Castle City - Indio, CA

Castle City was a Family Entertainment Center located in The Coachella Valley during the late 1990s and early 2000s. It was the brainchild of local restauranteer Mario Del Guidice and operated with the Rock-afire Explosion for the entire span of its existence.

History / Background

Mario Del Guidice grew up in Brooklyn and Queens in the 1950s, and was from a family of food-service business owners. By the time he was 20 he had already owned and operated two businesses, a music store and a catering hall. Still, he had a vision of building a castle in a resort paradise far from NYC. Although he didn’t know quite where that would be, he found his paradise in 1969 when he and his father visited Palm Springs.

At 26 years old he made the decision to sell his New York businesses and uproot his family and by 1972 he successfully made the move to Palm Springs. He was able to open and run a small handful of family restaurants in the following years, until 1996 when he felt the time was right to fulfill his dream of building a castle themed family fun center. He ran into issues getting proper bank loans for such a risky and unproven venture, with only one bank willing to loan - and only for a single story building. Undeterred and refusing to give up his desire for a two story castle, Del Guidice secured private funding from a variety of sources to complete the project as he envisioned.

With the help of his son, who was a licensed contractor, the family subcontracted all they could and also worked on the building themselves. By working seven days a week, and installing lights so they could build even at night, the project was completed in record time. The Castle City project was completed on March 17th, 1997. Del Guidice said the completed business was “everything I ever wanted and more.” He even had grandiose plans to turn the second-level banquet area into a medieval dining arena. "Now I have plans to turn the upper banquet area into an 8,000-square-foot renaissance combat battle area with a royal court. We will set up stadium seating complete with dining. The jousting will be on foot, of course. We won't have enough room for horses. I know this concept will work."

Upon opening, Castle City still had many entertainment offerings. These included a fun center with bumper cars, kiddie land, video games, redemption games and a birthday party showroom with the Rock-afire Explosion. The fun center food court offers pizza, chicken, ribs, fish and chips, burgers, hot dogs, pasta and the Castle City Sundae. There was also a proper restaurant called the Castle City Grill which provided lunch, dinner, and a Sunday Champaign brunch. Also within the castle were banquet facilities, with two bars and a dance floor, that could accommodate up to 300 people.

Although the Rock-afire was a large part of the birthday party package offered by Castle City, the show was only vaguely mentioned in most articles and advertisements, usually as a “free show” in the theater. As a restauranteur, Del Guidice made the food the main focus. Countless kids saw the Rock-afire Explosion though, as birthday parties in excess of 200 had been booked in just the first 5 months after opening.

Ultimately the business didn’t stay open for very long. The last known mention of activity from Castle City was an advertisement for an all you can eat Thanksgiving Family Buffet (by Desert Dreams Family Buffet at Castle City) in November 2002. A few weeks later in mid-December a business across the street was advertising that they were across from the site that was “formerly Castle City”. The massive castle structure would then sit idle for a year and a half before being sold in July 2004 to David Hershfield, who had plans to resurrect the amusement center and call it Rock-afire Pizza.

Information & Details

Castle City
82530 US Highway 111
Indio, CA 92201

Fate of the show: Remained in the property after closing, was repurposed by new ownership two years later under the operating name Rock-afire Pizza.