Remake for old birthday-party favorite. Tacoma’s Chuck E. Cheese to hold grand reopening
Maybe you’ve noticed new colors outside the Chuck E. Cheese at 4911 Tacoma Mall Blvd. The inside has been updated, too, both in entertainment options and in the overall look.
It’s now described as “fresh, vibrant and contemporary,” the company said in a press release.
The Tacoma location is hosting a “grand reopening” Aug. 25 to show off several new features, including an interactive dance floor and more than 15 new games, according to the release. The upstairs dining area now features banquette seating to accommodate more group sizes and personal charging stations.
Thursday morning, 20 families with the Make-A-Wish Foundation will be the first to try the new games. Later that day, starting at 5 p.m., the first 25 families on site will have access to complimentary games until 7 p.m. All guests at the opening event Thursday night can partake in raffle prizes and free cake.
“Chuck E. Cheese himself will host the grand reopening event with raffle prizes and entertainment from Chuck E. and friends,” the company added in an email.
With several party package options, the Tacoma Chuck E. Cheese is one of four Puget Sound-area locations, joining Olympia, Kent and Bellevue. Its parent company CEC Entertainment operates more than 500 Chuck E. Cheese stores in 47 U.S. states and 17 countries or territories. It also runs about 120 locations of its pizza-focused brand, Peter Piper Pizza, and during the pandemic launched a ghost-kitchen concept called Pasqually’s Pizza & Wings.
In 2020, more than 30 of its entertainment venues closed, and CEC filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. It’s now owned by two private equity firms but remains a player in the kids party world, despite competitors such as the ‘90s-era Discovery Zone disappearing.
Atari creator Nolan Bushnell introduced what was originally known as Chuck E. Cheese’s Pizza Time Theatre in 1977 in San Jose, California. The brand has sustained 45 years of changing tastes and fickle trends, the Los Angeles Times reported last year, by keeping up with that evolution: paper tickets have been replaced with a digital system, pizzas can be topped with spinach instead of just pepperoni, and the iconic rat mascot has been transformed into a mouse.
“We keep embracing innovation decade after decade,” CEO David McKillips told the Los Angeles Times. “We don’t have ball pits anymore. But we have the greatest video games and arcade games and interactive dance parties.”
CHUCK E. CHEESE - TACOMA
▪ 4911 Tacoma Mall Blvd., Tacoma, 253-473-3078, chuckecheese.com
▪ Open daily at 11 a.m. (10 a.m. Saturdays)
▪ Grand Reopening: Aug. 25, 5-7 p.m.