Chuck E. Cheese vs. Showbiz Pizza
Did anyone else have a fantasy about opening a pizza entertainment center when they were young? Ever since the 1st moment I stepped into a Chuck E. Cheese, I built a fantasy world around working/living in my own themed Pizza Parlor/Arcade. As a youth, I even went so far as to break out the Crayolas and sketch out the floor plan for a Medieval Pizza Dining Experience. Needless to say, I never built my pizza empire. But whenever I drive by a Chuck E. Cheese or watch one of these old commercials, it rekindles the themed pizzeria fire that still lingers in my soul.
Despite what some comedians might say. It has always made perfect sense to me that a giant mouse, with his intimate knowledge of cheese, would make a pizza that was far superior to those crafted by humans.
When Chuck E. Cheese went out of business they were bought out by Showbiz Pizza, which decided (wisely) that the Chuck E. Cheese brand was much more valuable. Chuck E. Cheese of today is geared towards the very young, but the Chuck E. Cheese of my day was for tweens with lots of quarters.
The theming at Showbiz Pizza to me always felt slightly inferior, but probably because I grew up in a Chuck E. Cheese area. That being said, I would ever turn down a birthday party that was going there.