Chuck E. Cheese’s offers menu ‘for grown-up tastes’
DALLAS – The place where a kid can be a kid also wants to be the place where mom can get a cappuccino and dad can chow down on an artisan-like pizza.
The Irving-based Chuck E. Cheese’s chain this week completed the nationwide rollout of the biggest change to its menu in more than a decade, officials said in an interview this week. The change is meant in part to reduce the vetoes from parents craving more sophisticated tastes.
New offerings include California Alfredo thin and crispy pizza with mushrooms and spinach and, for a limited time, New York-style cheesecake.
The point, Tom Leverton said, is to recognize that while children drive the desire to visit, it’s the parents who hold the car keys.
“When you think about Chuck E. Cheese’s, you certainly do think about kids’ entertainment upfront as well as pizza,” said Leverton, chief executive of the parent company, CEC Entertainment Inc. “We see an opportunity to further improve on providing menu offerings that entice the adults more to agree to take their children to Chuck E. Cheese’s.
“If we provide a good experience for Mom and Dad,” he added, “they are going to be more willing to take their kid to Chuck E. Cheese’s instead of going out to a competing place.”
Nationwide, the company rolled out the Cali Alfredo pizza along with an update to its BBQ chicken pizza, now with a smoky barbecue sauce and fried onions. It also has introduced whole-wheat tortilla wraps such as Chicken Caesar and a club wrap.
And it added churros with dipping sauces.
All locations in North Texas are being remodeled in the coming months. Some will include full coffee bars, featuring cappuccinos and lattes. Others will have full dessert bars.
If those items prove popular here, they may be expanded.
The company’s website touts “all-new menu items for grown-up tastes,” proclaiming “we’re not playing games with our food anymore.”
In addition to the menu updates, the company is mulling replacing those jingling tokens with a plastic “play pass,” a la Dave & Buster’s. It also sees an opportunity to get more into the to-go business, with the food drawing diners who aren’t necessarily toting a toddler.
Parental feedback on the menu additions so far, from some of the early adopter markets, has been “phenomenal,” Leverton said.
“I think you’d guess 10 or 15 other places before you’d guess that Chuck E. Cheese’s would provide this type of pizza,” he said. “It’s not artisan, but it is surprising.”
The chain’s push toward the upscale comes as the pizza industry nationwide is beefing up the menu in the face of increased competition.
In November, Pizza Hut, the nation’s largest pizza chain, announced the most expansive brand update in the company’s half-century history. That included menu additions that mirror some items seen at artisan pizza shops and at fast-casual players.