Bullwinkle's Restaurant
Bullwinkle's Restaurant, also known as Family Fun Center, is a chain of family entertainment centers. Similar to Chuck E. Cheese's, most locations feature a sit-down restaurant, complemented by arcade games, go-karts, bumper boats, mini golf, laser tag, ropes course, zip line, and small rides for children, themed after its namesake, The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show.
Arcade
Bullwinkle's featured a card swipe / token operated Amusement arcade section featuring over 100 popular video games and redemption games such as Need for Speed: Underground, NASCAR, Let's Go Jungle!. They also have games which are played for tickets, such as Skeeball. The tickets could then be redeemed at a prize counter for various prizes.
Restaurant
The restaurant section of Bullwinkle's has a log cabin feel inspired by the Dudley Do-Right cartoon. The walls and support beams are made of logs and the floor has red carpeting, upon which sits many long wooden tables with wooden benches. A family can sit at one of these tables and order food from a small menu. The main fare usually includes pizza, and burgers and well as wraps and salads. The restaurant is often popular for the birthday parties of elementary school children, as they can play in the arcade until the food is ready.
Bullwinkle's Restaurant features live entertainment of animatronics renditions of The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show characters. The big red curtains open revealing the whole crew, including Bullwinkle, Rocky, Boris and Natasha and some other characters who were on the show. The characters then put on a variety show with songs and comedy.
Locations
- One restaurant operated in Santa Clara, California, opening in 1981, but was later converted into a nightclub in 1996.[1]
- One operated in Upland, California but was converted into a Boomers!, as were the ones located in Fountain Valley, California, Vista, California and Medford, NY on Long Island.
- While Bullwinkle's Restaurant is not well known in California outside of the Sunnyvale/Santa Clara community, there are other Bullwinkle's Restaurants in Wilsonville, Oregon and Tukwila, Washington.
- There were Bullwinkle's in Richmond, Virginia, Atlanta, Georgia, Grand Rapids, Michigan and Cary, NC.
- The Bullwinkle's in Edmonton and Calgary, Alberta were popular throughout the 1980s and early 1990s until they were closed. These restaurants are all described as "Family Fun Centers" in addition to "Bullwinkle's Restaurant".
References
- "Bullwinkle's food, games chain debuts full-service variant" Nation's Restaurant News, May 29, 2000.
- "Bullwinkle's braces for growth as Straw Hat agreement nears" Nation's Restaurant News, Sept 24, 1984 by Richard Martin.