AW Spotlight
Joey’s Outback Adventures – Indoor Fun for Children and Parents
By Krista Martinelli
For parents with young children, Joey’s Outback Adventures is a wonderful, indoor haven. It’s fun for the kids and very accommodating for the parents. Joey’s Outback turns four years old, as a business, in February of 2016. Meanwhile, owners Francesca and Michael Friedman just celebrated their son Joey’s 8th birthday.
They have a special place in their hearts for foster children and offer a FREE foster children day at Joey’s Outback once a month, when foster children and their families get free admission. When he was thirteen months old, the Friedmans adopted Joey. As a mom, Francesca started looking for good places for him to play. “We had no kids in our neighborhood, and he needed to socialize. I noticed that there was a lot of potential for more family-run indoor play places in our area. I wanted to compile everything that was fun and put it under one roof,” she explains. Of course, this new play place needed to be fun, safe and have air conditioning. She also envisioned a place that served both traditional “kid food,” as well as more interesting food choices for adults. Since the adults need to make themselves comfortable while their kids bounce and play, she thought of leather chairs, massage chairs and WiFi. And so, they built Joey’s Outback, located in the Fresh Market plaza on Forest Hill Boulevard in Wellington, naming it after Joey. It’s approximately 14,000 square feet, so there’s a lot of room to run, bounce and play indoors. Also, they added flat screen TVs and there’s even a treadmill, for anyone who would like to get some exercise while their kids are getting exercise. For the children, there are a variety of bounce houses, slides, arcade games and a special area for the toddlers to play.
Almost four years later, they have nearly perfected the birthday party. They have put on over 1,000 birthday parties. “Our birthday parties are great!” says Friedman. “It’s so easy for the parents.” They just have to walk in and remember “the three C’s” she says – cake, candles and the children. Joey’s staff does everything for them, so parents can simply enjoy their guests and enjoy the day. They have a very well-timed schedule. Each party gets two hours in a party room, a visit from the character (mascot) Joey, and then party guests can continue to play for the rest of the day. Francesca Friedman is Italian and creates some delicious meals for the parties, liked baked ziti, always cooked fresh the same day. They also order pizzas and wings from Lutina’s Pizza. Francesca’s wants the birthday food to be good-quality, not just mediocre.
Joey’s Outback is also beginning to franchise. They recently awarded their first franchise to a group of four women business owners. They are currently finding the perfect location, which will probably be in Stuart, Florida. Most importantly, the Joey’s Outback name will continue to be family-run, family-oriented in its added locations. “Once people find us, they seem to never go back to other indoor play places,” says Friedman. “We work hard to make people happy!”
Through franchising, the owners of Joey’s Outback are excited to create more public awareness about what a great place Joey’s is for indoor play. “We are going to be getting Joey’s Outback all over the map with these new locations!”
Joey’s Outback posts a monthly calendar of activities on their website, as well as via AroundWellington.com. There are always specials and there’s always a lot going on! They offer a discounted “Special Needs” Day on Wednesdays. There’s also discounted admission in general on Wednesdays. Every Friday, during the day, there are discounts for foster children and homeschool children. On Friday nights from 4pm to 8pm, it’s Family Night, when the adults and the kids can come enjoy the bounce houses together. For Halloween, they will be doing some seasonal crafts and will have a costume contest.
I asked Francesca about some of the best things parents say about Joey’s Outback. “It’s the atmosphere here,” she says. “Our employees are very sweet and truly enjoy being around kids.” She explains that she’s “very fussy” about selecting employees, as it’s so important for them to be good at interaction with children. Parents are also quite pleased with the variety of food and the quality of the food in the café. Instead of “just pizza,” this is a place where you can order meatball subs, Italian subs, grilled chicken salad and now beer or wine too. You can order a veggie platter, a fruit bowl or eggplant parmesan. “We’re adding some Spanish dishes to the menu too,” says Francesca. The space is very comfortable to relax or to get work done for a few hours. A lot of parents will come in with a laptop, a brief case and get to work, happy that their kids are having a great time.
“What are some of the best comments you hear kids say about Joey’s Outback?” I asked Francesca. Here’s her response. See the video!
Joey’s Outback is known for giving back to their “around Wellington” community. They give a lot of donations to fundraisers, raffles and schools. Once a year they hold a big celebration for the Kids Cancer Foundation. “We give back wherever we can,” says Francesca. Around the holidays, they put a donation box out for toy donations for foster children.
Check out their weekly specials at Joey’s Outback. You can also purchase Frequent Hopper Cards, which give you ten hops (ten visits) for $90 and they never expire. They offer seasonal discounts on the Frequent Hopper Cards and their gift certificates.
Let’s face it. South Florida is almost always too hot for outdoor play. When it’s not too hot, it’s raining. Finding a place like Joey’s Outback to bring your children to play is a wonderful thing! Children can get their exercise and get away from their electronics for a few hours. They also have the opportunity to socialize with a lot of different kids. If you have children and haven’t made it to Joey’s Outback yet, you really should stop by. It’s truly fun for the whole family.
Joey’s Outback Adventures
(In the Fresh Market plaza)
10670 Forest Hill Blvd
Wellington, FL 33414
(561) 204-4554