Chuck E. Cheese Closes In Oak Lawn

OAK LAWN, IL -- With the symbolic smashing of Chuck E. Cheese’s head, Texas-based CEC Entertainment is closing its children’s birthday party restaurant after a troubled and violent history in Oak Lawn. Movers were seen carrying out vending machines, tables, chairs, the freezer and other accoutrements on Tuesday afternoon, leaving another vacancy in the shopping center at 95th Street and Pulaski. The restaurant’s parent company decided to call it quits in Oak Lawn in December 2016 just as village officials were about to hold a disciplinary hearing to yank Chuck E. Cheese’s business license.

The franchise, operated by CEC Entertainment outside of Dallas, Tex., opened as Showbiz Pizza in Oak Lawn in 1978. In recent years, the children’s fun emporium had become the scene of violent brawls and verbal altercations between patrons. Off-duty Oak Lawn police officers provided security for the restaurant on weekends, per a dictum from the village. In 2012, a documented gang member barely escaped death as he was bringing his child’s birthday cake out to his car. He hid under the steering wheel as bullets pelted his vehicle. Another adult fracas that began in the salad bar in 2014 -- which was caught on video by Patch -- escalated into a parking lot brawl. Following that incident, CEC Entertainment voluntarily surrendered its village liquor license.

Company representatives appeared before the Oak Lawn Village Board in October 2016, presenting a beefed-up public safety plan. The tipping point came a few months later, when a patron was shot twice in the lip leaving Chuck E. Cheese’s with his children. The patron was said to be “uncooperative” with the police investigation. Rather than risking the possible revocation of the franchise’s business license, CEC Entertainment announced that it would leave Oak Lawn. Chuck E. Cheese was given until this December to transition out of Oak Lawn as the franchise’s business license was placed on a month-to-month renewal.

The Village of Oak Lawn and CEC Entertainment could not immediately be reached for comment. A staff member carrying items out of the restaurant said a company policy required them to destroy Chuck E. Cheese’s head and other branded items.

Watch the Oak Lawn Patch Facebook Live video of moving day for Chuck E. Cheese’s.

Photo and video by Patch Editor Lorraine Swanson