082109ColfaxAvenueProjectMP0455

SHOT 8/21/09 8:42:51 PM - Casa Bonita restaurant on Colfax Avenue in Lakewood, Co. is a Mexican-themed restaurant (formerly a chain of restaurants) which originated in Oklahoma City. The restaurant features strolling mariachis, flame jugglers and a 30-foot (9.1 m) waterfall with cliff divers. It also has a small puppet theater, a "haunted tunnel" called Black Bart's Cave, an arcade with a large skee-ball room, and a magic theater. This location featured prominently on an episode of the animated TV series South Park. It opened in 1974 and took nearly a year to build. Casa Bonita seats as many 1,100 diners in 52, 000 square feet and is designed to look like a Mexican Village at night. Colfax Avenue is the main street that runs east and west through the Denver-Aurora metropolitan area in Colorado. As U.S. Highway 40, it was one of two principal highways serving Denver before the Interstate Highway System was constructed. In the local street system, it lies 15 blocks north of the zero point (Ellsworth Avenue, one block south of 1st Avenue). For that reason it would normally be known as "15th Avenue" but the street was named for the 19th-century politician Schuyler Colfax. On the east it passes through the city of Aurora, then Denver, and on the west, through Lakewood and the southern part of Golden. Colloquially, the arterial is referred to simply as "Colfax", a name that has become associated with prostitution, crime, and a dense concentration of liquor stores and inexpensive bars. Playboy magazine once called Colfax "the longest, wickedest street in America." However, such activities are actually isolated to short stretches of the 26-mile (42 km) length of the street. Periodically, Colfax undergoes redevelopment by the municipalities along its course that bring in new housing, trendy businesses and restaurants. Some say that these new developments detract from the character of Colfax, while others worry that they cause gentrification and bring increased traffic to the

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Filename: 082109ColfaxAvenueProjectMP0455.jpg
Copyright: © 2009 Marc Piscotty
Image Size: 5616x3744 / 6.2MB; America Colorado Denver North America U.S. United States United States of America theme restaurant kitsch kitschy
Contained in galleries: Colfax Avenue Project, 5280 Reasons to Love Denver Request

SHOT 8/21/09 8:42:51 PM - Casa Bonita restaurant on Colfax Avenue in Lakewood, Co. is a Mexican-themed restaurant (formerly a chain of restaurants) which originated in Oklahoma City. The restaurant features strolling mariachis, flame jugglers and a 30-foot (9.1 m) waterfall with cliff divers. It also has a small puppet theater, a "haunted tunnel" called Black Bart's Cave, an arcade with a large skee-ball room, and a magic theater. This location featured prominently on an episode of the animated TV series South Park. It opened in 1974 and took nearly a year to build. Casa Bonita seats as many 1,100 diners in 52, 000 square feet and is designed to look like a Mexican Village at night. Colfax Avenue is the main street that runs east and west through the Denver-Aurora metropolitan area in Colorado. As U.S. Highway 40, it was one of two principal highways serving Denver before the Interstate Highway System was constructed. In the local street system, it lies 15 blocks north of the zero point (Ellsworth Avenue, one block south of 1st Avenue). For that reason it would normally be known as "15th Avenue" but the street was named for the 19th-century politician Schuyler Colfax. On the east it passes through the city of Aurora, then Denver, and on the west, through Lakewood and the southern part of Golden. Colloquially, the arterial is referred to simply as "Colfax", a name that has become associated with prostitution, crime, and a dense concentration of liquor stores and inexpensive bars. Playboy magazine once called Colfax "the longest, wickedest street in America." However, such activities are actually isolated to short stretches of the 26-mile (42 km) length of the street. Periodically, Colfax undergoes redevelopment by the municipalities along its course that bring in new housing, trendy businesses and restaurants. Some say that these new developments detract from the character of Colfax, while others worry that they cause gentrification and bring increased traffic to the