Oddly enough, Chuck E Cheese has been trying to “rebrand” itself since COVID. During the pandemic they actually operated as a shadow kitchen pizza chain and possibly as a result, the quality of their pizza (at least at our local restaurant) has substantially improved, to the point that I would rank it above a couple other nationwide chains. The atmosphere is very different from the dark, grody, funky 1980s rat pizza restaurant, and is now a loud party atmosphere with TV screens constantly blasting kiddie music videos. They’ve shifted their age demographic from “family” to “kids”, and their locations have become much cleaner.
The name of the shadow kitchen is "Pasqually's Pizza & Wings". If you read the "Our Story" page on their website, it says that they "leverage the operational infrastructure of Chuck E. Cheese kitchens across the country".
Pasqually is one of the animatronic characters, he is a chef.
As a nerd of a kid who enjoyed "Lore", it amused me when people complaining about Pasqually's Pizza at the time, because I immediately recognized it as the name of the Pizza restaurant inside Chuck E. Cheese, that's what it was always called.
Pasqually is not just the chef (and the drummer), he's the owner of the restaurant in the show. It was always his restaurant, Chuck is just the front man of the band.
Yeah I went to one last year for a friend’s kid’s birthday - the giant playground maze and ball pit is gone, the animatronic stage is gone, it’s a big dance floor and more arcade games and even a tiny carousel for toddlers
I went again recently (less than a year ago) for the first time since the 90s and the animatronics stage was still fully functional. Apparently very few locations are left with working stages, and I was impressed that my local stage had continued operating. They also serve alcohol now or something.
It felt a bit more open, one giant room, but I might just be remembering more walls because I'm taller now than I was when I was 10. Definitely no ball pit though.
I was probably around ~5(ish) years old when I went to Chuck E. Cheese for a birthday party; distinctly remember disliking the pizza (and cheese, by extension) so much that I thought I *hated* pizza altogether until I was ~16(ish) and started working at a local pizza place in town called Valeos where we'd get a free 16in to take home after every shift. I still use their sauce recipe to this day it's literally so good!
At the time, I think a friends mom [jokingly] said the pizza was 'cardboard' and I began crying as I genuinely believed it was actual cardboard
[we were a thin-crust only type of place; we also used a little handful of cornmeal as it was placed in the brick oven to prevent the crust from sticking - it adds a little extra flavor and texture to the pizza :)]
In a pot, placed on medium-heat on the stove top, add:
- 2tbsp EVOO
- two twigs of fresh oregano, crushed or finely chopped (to express the oils in the plant)
- 1/4 white onion, minced very finely
- 1/4 yellow onion, minced very finely
- 2-3 squished cloves of roasted garlic (cut the top part from a bulb of garlic, add some EVOO and bake @ 400 for ~30(ish) minutes; be sure to do it in foil or the ceramic baking dishes for roasting garlic!)
- 1tbsp of salt mixed with black pepper and crushed red pepper flakes
Until onions are translucent and aromatic
Then add:
- 1 large can of Cento-brand peeled San Marzano tomatoes
Stir intermittently until sauce develops a deep red color and you can use it right away or keep it in the fridge!
- As it cools, add in a handful (1/4 cup) of freshly crumbled Parmesan cheese (you could see the cheese chunks as we applied the sauce to the dough so they weren't large pieces but little(ish) crumbles)
I was going to guess it wasn't that good until I saw "San Marzano" tomatoes. In my opinion that's the single best decision you can make for pizza sauce. No other tomato comes close.
The Cento brand and the Nina brand (at least the ones I have) which are often sold at Costco are the ones to get.
Note: you MUST avoid any tomatoes that are packed with calcium chloride, as it greatly increases the time for the tomatoes to fall apart and make good sauce.
Ha awesome, stashing this for the next time I make dough. Already have stacks of Cento SMs, since they sell them at Costco and they work well with Marcella Hazan’s pasta sauce. Thanks for typing all that out!
For a classic Napolitano sauce, open a 28 oz. can of your favorite crushed tomatoes and then mix in 2T extra virgin olive oil, 2 cloves garlic (minced), 1.5t kosher salt. That's it, you're done.
The funny thing is I remember the pizza being pretty lousy when I was a kid, but when one of my kids had a friend's birthday party there I tried a slice and it was surprisingly decent. The crust was done right, and while the toppings were probably cheap they did at least add some Italian seasoning to it to punch it up.
It was better than a couple of the local pizza chains that have catered some of the other birthday parties we have attended.
I was so excited to be invited to my first party there. The pizza was a huge letdown, and Pizza Hut was the best thing I experienced for many, many years, followed by Godfather’s. Chuck E. Cheese wasn’t even on the list. But I sure had fun on the video games and ski ball.
Have you been in the last few years? We thought the same, but they've gotten a lot better since COVID. Still overpriced, but at least edible (at least if you get the stuffed crust).
