. on Thursday, Oct. 30, with a press release joking that “‘Casa Boo-nita’ will be dressed as an empty pink building for Halloween!”
“Casa management came to the table today offering an additional 11 cents over their last unfair wage offer, and very little for future layoff protections,” said lead negotiator Andrea Hoeschen, assistant executive director and general counsel for Actors’ Equity Association. “Despite that insult, the negotiating team responded with major compromises to try to get a deal. And then Casa Bonita walked away from the table without responding.”
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Casa Bonita has been a staple of the Denver area for decades, with the Mexican theme restaurant/performance space opening in 1974. The restaurant gained even greater prominence in 2004 when a Season 7 “South Park” episode centered on the iconic dining space.
After the COVID-19 pandemic rattled Casa Bonita, “South Park” creators Parker and Stone bought the venue in the 2020s. They committed $40 million to the space’s renovation, which was showcased in 2024’s Paramount+ documentary 2024 film “Casa Bonita Mi Amor!”
In 2024, Casa Bonita cast and crew filed to unionize with Actors’ Equity and IATSE in a unanimous vote. At the time, around 80 employees filed with the National Labor Review Board, including cliff divers, magicians and puppeteers. Since April, Actors’ Equity and Casa Bonita management have been in negotiations.
In September of 2025, the Casa Bonita union filed an Unfair Labor Practices charge against the restaurant when over 1,000 hours were cut from workers “without engaging in bargaining.” Actors’ Equity also noticed that management has “added insult to injury by doubling down on an unfair wage proposal and refusing to respond to demands around performer safety.”
“We know they can pay the wages we’re asking for because they already pay basically the same wages to the servers and bartenders,” Hoeschen continued. “Their insistence on paying DOLLARS an hour less to the performers reflects a choice and a philosophy to devalue performers.”
