Just another day at Casa Bonita. Cliff divers Conor Morrison (left) and Matt Jagiello (bottom center). (Photo by Andy Cross via Getty Images.)
What if Mars 2112 never closed? If you were among the generation of New Yorkers who got to experience the much-bereaved Martian embassy in the form of a Midtown restaurant, which closed in 2012, sit with me for a moment. Smell the chlorinated “lava” pools. Feel the neon lights strobing across your face. Were we ever so beautiful?
In a distant land, this excess of kitsch and narrative still exists in a dining room. A 56,000-square foot one, flanked by an orthodontist’s office and a micro-brewery advertising “Chicken Shit Bingo” in an otherwise dreary strip mall in a small Denver suburb called Lakewood. If only New Yorkers could be so lucky to have a pair of freak Medicis like Matt Stone and Trey Parker, who lent their generosity to their home state of Colorado, where their long-running hit show South Park is set. Since 2021, more than $40 million of their combined fortunes went to revitalizing the West’s equivalent of Mars 2112: Casa Bonita.
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