What began as 7 restaurants in the Chicago area and South Bend, Indiana in 1970, blossomed over the next 10 years. By 1980, the chain had expanded to include 35 corporate-owned and franchised restaurants operating across several states, including Illinois, Wisconsin, Missouri, Indiana, Virginia, and even one in Tallahassee, Florida.

Arcades were sweeping the nation, with games generating thousands of dollars in revenue each week. But they were primarily set up as standalone game rooms, attracting a younger crowd of mostly teenagers. Bally’s then Chairman and President, Robert (Bob) Mullane, had ambitious plans to create a new entertainment concept that would target adults. The new concept would focus more on nightlife, dancing, and arcade bars—a vision similar to what we see today in places like Barcade.

Mullane's vision came to life when he took an opportunity to purchase Barnaby's Family Inn in August of 1981, in exchange for 150,000 shares of Bally stock. The purchase included 11 of the 35+ restaurants, all of which were corporate-owned.  Mullane's plan was to rebrand and retool all of the Barnaby's locations to a new concept called Bally's Tom Foolery, adding an extensive selection of arcade and pinball games along with a new menu. This was a brilliant way to enter the restaurant industry, as it would allow them to leverage the existing functional kitchen facilities and staff to minimize startup costs. Bally intended to use these locations to prove out and tune their concept before expanding it nationwide. The first of these conversions was slated to open in November 1981.

Additional locations open in Indianapolis, IN and Lombard, IL in January and April 1983, respectively. It's unlikely that these locations were originally Barnaby's Family Inns, as there is no historical record of Barnaby's locations where these two opened. The Lombard location was quite possibly the largest of the locations, with two stories. But alas, it was very short-lived, as the last mention of the Lombard location is a NYE ad from December 1983. This suggests that it never saw 1984.  

By 1985, the Tom Foolery experiment had largely concluded. Locations were shuttered, and the concept was quietly retired. The Indianapolis location is the only one known to have still existed through August 1985. It likely closed soon after. The Madison locations in their new formats didn't make it through the year either. Indeed, Bob Mullane's ambitious merger of arcade and eatery had seemingly failed to capture the sustained interest of the public.