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The Story of Casa Bonita
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Phillip Ramsey reflects on a transformative experience at Casa Bonita, a unique Mexican restaurant in Colorado. He explores how a revamped business model—raising prices to deliver unparalleled experiences—shaped his visit. Drawing parallels to his own entrepreneurial journey with Uncommon Wealth, Phillip discusses the importance of charging what experiences are truly worth to provide the best possible service. He delves into themes of value, nostalgia, and customer satisfaction while sharing lessons that can be applied both personally and professionally. Join Phillip as he unpacks the impact of embracing a premium experience.
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Transcript
Introduction to the Uncommon Wealth Podcast
00:00:00
Speaker
Everyone dreams of living an uncommon life and the best asset you have to achieve your dreams is you. Welcome to the Uncommon Wealth Podcast.
00:00:12
Speaker
We're going to introduce you to people who are living uncommonly. We're also going to give you some tools and strategies for building wealth and for pursuing an uncommon path that is uniquely right for you.
00:00:26
Speaker
Hello and welcome everybody to another episode of the Uncommon Wealth Podcast where I'm your host Philip Ramsey. Today i can't wait to shoot this podcast.
Philip's Personal Experience and Casa Bonita
00:00:35
Speaker
Here's why. One, it's a solo class. This is me, Uncommon Wealth, rocking and rolling.
00:00:39
Speaker
But I had an experience that I think was so powerful for at least me. I think it could be for you. um But so let's just go through this. I think a lot of times when I'm out and about, I see things in a different light.
00:00:53
Speaker
Uncommon wealth, very uncommon viewpoint. And this is one thing. So I feel like God kind of spoke to me in this situation. It was a very quirky one, um but I think it's going to resonate. I know it resonated with me.
00:01:04
Speaker
So let's take you back last week, two weeks ago, actually. My my wife and I took our family. We have a family of five, three kids. My wife and I, we went to Colorado.
00:01:16
Speaker
and went to a place called Casa Bonita. If anybody's ever been to Casa Bonita, you just know. If you know, you know. But this restaurant is an old department store that this individual had a wild and crazy, uncommon idea to turn into an experience, a Mexican dinner experience.
00:01:35
Speaker
And Casa Bonita, for those of you who do know, you you it's hard to explain. But for the don't, here we go. I'm going to try to explain it. I feel like revelation, right? Like he's trying to give you the picture, but it's like hard to picture. But so it's a restaurant, it's a Mexican restaurant. It's a department store. This individual came in and he has so many people. that It seats a thousand and there's different areas that you can sit. It's like the pirate room or the Guatemala room or the cave room. You have all these different ones or the mine room. It's pretty sweet.
00:02:05
Speaker
um And then also there's like mariachi bands, there's puppeteers, there's a magician. And then in the middle of it, there's this 30 foot wall like cliff where cliff divers jump off and they dive and they kind of entertain. And it's quite the experience at the end of your dinner. Again, this is all for dinner, right? It's kind of Mexican.
00:02:25
Speaker
And honestly, it's not been known for great food, but it's great entertainment. It's the experience. Okay. So let's kind of go backwards to the first time I experienced the old Casa Bonita.
00:02:36
Speaker
And my parents took me, my mom and dad took my sister and I, her name is Trela, that's my sister, my my dad Phil, my mom Chris, they take their kids out to Colorado and we get to experience this place called Casa Bonita.
00:02:50
Speaker
And I have to say I'm like eight or maybe 10. But it was unbelievable. Okay. Like this place you walk in and your eyes are kind of like trying to process like what's happening. Like, it's just awesome. And you're eight, you know, so everything looks bigger, but then you see this cliff divers and you're like, am in heaven? Because this is the coolest thing.
00:03:12
Speaker
You go to the puppeteers, they got an arcade. They have like this tiny little maze that you can go through. They have kind of like a haunted cave that you take a walk through. But the whole experience is pretty sweet.
00:03:23
Speaker
And so when I was eight, my sister was probably
Challenges and Revival of Casa Bonita
00:03:26
Speaker
10 or 11. We go through this and i just remember having such an amazing experience. And I was like, i want to give my kids this experience. So 10 years ago, my wife and I,
00:03:38
Speaker
go back to Colorado. And it's the first time like I'm like, i can't wait to bring my kids to cas Bonita. Well, a lot has happened to Casa Bonita since I went when it was thriving. Okay. There was not a, not a seat unavailable when I went, but when we went with my kids, guys, it was, it was barely limping along. I'll just say that barely limping along.
00:04:01
Speaker
Probably 60% of the tables were full. There was arcade games that were broken. they're just There was divers diving, but the mariachi singers were not really singing.
00:04:14
Speaker
The puppeteer, that kind of was closed down. But the whole experience, I think our kids had fun. We had fun pictures, right? But the whole experience was very different than the one eye I experienced.
00:04:26
Speaker
Okay, so now we're back up to speed. Two weeks ago, we take our kids and it's kind of like a nostalgic thing. Okay, we're going to go back. But what happened with Casa Bonita is they ended up going bankrupt or almost bankrupt. I think somebody bought them. I know who bought them.
00:04:42
Speaker
But what happened was COVID wrecked them and barely eking by, ended up just kind of putting a nail in the coffin. they They shut it down. And the next owners came in And they purchased it, I think it was like 2001. You can go back and get the history of Casa Bonita. It's like a cult following. People love it.
00:05:01
Speaker
But they go in and I think what happened, and I'm speculating, but what I think happened, somebody purchased this Casa Bonita and hired a consultant. And the consultant went up to him and said, hey, what do you want Casa Bonita to be like?
00:05:14
Speaker
And I think the owner said, i want it to be like it used to be. I want every table full. I want the mariachi singers to be belting out. I want the puppet puppeteers to be rocking and rolling.
00:05:26
Speaker
I want the magician to be in the little magician's room. I want people to be just the buzz to be happening. All the arcade games working. We want to be staffed to the nines. And I think this consultant said, okay, if you really want that, you're going to have to get about 45 to $50 per person that walks in this door.
00:05:46
Speaker
And the people who bought it were probably like, there's no way. We've never been really known for the good food, if you know what i mean. And they said, well, hey do you want the experience or not? And they said, okay, let's let's do it.
00:05:59
Speaker
And again, I'm speculating, but this is what I think happened. Because when we went back two weeks ago, my question to you, do you think it was packed? Or do you feel like it was like 60% full?
00:06:12
Speaker
The answer is it was packed. It was like it used to be thousand table, a thousand places to sit. I think they were probably 90% full. We went on a Thursday evening.
00:06:23
Speaker
Um, all the mariachi singers were rocking rolling. It was exactly how I remember it. Okay. Now, The price tag for us to go for my family, there was two different price points. There was standard at $39.99 per person. That includes your food and a drink and all the soap peas you can eat.
00:06:40
Speaker
Or you could do like the premium, which is I think $44 per person unless you're under such an age. but um For the family of five, all transparency, I i spent about $280. Okay. And at first I was like, go that's expensive.
00:06:58
Speaker
But I left there and I was so thankful that I paid the amount I did because the owners got to give me the experience that they wanted to give me versus this like duct taped experience where they're giving me like, they're trying to get $20 per plate. It just wasn't working.
00:07:14
Speaker
And so they went to the consultant. The consultant said, hey, we're going need this amount of money to actually fund what you want to do, have everybody staffed, this thing rocking and rolling. And they just agreed to it.
00:07:25
Speaker
So this is how God kind
Reflections on Quality and Pricing
00:07:27
Speaker
of spoke to me. I feel like a lot of times I have an experience that I want to give people Commonwealth, but yet I dumb it down because I want to try to help so many people. And so I discount what we're doing or I um don't charge.
00:07:41
Speaker
At end the day, I feel like I'm kind of like the Casa Bonita 10 years ago where, yeah, it's a good experience, but it's not great. And what I need to do is level up my mindset, level up my brain in saying, if I know the amazing Uncom experience I want to give, then it's okay to get to charge people what I think I need to charge in order to give them that experience.
00:08:04
Speaker
So I don't know if things like this happened in your life, but man, i and that Casa Bonita experience has been rocking my world of like, that is unbelievable how much we just paid and how I felt okay about paying it because I felt like I got the value that I paid because they gave me the experience that they wanted to give me. So the people that actually purchased the Casa Bonita is Trey Parker and Matt Stone, the creators of South Park.
00:08:33
Speaker
And they had the experience like I did 30 years ago. And they were like, wanna make it like that. And i just saw an interview of them. They said, it would have been a lot easier to purchase somewhere else and then build it from ground up rather than renovating what we just did. Cause it was like a money pit. and But in that, I feel like they're actually making a profit and people are actually excited to go. And the food is good and the experience is amazing. And so they turned Casa Bonita around to where it used to be, where my kids got the experience that I got to get.
00:09:09
Speaker
And it was well worth the money I spent.
Conclusion and Encouragement
00:09:12
Speaker
Okay, how do you apply this in your life? I'm not sure. But what I would say is I was grateful to have that experience.
00:09:21
Speaker
I could walk into Casa Bonita, pay a little bit more, pay at a premium, but my family and I got the experience that I love and we got the memories that will last forever. So I hope this resonated with you. I'm grateful that you are listening to the Uncommon Wealth Podcast.
00:09:39
Speaker
I'm hopeful that you're getting some nuggets or pearls to take into your own life, but we'd love to hear from you. Shoot me an email at philip at uncommonwealth.com. um Yeah, until then.
00:09:50
Speaker
Kobe Uncommon, thanks for listening. That's all for this episode brought to you by Uncommon Wealth Partners. Be sure to visit uncommonwealth.com to learn more about our services.
00:10:02
Speaker
Don't miss an episode as we introduce you to inspiring people who are actively pursuing an uncommon life.