Rock-afire Pizza - Indio, CA

Rock-afire Pizza was the spiritual successor to Castle City, occupying the former location in Indio, California. The new owners purchased the property around a year and a half after Castle City's closure with plans to make the Rock-afire Explosion show the main focus of the establishment, while also using the large venue as a multi-purpose space just as Castle City had done previously.

History / Background

The Hirchfield family purchased the former Castle City building in July of 2004. While David Hirschfield is credited as being the business owner, the property itself as well as the business names "Rock-afire Pizza" and "Castle City" were both legally owned by his father, Robert Stanley Hirshfield. Robert (or Bob) Hirshfield remembered going to a ShowBiz Pizza Place restaurant in the 1980s and it became his dream to one day operate one himself. Purchasing the assets of the former Castle City was the next best thing as ShowBiz Pizza was long gone. Rock-afire Pizza had a soft opening on Friday November 12, while the official grand open and ribbon cutting ceremony took place the following week on Thursday November 18th, 2004.

David Hirschfield and his brother Danny both helped operate and manage the new restaurant, with David doing much of the design and organization. One of the main goals was to bring affordable food and family fun to the area along with a medieval setting. He is quoted as saying "We found a need for services like this to service the community and the children." With the city's growing youth population, there was a need for a family-oriented dining business. The party showroom where the Rock-afire Explosion was located could seat up to 200 guests on picnic table style seating in front of the stage, plus additional seating at the back of the showroom. Right outside of the party showroom was a redemption game room with over 40 games and competitive games like air hockey. The area was a 40' x 40' room taking up 1,600 square feet.

Helping to keep things affordable, the store opened with an all-you-can-eat lunchtime buffet from Mondy-Friday from 11-2 for only $6.95. Options included pizza, broasted chicken, pasta, soup and a salad bar. This was part of David's plan to market to the working-class lunch crowd in Indio. Broasted chicken and broasted potatoes were also one of the key menu items, along with pizza, and sous chef Edwin helped run the Rock-afire Pizza Kitchen.

While Rock-afire Pizza was the main draw of the establishment, they also continued to use the Castle City name and theme, dividing up the massive structure to accomidate additional business and offerings. The second floor of the castle was planned to be available as a banquet hall. Rock-afire Pizza was in the back area of the first floor, while the front portion of the first floor was leased to Marco Honold who planned to use the space for a sports bar called Burgers & Beer (opening a few weeks after the opening of Rock-afire Pizza).

Perhaps the biggest difference (aside from cheaper food and menu options) from the former Castle City establishment, was the focus on the Rock-afire Explosion animatronic show. David Hirschfield made a huge effort to make the animatronic show the main draw and orient the business name and theming around the band itself. He aimed to make the business a little different from a Chuck E. Cheese's restaurant, with the goal not only pleasing children but also adults. This distinction was present in the dual-logos used by the restaurant initially. One logo featured artwork by Jenn Waitt which was done completely in illustration, and was used more as the 'children's logo'. That art was prominently placed in the showroom and the building interior, as well as on tokens, tickets, party balloons and employee uniforms. A text-based logo was designed for the building exterior which David described as a more 'adult look' to draw in people that might be passing by. David also worked to incorporate the colors red and yellow throughout the establishment for continuity.

The Rock-afire Explosion Show

The Hirschfield's invited Aaron Fechter to come out to help restore the animatronic show prior to the opening, in order to help advise and assist in fixing what was no longer working. He also installed the new TiVo show controller, replacing the old reel to reel system used by Castle City. The animatronic tech on hand, Chris, worked with Aaron to help correct issues that currently existed with the show.

Much of the show was in disrepair initially. The tech had discovered that the previous owners had made some interesting repair choices, such as installing a spatula(?) in Billy Bob's strum arm. This was removed and instead replaced with a piece of wood. It's hard to recognize what was actually fixed and what wasn't, as the lead tech had quit between the time he worked with Aaron and the restaurant's soft opening. When ShowBizPizza.com visted during the soft-opening phase, several movements and lights were still not working.

The show operated on a push-button system, using a single button on the wall that would start a show when pressed, immediately cuing up the next show instead of waiting through the timed interval. The new TiVo system made calling up the next show happen almost immediately, which meant shows could play nearly continuously if someone were there manning the show start button.

Unfortunately the show lacked proper maintenence for most of its history. As stated, it wasn't 100% to begin with and over time more and more issues mounted. Within a few years of operation, the show was in major disrepair and was more like a horror scene. Some very obvious blemishes were present such as a large spring ripping through Beach Bear's fur on his strum arm, Choo-choo's face being completely ripped off, and Billy Bob's strum arm being replaced by a thin bar or stick, completely wrapped up in black electrical tape. These were sadly the most obvious and striking issues, of which there were many.

Rock-afire Pizza and Sports Grill

By mid-2007 the restaurant had leaned more into becoming a sports grill and even adopted that name in several places around the establishment. La Casita Authentic Mexican Food had also opened up shop within the Castle City building as well. The property appears to have officially changed hands around this time, with Jose Angel Anaya applying to use the Rock-afire Pizza business name on February 5, 2008.

The last known mention of Rock-afire Pizza was in February 2009 stating "Rock-afire Pizza and Sports Grill, family dining with huge game room. Offering Mexican all you can eat buffet and party packages".

Information & Details

Rock-afire Pizza
82530 US Highway 111
Indio, CA 92201

Opening Date: November 12, 2004
Closing Date: 2009(?)

Fate of the show: Unknown