Pop Culture Retrospective # 37 - Extinct and Disappearing Restaurant Chains of the 80s and 90s Pt. I

Episode #37 - Extinct and Disappearing Restaurant Chains from the 80s and 90s Part One.

When I think back over my childhood and what I know scared the absolute crap out of me and my sister, a few things and people come to mind:   The Peculiar Purple Pieman of Porcupine Peak from Strawberry Shortcake who always sang a creepy song whenever he was around doing something bad, Pennywise the Clown from the movie, “It” which I was somehow convinced to watch (and really any other clown for that matter) and the audio-animatronic characters that were a supposed “band” called Rock-A-Fire Explosion (in earlier incarnations they were called the Wolfpack Five) from Showbiz Pizza (the precursor to Chuck E Cheese of course).  The robotic animals all sort of airplayed musical instruments and lip synched to the patrons who visited this 1980s children’s entertainment hot spot.  Some of the characters included Fatz Geronimo (much like the famous Fats Domino) who tickled the ivories despite having opposable thumbs, Duke Larue who played the drums, Mitzie Mozzarella (like Minnie Pearl the famous country comedian who played at the Grand ‘ol Opry) sang. Dressed in a green and white vintage cheerleading outfit, she also shook her poms poms and turned her head which would move around her blond pigtails that framed her furry, human-sized mouse head.  Also, there was a character named Beach Bear who played the guitar, clad in swim trunks and a flower lay.  There was also Billy Bob Brockali who played a guitar that looked like it was carved out of a tree trunk.  He had a sidekick named Looney Bird.  Rounding off the group was Rolfe and his hand puppet Earl. Rolfe was the emcee of the group.  He was a wolf that stood up on his hind legs, and was clad in a fancy vest and matching bow tie. All of them moved very mechanically of course, but impressive for it’s time nonetheless, and each stared intently into the audience whilst playing their instruments and singing.  Each one, including Mitzie Mozzarella, were absolutely terrifying to look at.  They were all the size of humans so it almost seemed as if one of them would just suddenly stand up, draw a knife and go on a slash fest in the audience.  They were so creepy that a video game, called Five Nights at Freddy’s, which I learned about from a student of mine who was obsessed with the game, is loosely based on the Rock-A-Fire Explosion and Chuck E Cheese characters.  In the game, the individual playing is trying to get away from the animatronic characters inside a run down family restaurant.   The game is spine-chilling and that’s putting it nicely. In my life, I have two fears:  one:  driving across the country and the only thing to listen to is country music and the other is being locked in a dark room and out of nowhere the Rock-A-Fire band appears and they start playing their music as well as singing and dancing.  Mitzie Mozzarella could easily hide a knife or other weapon underneath her pom poms.  Just sayin’.  Sorry for being so dark, but have no fear, that won’t be the case for most of the show, I promise.

With that being said, on today’s show we will be discussing the extinct and slowly disappearing chain restaurants from the 80s and 90s that could once be found not only in the Midwest but also across the nation in the United States.  Don’t worry, we will definitely talk more about Showbiz Pizza, but we will also touch on a ton of other eateries that could be found in towns, cities and off of highways all over the country.  Some of these can still be found today.  Because I found so much fascinating information about so many restaurants I decided to split this topic into 2 episodes.  I have so much to share with you!  So grab your appetite, some arcade tokens, your favorite steak knife and load up in the woody station wagon, here we go! 

Hello and thank you so very much for tuning in to the Pop Culture Retrospective Podcast, a show inspired by, and in memory of, my big sister Rebecca and her love for all things pop-culture, especially the people, places and things of the 80s, 90s and early 00s.  My name is Amy Lewis and I am your captain aboard this pop culture time machine.  Thank you for joining me yet again for this nostalgic look back, it’s definitely good to be back back.  As I mentioned in previous shows, once summer is over and my kids are back in school, I am hoping to get back to my regular schedule of releasing a show every two weeks.  The summer is just a little crazy in our household but I love doing the show!  You are tuning in to episode #37 - Extinct and Disappearing Restaurant Chains from the 80s and 90s.  I had so much fun doing the extinct mall and big box store episodes that I wanted to also take a look at the places I remember eating as a kid with my sister or at least driving past.  Those episodes are also some of the more popular ones of this podcast so I figured it was a win-win.  What follows, like the episodes I just mentioned, is sort of a run down of restaurant chains that you may remember from decades past. These are in no particular order and spoiler alert, you will again be hearing the word:  bankruptcy a lot, but I decided to incorporate some sound effects each time I say the B word, so stay tuned!  I’m laughing now just thinking about it. Also, be prepared for some bad puns.  You’ve been warned! Anyhoo, here we go!  

Planet Hollywood:  if you were into the movies back in the day, Planet Hollywood was the place to go!  Backed by celebrities like Bruce Willis, Demi Moore and Roseanne, the first dining location opened in 1991 in NYC and dozens of others would soon follow.  At its peak there were over 90 locations including one at WDW that I had a t-shirt from.  It was a royal blue.  And it was the kind of thick cotton that was not ideal for Florida, nonetheless I wore that shirt all of the time.  Planet Hollywood was much like the other restaurants we will be discussing. I dub these the “shit on the walls” restaurants that had assorted crap on the walls to create some sense of a theme which worked in some instances and not at all in others.  Hereafter I will refer to any restaurant that has this characteristic as SOTW.   For instance, in Planet Hollywood you could find items from film sets like Supergirl’s uniform or Batman’s uniform protected in a glass display case.  Further, the inside of Planet Hollywood felt a bit like a planetarium with it’s incredibly high ceilings and dome-light structure.  As the years have carried on, popularity of the Planet Hollywood Restaurant has faded, as of 2019 there were only 7 locations left, the one at WDW still remains. It has recently been renovated and definitely has a lot less memorabilia, it seems they are focusing more on quality food and desserts instead of their SOTW.  I think in the 1980s and the 1990s, celebrities were sort of these untouchable people so having some exposure to Hollywood via a restaurant was quite appealing. However, I wonder with the advent of social media and fans being able to see celebrities quite easily, in a split second no less, has made restaurants like Planet Hollywood and the like less popular.  

Hard Rock Cafe:  The first Hard Rock Cafe opened in 1971 through a collaboration between two men - Peter Morton and Isaac Tigrett.  The restaurant and music venues became well-known for live music performances - did you know Paul McCartney performed at one location in 1973?  They are also known for having SOTW like a Cadillac hanging from the ceiling, album covers all over the walls and electric guitars.  There are over 180 Hard Rock Locations all over the world including US Cities like Chicago, Orlando and San Francisco.  Internationally, there are restaurants in Finland, Italy, Japan and Thailand.  There are even Hard Rock hotels and casinos.  

The Hard Rock Cafe has fared better than Planet Hollywood in terms of closures, but many locations, especially those abroad have closed both prior to, and as a result of, Covid-19.  Some restaurants have relocated within major cities as well.  I remember having a black, non-hooded sweatshirt as a kid with the classic hard rock logo on it.  My sister’s was white.  That’s probably because I was a hot mess as a kid and she was also so neat and orderly.  

ESPN Zone:  if you were a big sports fan during the late 1990s and into the first 18 years of the millennium, then perhaps you found yourself at one time at an ESPN Zone location.  The history of the ESPN Zone dates back to 1992 when a Disney executive named Art Levitt who pitched the idea of opening a huge sports bar/restaurant themed around the famed sports channel.  Disney and ESPN Leadership didn’t initially like that idea so perhaps because of that and other issues, Levitt left the Disney Company to work for Hard Rock International, what an interesting coincidence!  However, his idea did later gain traction and in 1996, the first ESPN Zone opened at the Boardwalk Resort in Walt Disney World.  It expanded and in 1998, another location opened in Baltimore and soon others followed in major cities all over the U.S. including Chicago, Anaheim (near Disneyland), Las Vegas and one could be found in Times Square, NYC. The location in Chicago had a huge mural spanning multiple walls that depicted Chicago sports legends like Michael Jordan, Mike Ditka, Walter Payton and everyone’s favorite intoxicated on-camera sport’s announcer, Harry Carey. Not only could you eat and drink here, you could also watch sports on one of the dozens of televisions spread out all over (one location had at least 200 televisions) or you could play arcade games like Air Hockey, Motorcycle racing games and the like.  In 2009, a few ESPN locations hosted the Ultimate Couch Potato Championships and a woman won the competition by allegedly sitting and watching sports for over 70 hours.  Yikes! By 2018, the last ESPN location in Anaheim closed it’s doors for good.  It’s not clear why exactly Disney decided to shut down the sports bar chain, but it sounds like they were not as popular as expected and they were quite expensive to operate. Most locations were at least 30,000 square feet and I’m sure with all of those dang televisions, their electricity bills must have been outrageous.  That’s not to mention cable! I guess ESPN Zone wasn’t quite the slam dunk that Disney wanted.  See what I did there?

Rainforest Cafe:  The first location of this over-stimulating restaurant opened in 1994 at the Mall of America which is located in Minnesota.  Fun fact - my family and I drove through a blizzard to get to the Mall of America.  I guess we really, really wanted to shop there.  Anyways, the Rainforest Cafe is unique in that it is really an experience for the senses as each location is incredibly colorful and has things like oversized fish tanks and mushrooms decorating the interior as well as artificial trees that extend to the ceiling and dining chairs that look like they were built by Papa Bear from the Berenstain Bears.  Further, the restaurants also feature an extensive collection of audio-animatronic animals like elephants and monkeys.  Apparently one room at each location is devoted strictly to the operation of the robotic creatures.  The restaurant in turn is incredibly expensive to operate and underperforming locations have been closed.  After being in operation for 27 years, only about ½ of the locations are still open, but some did close as a result of the pandemic.  The original location in the Mall of America is still open, there are two located in Walt Disney World and there are international locations in places like Dubai, Paris and Tokyo.  This restaurant takes the cake for SOTW.

Ponderosa:  was established in 1965 in Indiana and became well-known for their steaks, which were often complimented by a baked potato and salad.  The idea to develop Ponderosa came from two men who joined forces and were inspired by the success of Bonanza which was primarily located in Southern states.  While not a SOTW restaurant, customers appreciated the reasonable prices and later their buffets.  The name Ponderosa comes from the classic television show Bonanza  which is set in a place called Ponderosa Ranch.  The East Coast version of Ponderosa was called Bonanza or as people in Maine like to pronounce it because the accents here are strange, Bonanzer.  The 1980s was a tough time for Ponderosa due to competition from the likes of Bonanza and Sizzler (both of which we will talk about in the continuing episode).  Further, their restaurants were starting to get run down and dated and they neglected to update their menus to reflect Americans trying to eat a bit healthier (i.e. eating more fish and chicken instead of red meat).  In the 1990s, their restaurant motif included the all-too-popular-at-the-time southwestern colors like bold teals and deep pinks.  They also added a soup station. In 1997 Bonanza and Ponderosa merged and each location maintained their original names.  At it’s peak there were over 300 Ponderosas in the United States but in 2008 the company filed for bankruptcy. By 2019 there were just 75 - with 19 being outside of the country. As of today, there are only a handful of Bonanza and Ponderosa locations in the United States.  It looks like there are about 20 Ponderosas and maybe 3 Bonanzas.  You can find more information at pon-bon.com.  Very creative website address if I do say so myself, and I do.  I just did. 

Chi-Chi’s:  was founded in Minneapolis, Minnesota in 1975 by former Green Bay Packer’s player, Max McGee and restauranteur Marno McDermitt.  In the early days they gave out free chips and salsa which was a huge crowd pleaser.  Further, customers enjoyed their chimichangas, margaritas and fried ice cream.  By 1986, there were 237 locations including one a few towns over from where I grew up, but I don’t think we ever went there for whatever reason but I can picture the exterior in my mind.  The interior featured bold colors like teal, purple and dark green and royal blue.  Further, at least one location had a mural of an exploding bottle of hot sauce.  Sometimes Mexican food can lead to other types of explosions….Anyways, popularity of the restaurant chain started to decrease due to competitors and by 1995, there were 210 locations.  By 2002 there were 144 locations.  In 2003 the company filed for bankruptcy and just one month later, the largest hepatitis outbreak in US History occurred at a Chi Chi’s restaurant via contaminated green onions which led to 660 infections and 4 deaths.  I think it occured at Philadelphia restaurant.  By 2004 all of the Chi Chi’s restaurants were closed and it was Adios, forever.  What may have also contributed to the chain’s demise were some of the stereotypes that were on display in some of their commercials and other marketing tactics.  Take a listen to this cringe-worthy commercial:  You can still purchase Chi-Chi’s branded products like salsa in grocery stores all over the country.

Bob’s Big Boy:  got it’s start in 1936 and became famous for the restaurant’s mascot - a young looking boy clad in red and white checkered overalls who is looking off to the side with his perfectly combed brown hair and is holding a cheeseburger.  At it’s peak in the 1960s, there were over 750 BB locations all across the country.  They were well known for their double decker hamburgers.  The interior of the restaurants was pretty typical for the time - caramel colored booth and chair cushions and tables that were made out of sort of an oak-looking laminate.  You could also get a seat at the counter with a stool affixed to the floor with a rotating seat. 

In 2000, Big Boy Restaurants filed for bankruptcy.  The year after they filed there were 405 restaurants left and within 10 years time, there were 140 locations.  My sister and I went to a Big Boy Restaurant at some point when we were kids and the food made me quite sick so that was the first and last time that I ever went to a Big Boy.  My sister always brought this up as we grew up and she once gifted me a piggy bank with the Big Boy mascot on it.  The hamburger eventually fell off but I loved that thing for a very long time.  One unfortunate thing I learned about Big Boy is that a few locations have been the site of terrible crimes like robbery and murder and in my case, a horrible stomach-ache.  As of today, there are 74 Big Boy locations, primarily in California and Michigan.  They’re definitely not as “big” as they used to be.  That being said, Bob’s Small Boy just doesn’t quite roll off the tongue. 

Bennigans:  dates back to 1976 in Atlanta, Georgia and was deemed an Irish-American pub.  Restauranteur Norman Brinker was responsible for it’s development.  Although I thought all of the Bennigan’s had closed, I was wrong as there are still a few locations in the US in places like Michigan, Texas, Ohio and Iowa. There are also locations abroad like Mexico. At it’s peak there were somewhere around 300 locations. It seems to be one of the original SOTW restaurants really and truly with an unnecessary amount of crap on the walls like random snow shoes, baseball bats and fishing poles.  The older restaurant design was home to a plethora of oak furniture with green cushions, how very Irish, indeed.  Or not.   Bennigan’s was often criticized over the years for being very similar to other popular restaurant chains like TGI Fridays (which we will cover on the next show) and Ruby Tuesday.  These restaurants all had menus featuring the same items like steak and southwestern appetizers.  Locations in the 90s often had floral backrests in their booths.  My sister celebrated her birthday one year at Bennigans and I remember that she was terribly embarrassed when the servers came out and sang happy birthday to her after placing a coffee filter on top of her head. She was horrified and vowed to never again celebrate her birthday at Bennigans.  I’m pretty sure we have a photo of her with said coffee filter on her head.  The company declared bankruptcy in 2008 and closed about 150 locations overnight.  More locations continued to close and currently there are about 15 or so Bennigan’s locations.  They are trying to revamp themselves though and there is now a quick service spin off restaurant chain called “Bennigans on the Fly.”  They have a small social media presence with just over 2,000 followers on Instagram.   On their menu now you can find some classic items like the Monte Cristo, but also new ones like the Emerald Isle Margarita, a Mango Madness Margarita and Bennigan’s Kickin’ Mule.  They are also currently running a “Summer Shenanigans” promotion where you can get a Rita’s Sriracha Salad or a Mahalo Burger.  In the Vineland location, you can rent the Shamrock room where you can hold a birthday party or a corporate meeting.  Perhaps the next time I travel back home I’ll stop by the Bennigan's located next to a Holiday Inn in Elgin, IL.  

Howard Johnson:  this restaurant chain started as a soda fountain shop in Massachusetts by a fellow named Howard Deering Johnson.  Eventually it expanded and they offered hot dogs and hamburgers.  By 1935 there were 25 roadside sandwich and ice cream locations in Massachusetts.  Towards the end of the 1930s there were more than 100.  By the 1950s and 1960s when road trips became very popular for the American Family, Howard Johnson’s or HoJos as they are often lovingly referred to as, exploded.  There were over 1,000 locations. 

Eventually all of the restaurants had orange roofs on them so travelers could easily recognize the Ho Jo like a beacon of light leading them to a safe place.  Customers appreciated the great food at great prices.  There were Ho Jo restaurants spanning the Atlantic Highway all the way down to Florida and through the midwest. This eventually led to motor lodges bearing the same name that still exist. Like so many restaurants during the 50s and 60s (and later decades as well) the restaurants featured caramel orange colored cushioned booths and seats with the waitresses wearing aqua uniforms coordinating nicely with the aqua colored walls and placemats.  In the 1960s, Howard Johnson’s served more meals outside of the home than any other restaurant or entity in the United States with the exception of the US Army.  The food was relatively standard American Fare like Burgers, Hot Dogs, Lobster, Steak and 28 flavors of Ice Cream which was a huge draw.  Towards the end of the 1960s, Howard Johnson’s son took over the company and it was a slow beginning of the end which started by cutting costs. We visited a Ho Jo in St. Petersburg, Florida in the mid 1990s during a vacation to the area.  The previous day my sister suffered a pretty signifcant sunburn that left her temporarily incapacitated due to it’s severity.  Still needing to eat despite the pain, we ventured to the local Ho Jo.  My sister ordered eggs and they apparently came out extremely hot because when some of them accidentally fell on her lap onto her leg she gasped in horror and scrunched her face in pain. That is my only memory of ever going to one. The second to last Ho Jo closed in 2017.  Not keeping up with restaurant trends really led to its demise as well as it’s shift to quantity over quality. Just one Ho Jo remains in Lake George, NY and operates on a limited schedule.   If you are interested in learning more about the history of Howard Johnson’s, visit HoJoLand.com which offers a ton of information about the restaurant chain.  For the most part though, Ho Jo (at least the restaurant side) is No Mo.  Side note- did you know that Rachel Ray got her start at Ho Jo’s?  Her mom was once a supervisor there and she started as a hostess. Despite its demise, the impact of Ho Jo’s is far reaching and certainly had an impact on generations of families.   

Baker’s Square:  is a midwest chain that began in the 1970s as Poppin’ Fresh Pies.  At first it was just an independent location in Des Moines, IA (and that’s Des Moines, not Des Moines for you non-midwestern folk).  However, 15 Poppin’ Fresh Pies opened in the Chicagoland area by 1976.  The people wanted their pie, gosh darnit!  In 1984 the restaurant chain was rebranded as Baker’s Square which is what I remember it being called growing up.  The restaurants served traditional American fare like salads, BLTs and Turkey clubs but what they were most famous for of course was the pies.  When you entered the restaurant you were greeted by a display case of delicious looking pies like the bestseller French Silk (which we often picked up for family gatherings), Carrot Cake, Country Apple, Harvest Pumpkin and many, many others.  French Silk by the way, was a light, almost moose like chocolate pie covered in real whipped cream and topped with shaved chocolate curls.  The chain was hit very hard by the great recession and around 2008 they filed for bankruptcy and closed 132 locations from both the Bakers Square Brand and Village Inn which they also own.  In 2020, 33 Baker’s Square locations closed and 1100 people were laid off.  As of 2020, there are 22 Baker’s Square locations and 159 Village Inn locations still in operation, mostly in Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota and Ohio.  

Showbiz Pizza:  which we talked about at the top of the show started back in 1980 as the brain child of Robert L. Brock and Creative Engineering.  Believe it or not, Chuck E. Cheese actually came before Showbiz, first opening in 1977.  

Side note - the creator of Chuck E. Cheese was apparently also the founder of Atari. Apparently in the early days of Chuck E. Cheese, the mascot smoked cigarettes, had a New Jersey accent and made inappropriate adult jokes.  Seriously?!  Apparently they dropped that after a few years, but that is just disturbing.  Anyways, Showbiz pizza was marketed towards families - there were arcade games for kids to play (one location in Kansas City for example had 70+ electronic games contained within an 8,000 ft facility ).  There was also a sports room with a large television and sit down video games, perfect for exhausted parents.  Further, there were also slides, a merry go round, a magic cave and other indoor activities for children to do like skee-ball, perfect for a rainy day.  Besides the games, children and their families could eat pizza (and other menu items like roast beef, ice cream, salad and beer for the parents) while being entertained, every 8 or so minutes, by the Rock A Fire explosion the audio-animatronic band created by Aaron Fletcher, the head honcho at Creative Engineering. Aaron Fletcher is essentially a genius.  As a child he took apart and put back together anything he could find around his house.  He also had a television repair business when he was in elementary school.  Further, he graduated from college when he was just 19 years old. In addition to the Showbiz Pizza characters, he also created an audio animatronic clown which is petrifying. I think there were and continue to be, strong opinions about Rock-A-Fire Explosion. Some people were quite fascinated by the characters since they were unique and other people, especially small children, would often be terrified of them. Like I said before, the robotic animals look like something out of a vintage horror movie where out of nowhere one of them brandishes a knife.  But anyways. When Showbiz Pizza co-creator Robert L. Brock saw the fancy audio animatronics he instantly knew he wanted to invest in Fletcher’s creations.  Arcade games had grown drastically in popularity during the 1970s and 1980s so an entertainment venue for kids and their families with an arcade and animatronics was a match made in heaven.  That match, however, was incredibly expensive.  It cost approximately $100,000 to create the Rock A Fire Explosion animatronic characters, and that’s just the initial development for one set for one individual restaurant.  The Showbiz Pizza design lasted for about 10 years but in 1989 the company shifted to Chuck E. Cheese after merging with them a few years earlier and decided to do away with Rock-A- Fire explosion. By 1992 there were no more Showbiz Pizza’s left to speak of and by that time, my sister and I were too old for Chuck E. Cheese.  Another side note, apparently Chuck E. Cheese stands for Charles Entertainment Cheese who is an orphan who makes up for the fact that he had a terrible childhood by celebrating the birthdays of little kids.  Again, what?!  This is true, this is from the company themselves.  Fast Forward a few decades and Chuck E. Cheese is really in a tough spot.  Despite a lot of revamps, transitioning from tokens to loadable game credit cards, redesigning their interiors and exteriors, etc., Chuck E. Cheese filed for Bankruptcy in 2020. They tried to stay afloat during the pandemic with pizza delivery services but I think we all know, Chuck E. Cheese is probably the last place that anyone wants to get pizza take out from and I’ve never even had pizza from there.  They also tried to stream “live” acoustic performances given by Chuck E. Cheese. Further, a lot of indoor facilities with video games and the like have been unable to survive during the pandemic.  I think we all know that Chuck E. Cheese is a cesspool of germs.  You couldn’t pay me a million dollars to jump into that pink eye ball pit!  There are still about 500 locations in the US but it’s hard to know what the future holds for the company given what is going on in the world right now.  Only time will tell.

One of my favorite childhood stories that my dad likes to tell, and of course he tells it much better than me, was a time when he took me and my sister to Showbiz.  

Since it was either lunch or dinner time when we went, of course it was determined that we should have some delicious Showbiz pizza. Pizza + Animatronics + 1986?  Yes, please!  My Dad offered to go order it so he looked around and found the pizza counter.  He noticed there was an extremely long line on one side of the counter.  Feeling a little discouraged and frankly, impatient, he looked on the other side of the counter and noticed that a Showpizza pizza employee was just standing there without a line of customers.  I’m sure he or she was dressed in the standard red, yellow and brown colors either on a polo shirt or button up vest the chain was famous for, as well as the black top hat that had the company’s logo on it.  Anyways, he booked it for the lonely worker and asked if he could order pizza and of course, the person said yes.  The customers in the other line all took notice of this and were pissed and were giving him a hard time, offering some rude commentary I’m sure.  I can’t quite remember what he said in response, but my dad is very quick on his feet so I think he said something like - “don’t get mad at me because you are all a bunch of morons who joined this line without realizing there were actually two places to order pizza.”  Mic drop.  Well done Dad, well done.

If you are interested in learning more about Showbiz Pizza and the Rock-A-Fire explosion, do yourself a favor, that you will likely regret, by visiting showbizpizza. Com or by going to YouTube and searching for the Rock-A-Fire Explosion Documentary by the Theme Park Guides channel.  I learned there is a whole community of people who are about me and my sister’s age, maybe a little older who are passionate fans of the Rock A Fire Explosion.  I’m talking superfans with tattoos of the band on their backs, a middle aged man who owns one full set of the audio animatronics (which he saved up for by working multiple part time jobs) and has figured out how to program them to play along with contemporary music and so much more.  It’s fascinating and creepy all at the same time! In the documentary you will also get to meet the creative genius behind the Rock-A-Fire explosion Aaron Fletcher and how he met his wife who worked at Chuck E. Cheese and became obsessed with the Rock-A-Fire explosion.  I really went down the Showbiz Pizza rabbithole and you should, too.  I’ll put some links in the show notes to a few videos about Showbiz Pizza and the cult favorite animatronics.  

I hope you have enjoyed this look back on some of the extinct and shrinking chain restaurants that could be found all over the country in the 1980s, 1990s and even today.  Since there was so much fascinating information available about so many different eateries, I decided to continue this topic on my next show so stay tuned.  Until then, BK, BS and HOTYM and don’t forget to rate the show on iTunes and tell your friends and family about the show!