Chuck E. Cheese – where kids could be kids while parents nursed headaches – is filing for bankruptcy protection.
CEC Entertainment Inc. has reopened 266 of its 555 company-operated Chuck E. Cheese and Peter Piper Pizza restaurants as restrictions ease, but it’s unclear how willing parents will be to host birthday parties and other gatherings.
The restaurant featured a cast of animatronic characters led by Chuck E. Cheese, a plucky rat in a bowler hat that was later rebranded as a mouse.
The pandemic was a final straw, hammering restaurants like Chuck E. Cheese that relied on dine-in traffic and weren’t set up to do takeout.
Kevin Schimpf, a senior manager of industry research for the restaurant consulting firm Technomic, said Chuck E. Cheese is saddled with large stores and an abundance of high-touch surfaces at a time when many people may have mixed emotions about parties.