News

Animatronic-less Chuck E. Cheese redesign not so 'cheesy'

August 17, 2017

Children may shed a few tears, but their party-addled parents are likely overjoyed to learn of Chuck E. Cheese's new, more downplayed look and feel. After nearly 20 years as party central for youngsters' birthdays or just rainy days, the brand and its parent company, CEC Entertainment, has opened its new look in four San Antonio, Texas, restaurant, with three more in the Kansas City metro about a month from completion.

And parents, here's the really great news: It's calmer. The new look features less in-your-face decor and no more ear-splitting animatronic creatures. Plus, brighter lighting will help you find all those children at the end of the birthday party. 

The seven revamped locations will be used as tests to see whether CEC should put the pedal to the metal when it comes to renovating other locations, a news release said. As it stands now, only certain elements of the new design are slated to be carried over to stores beyond the initial test sites.

San Francisco-based design firm Tesser initially remodeled several Chuck E. Cheese flagship locations to focus on fresh food and fun for older kids (aka parents) in addition to youngsters. The pizza-making process and older family members get a much bigger nod in the new design, though there are plenty of opportunities for fun and games in these restaurants known for being the place "where a kid can be a kid."

Chuck E. Cheese CMO Michael Hartman said that the new design echoes the new menu, featuring scratch-made Pasqually’s Pizzeria pizzas prepared in open kitchens with signs designating all the steps in the process, as well as dining room graphics that provide facts about key ingredients. 

The new design also features self-service kiosks near entrances to ease the ordering process for kid-herding parents. Parents headed to the Birthday Zone with their troops will now discover that the animatronic characters are no more, replaced by an active entertainment area with a light-up dance floor that also serves at ground zero for hourly live acts and birthday shows. 

Nearly a dozen new games are featured, all accessible via a new programmable tap-to-play Play Pass game card system. 

“Our goal was to create a space where parents were just as excited to go as their kids,” Tesser Lead Designer of Environments Brent White said in the release. "And while the new design gives food top billing, it leaves plenty of the magic that makes Chuck E. Cheese’s — one of the largest pizza chains in the country — a can’t-wait-to-come-back destination for kids and adults alike.”

Even the exterior is toned down, with stacked stone and "cheese holes" cut into exterior wall wood slats, to reflect the chain's namesake's fondness for a wedge of Swiss. A green-striped, red-accented entry tower bears the chain's upgraded logo.

The visual calling card extends inside the 10,000-square-foot space with a welcome wall filled with menu offerings, a photo timeline and a historical video loop presentation. The test location upgrade was completed on July 31 at all four San Antonio locations; the Kansas City restaurants will be finished by early September.