Pac-Man Cafe

I don't think I need to tell you this, but if you put a giant statue of Pac-Man on the side of the road, I'm stopping and taking a picture. And so it was that I discovered Pac-Man Cafe, a charming little bistro that briefly appeared among the other tourist traps of Orlando, FL. Pac-Man Cafe offered families a chance to dine with Pac-Man and dozens of ghost-monsters surrounding them. The walls of this place were covered in dots and power pellets and the likeness of Inky, Blinky, Clyde, Pinky and Sue. They served Pac-Man pizza, which was just a regular pizza with one slice missing to make the whole thing look like Pac-Man. Sure, you weren't getting a whole pizza...but who cares. You gotta admit, it was a pretty darn good idea! The Pac-Man Cafe also featured the Galaxian Bar which featured imagery from another classic Namco game. The upstairs was home to video games as far as the eye could see. And the real attraction, in my book, was the Pac-Man museum: a free exhibit featuring all the great Pac-Man merchandise from the early 80's. This place was awesome!

We discovered the place as we were getting ready to head out of Florida and head home. We had just eaten lunch, so we paid a quick visit to the museum and vowed to come back for the full experience the next time we were in sunny Orlando. "The next time" turned out to be 7 months later, but when we went to dine with Pac-Man we were met with a boarded up restaurant and no sign of Mr. or Mrs. Pac-Man anywhere. The place had gone out of business already! No Pac-Man shaped pizza for us! We would have to go home and order a pizza and take out the slice ourselves and pretend it was Pac-Man...but we weren't fooling anyone. We drowned our sorrows in a meal at the nearby Race Rock, a car racing themed restaurant. We couldn't care less about car racing but they made some wings that would knock the bow out of Mrs. Pac-Man's hair! (Race Rock is gone now too!)

Anywho....Pac-Man Cafe. How awesome did this place look!?