Cheesy Wheezy's Pizza Roundhouse

**Cheesy Wheezy's Pizza Roundhouse** was family entertainment theme restaurant located in Claremont, a western suburb of Columbus, Ohio. Known for it's "double decker" floor plan, it featured an arcade above the game room and a balcony floor in the Entertainment Theatre. Among one of the most remembered parts of this restaurant was the entrance tunnel nicknamed the "Rainbow Road", a dark tube-like tunnel lit by dancing rainbow colored lights and a floor where lights fly under patrons feet like shooting stars.
Cheesy Wheezy's opened March 16, 1982 and was a popular place for birthday parties and arcade-goers alike. It's popularity waned int he 90s and closed in 1998. It was later replaced with a Chuck E. Cheese's.

## **Five Areas**

Cheesy Wheezy's featured five areas of entertainment. These areas were:

**Fun 'N Games Midway**- (Ground floor, under the Arcade) The Fun 'N Games Midway, which featured all sorts of ticket-rewarding games, rides, and a large play area/ball pit with net bridges, rope ladder and two ball pools. Among some of the games here were Wedges/Ledges, Skee Ball, Whack-a-Mole, and Frog Ball.

**Arcade**- (Second floor, above the Fun 'N Games Midway) The Arcade area was popular with a lot of the older kids and teenagers. The video game selection was known to be quite impressive, including the likes of Pac-Man, Ms. Pac-Man, Q\*Bert, Paperboy, Centipede, Phoenix, Astroids, Frogger, Crystal Castles, Millipede, Joust, Pole Position, Dragon's Lair, Lady Bug, Kangaroo, Tron, Zaxxon, Donkey Kong, Donkey Kong Jr., Dig Dug, Mr. Do!, Burger Time, among many, MANY others. In 1986, it was renamed the "Starport Arcade".

**Entertainment Theatre**- (Ground floor party area and second floor Balcony Area) The Entertainment Theatre took advantage of the "double decker" floor plan, consisting of the main party area, the second floor balcony, and a stage that had parts on both floors to entertain all the families seated in the Theatre area. The bottom floor stage featured Cheesy Wheezy and Roll N' Rock Band. Suspended over the ground stage, at Balcony level, were the Chirpettes, a group of three beltin' Birds that were themed similar to female Motown groups like The Supremes. Performances would alternate between the Roll N' Rock Band and the Chirpettes, the spotlight bouncing between the acts, and on occasions, songs that incorporated both acts together.

**Private Party Room**- This room was located in the back hall located at the far end of the Entertainment Theatre's ground floor. It could be reserved for private parties and featured three tables, a small stage with animatronic Cheezy Wheezy performing solo, and an after show meet-and-greet with an actor in the Cheezy Wheezy costume. These parties would always have a staff member as the Host that acts the party's emcee.

**Sports Room**- Located across the back hall from the Private Party Room, the Sports Room, or "Sports Lounge", was a room three long tables and two side booths where sports lovin' adults (mainly fathers that wanted to escape the kids and loud music of the Entertainment Theatre area) could relax with a pitcher of beer and catch the "big game". There were multiply television sets suspended up onto the ceiling, and dependingo n the night, sometimes showed more than one game. Kids weren't allowed into the Sports Room unless they had an accompanying adult, mainly because of how rowdy it could get.