South Park creators’ Casa Bonita restaurant scraps tips but pays $30 an hour
South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone have always gone against the grain, generally with great success.
Their shared CV is packed with hits, including the uncommonly consistent South Park, the fact they once turned up to the Oscars after ingesting some psychedelic substances, the deliriously successful Book of Mormon musical, and the outrageous-to-this-day Team America.
But behind their love for riling up just about everyone is an undercurrent of fair-mindedness and a commitment to some core creative values that have kept them and their work relevant across three decades.
The way they treat their staff at Casa Bonita, a Colorado restaurant previously featured in South Park as Eric Cartman’s favourite eatery, is just one example of how their generosity of spirit blends with their love for breaking the rules.
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Back in 2023, Casa Bonita was reopened after lengthy renovations that followed Stone and Parker’s 2021 acquisition, saving the restaurant from closing for good.
Based in Lakewood, Colorado, Casa Bonita specialises in Mexican food and breaks the mould in a tip-dependent hospitality industry.
When Parker and Stone took over, bar and waiting staff were given new contracts that guaranteed $30 an hour in wages with the caveat that they couldn’t accept tips.
For context, the living wage for a Colorado adult with no children is $25.47 an hour in 2025, meaning Casa Bonita’s base pay should cover their living expenses with room to spare.
This is a big departure from the usual setup at American bars and eateries where staff generally have very low base pay but make up their income in tips.
Tipping culture in the US is notoriously generous and widespread compared to the likes of the UK and Europe, with tips being a cultural expectation in a way they aren’t elsewhere.
After all, everyone knows the bar staff need the tips to survive, and the thinking is that it encourages good service so as to earn those tips.
Of course, there are plenty of misers, conscientious objectors, and tourists over there who either don’t understand the rules or refuse to play ball, leaving staff out of pocket.
By setting a wage that staff can live on, it seems Parker and Stone believe bar and restaurant staff’s income shouldn’t be so dependent on the milk of human kindness.
The guarantee of wages that cover living expenses must ease a lot of pressure on staff at Casa Bonita, anyway.
Axios Denver reported that Casa Bonita initially offered hourly wages ranging from $14.27 to $15.27 alongside tips, but then switched tactics by offering the $30 an hour contracts minus tips.
Staff had the choice of taking the offer or leaving the business.
According to Axios Denver, anonymous staff said that the increased stability was welcome, but that overall pay would go down in busy periods when the tips would ordinarily be flying.
A Casa Bonita spokesperson told Axios that the aim of the system was to implement more “efficiency and fairness”.
The restaurant also uses a prepaid ticket system for meals, meaning customers pre-book their meals and pay ahead of time, eliminating the post-meal tip conversation that usually comes with the bill.
This equitable approach to pay might not seem so radical to us Brits, but in the states it’s a big divergence from the norm.
With a workforce that’s used to the gamble of making tips, or not, it’s unsurprising that it hasn't been a runaway success with everyone.
Nevertheless, Parker and Stone must sleep relatively well at night knowing their Casa Bonita staff can pay their bills without relying on the kindness of strangers.
Rachael Davis