Chuck E Cheese’s opens again

After being closed for the past 11 months, Chuck E Cheese’s reopened its restaurants at Brentwood, Chaguanas and C3 Mall, San Fernando on Friday.

The restaurants were closed on March 15, 2021, after government imposed restrictions to deal with a surge in covid19 cases.

While restaurants eventually reopened with curbside services only in July 2021, and then in-house dining under the safe zone policy in October 2021, Chuck E Cheese’s remained closed given their main clientele – children under 12 – were unable to be vaccinated.

On Tuesday, the restaurants’ owner Joanna Rostant gave Newsday a behind-the-scenes look as the Chaguanas branch prepared to reopen.

Rostant told Newsday, “Like the village we live in, in Trinidad and Tobago, thank God for our business village.

“You know how we say ‘It takes a village to raise a child?’ Well, it takes a village to raise a business back to life as well.”

As a result of covid19 restrictions, the restaurants lost 35 per cent of its annual revenue in 2020 and 80 per cent in 2021.

Apart from losing revenue, Rostant said the restaurants suffered several technological issues including some games needing reprogramming and the point-of-sale system having a hardware collapse during the prolonged closure.

“The prolonged shutdown – as any engineer would know – had the added challenge in that equipment (like our games) work well when it’s running and does not work well when it’s down.

“Shutting down a company that so heavily relies on computers, mechanical engineering and equipment has been tough.

“But during the lockdown, we did do maintenance of our safety systems – our fire alarms, security cameras – which is non-negotiable for me.

“From time to time, the AC and games were also switched on and the kitchen equipment were tested every couple months.”

Outside of doing technological updates on Tuesday, Newsday saw workers busy installing additional hand sanitising stations throughout the restaurant, repainting walls, and powerwashing the exterior.

Rostant was also able to retain most of her staff during the lockdown with only three leaving because they got work elsewhere, but she hopes they return.

“Here at Chuck E Cheese’s our staff is a very close family and there have not been a great staff turnover. My two general managers are incredible and they are like mothers to my staff. The ‘village’ has made me so happy again because my staff have all come back.”

Rostant admits it will be heartbreaking that children will not be able to enjoy some traditional aspects of the restaurant’s traditional entertainment pieces now that the restaurants have reopened.

Before covid19, the Chuck E Cheese’s mascot gave out free tickets every hour in a ticket “blast” while singing and dancing with children.

“One unfortunate thing for the kids, but the right thing for covid now, is that we don’t allow Chuck E to come out and throw the tickets for the children because we don’t want children congregating.”

The mascot will still walk around the restaurant and give out tickets. But it will do so from a safe distance.

Despite challenges, Rostant said the franchise will ensure children have a good time.

“That energy you feel in a Chuck E Cheese’s on a Saturday afternoon, you can’t explain how important it is for the communities and the socioeconomic environment in TT.”

Rostant will continue to make the best of it but hopes it changes as the pandemic evolves.

“When a pandemic becomes endemic, government policies need to follow. I feel pretty strongly that we will follow when the time is right and they will do what is right.”