• BlameThePeacock
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    9 months ago

    I would say the primary reason for going there is the entertainment center, not the food.

    • linearchaos@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      And if you took the food away kids would still want to go there. If you took the entertainment away nobody’s going there for the pizza.

      • xmunk@sh.itjust.works
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        9 months ago

        I don’t know who you’re trying to impress. Most of us have been deeply soaked in the Bushnell-verse… I’m looking forward to the upcoming origin story movies.

    • DontTreadOnBigfoot@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      That said, my kid got invited to a Chuck E Cheese’s birthday party recently, and the pizza was a hell of a lot better than I remember it being 15 years ago

      Not going to win any awards, but definitely edible

  • HobbitFoot @thelemmy.club
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    9 months ago

    The initial pitch was an arcade with a restaurant to feed guests. Since video games were at the core of that strategy, I would expect it should be classified as an entertainment center first.

  • bionicjoey
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    9 months ago

    It’s a barcade, like Dave and Buster’s. Just a kid’s barcade.

    • idealotus@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      They’re apparently decently popular on online delivery apps, though they sneakily go under “Pasqually’s Pizza and Wings”

        • ilinamorato@lemmy.world
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          9 months ago

          “Pasqually” is also a slightly unusual (but very Americanized) misspelling of a very popular Italian name, evoking a first or second generation Italian-American immigrant from the early part of the 20th century.

          And the average person probably doesn’t know the animatronic characters’ names.

  • Alk@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    I think it started out the former and evolved into the latter. My source is like 3 neurons in my brain that were last accessed 15 years ago so pretty sure it’s accurate.

  • Yaztromo@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    Chuck E Cheese was founded by Nolan Bushnell — the same Nolan Bushnell who was one of the co-founders of video game company Atari (at one time, the biggest player in the home console industry). He started it in part as a way to promote Atari games and cabinets.

    So it was both — and the “entertainment centre” part was always part of its “core mission” from its inception.

  • Rin@lemm.ee
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    9 months ago

    What do you mean? It’s a restaurant, they serve pizza and have a salad bar. I’ve been there a bunch of times as a kid. It’s a restaurant man, what are you talking about?

  • 🇰 🌀 🇱 🇦 🇳 🇦 🇰 ℹ️@yiffit.net
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    9 months ago

    IIRC, the original act for the animatronics had a bit about not calling it a restaurant because it was primarily an entertainment venue, it just also served food. There’s a few documentaries about the rise and fall of the place that are pretty good and would be more informative than me trying to remember every detail lol

  • Melkath@kbin.social
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    9 months ago

    Restaurant with a few overpriced arcade games in there.

    Basically a 7/11 with a few arcade cabinets in it… but all they have is pizza and cheap beer.

    • Altima NEO@lemmy.zip
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      9 months ago

      Yeah but 7/11 has the magazines to ogle while your buddy is playing his turn on the r-type machine

  • RattlerSix@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    There’s extra steps that have to be taken in order to serve food so they’re probably officially classified as a restaurant