Paul E. Parrott Pizza N Games

Paul E. Parrott Pizza Place (later called Pizza N Games) was a short lived animatronic pizza restaurant in Phoenix, Arizona. It is notable for only lasting a little over a year, and having no known photos or video of the animatronic band or restaurant interior.

History / Background

The restaurant was founded by a company known as Mortronic, Inc. Mortronic originally started as Morgan’s Restaurants Inc, a franchisee of White Castle and Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurants. It was based out of North Canton, Ohio, and had restaurants operating throughout the Midwest. Finances were in a slump, and everything but their KFC restaurants had to close. But in the early 1980s, a large injection of cash from a group of Cleveland Investors caused the corporation to expand into the coin operated video game market. They changed their name to Mortronic, Inc., and right away started to lease out game cabinets, even purchasing several large games distributors including Circle International out of Los Angeles. Finances rose and for the first time in several years the company was profitable. They soon went public, selling shares of the company via the stockmarket, and started searching for more ideas to monetize their newfound niche. And thus a new subsidiary was formed to operate one particular arcade.

Paul E. Parrott Pizza Place opened on July 16th, 1982 at the Chris-Town Mall in Phoenix, Arizona. They had a grand opening celebration lasting from the Friday night of the 16th through Sunday, with local performers Wallace and Ladmo present for festivities. The restaurant went all-in on the concept; tons of electronic video games were available, pizza was served, custom tokens were minted, and an animatronic band entertained guests. By all accounts this was a classic early 1980s video pizza arcade, fulfilling its role of housing Mortronic’s games.

Any info at all about the animatronics is incredibly scarce. No photo or video exists of the inside of the restaurant, let alone the show. Advertisements call it “Paul and his forest of animated computerized puppets”, so a whole show was definitely made. Conversations with a former assistant manager further back up the idea that this was a whole set of characters. Later restaurant artwork features three additional characters: a bunny with a tambourine, a panda with a banjo, and a fox with a trumpet. These could be some of the bandmates, or characters drawn simply for promotional purposes. The company that created the show is completely unknown as well.

The restaurant continued to operate throughout 1982 and into 1983, before being eventually closed with little warning in September of 1983. A public auction was held October 3rd, which sold off all assets including the band which has not been seen since. The video game crash hit Mortronic hard, and they reverted back to the fast food restaurant industry, purchasing more KFC restaurants the month after Paul E. Parrott closed. The company discontinued its arcade games division in 1986, changed its name back to Morgan Foods, and stuck around until 2014 before eventually being sold.

Information & Details

Paul E. Parrott Pizza N Games
1810 W Montebello Ave.
Phoenix, AZ 85015