[Dixielandjazz] Shakey's

[philwilking]

The whole idea of Shakey's and its imitators was that there is a whole 
section of the population which is underserved:

Young couples with small children who don't have enough money to 
thoughtlessly hire baby sitters, but who are desperate to get out of the 
house and just be on a date for a few hours.

Shakey's filled that slot. The pizza frequently resembled cardboard, the 
beer was wet but often nothing better, but it was a safe and inexpensive 
place to go. The adults could sit at a table (nothing more than a park 
picnic table with benches) in low light while there was a well lit area with 
loud and flashy entertainment which held the attention of the children. The 
songs were mostly the type which were in the children's school song books 
and the lyrics frequently were shown on the wall by a slide projector. So, a 
safe, cheap place to go to get out of the house, where the parents could be 
with each other for a while and the children could be happily noisy in a far 
off corner of the room.

This demographic is still with us, and it is still underserved. Why else 
would McDonald's and Burger King have playgrounds?

I don't say that Shakey's could be revived exactly as it was, but young 
adults still get cabin fever, many of them still don't have a lot of money, 
young children still like to shout out songs. There's a market there just 
waiting for someone who is willing to do the work required to serve it.

Phil Wilking - K5MZF
www.nolabanjo.com

A democracy "can only exist until the
voters learn they can vote themselves
largess from the public treasury."

-----Original Message----- 
From: Marek Boym
Sent: Wednesday, January 06, 2021 13:01
To: philwilking
Cc: Dixieland Jazz Mailing List
Subject: Re: [Dixielandjazz] Two More Gone

I've only read about Sharkey's, but it must have been a heck of a place.