That food has been overlooked in the deployment and success of amusement venues is obvious. Recently we have seen a clamber to address the balance and create both a menu but an atmosphere that embraces the food and beverage element of the older visitor to the franchised ‘Food-n-Fun’ sites.

This is not a new consideration; it was the acquisition of the PizzaTime Theater concept by Atari that started a franchise that would steer much of the ‘Pizza-n-Play’ thinking of amusement mixed with dining. But as the Chuck E. Cheese demographic continues to grow, there is a more mature audience that has a greater disposable income to spend on their Out-of-Home leisure and want more than cheese’ pizzas.

For the maturing games and dining sector, the food has been an unspoken ‘attraction’ - the element of private and corporate parties depends on the food element - as much as the quality of the games and the number of free tokens supplied, good, fresh, varied and well prepared refreshments and libations mark out any facility. Recently a number of prominent food and beverage executive positions in the major gaming facilities have been taken by those coming from respected and up market restaurant franchises.

Concerning the leading names embracing the Food-n-Fun opportunity; Dave & Buster’s - The 1978 ‘Busters’ restaurant located in Little Rock, Arkansas, would not become a winning brand until the adjacent ‘Slick Willy’s World of Entertainment’ amusement hall was combined. From this auspicious coupling and equally ‘slick’ direction by first Edison Brothers mall team and then the current management created the ‘Food & Beverage’ brand that centers the over forty facilities. The food element in the flagship sites ranges from the Midway booths, or main restaurant - while the recently amalgamated 10 Jillian’s offers a branded ‘Grand Sports Café’ dinning experience. The divisions using the tag line ‘Recess is Calling! - Eat.Drink.Play!’ is supported by the ‘Dave & Buster's Grand Sports Café’ food component.

The remaining Jillian’s operation following the separation of the facilities acquired by D&B, Jillian’s now operates their ‘Video café’ and ‘9-bar lounge’, taking on an award-winning chef to define their menu. Other facilities look to building on of the ‘Game Hall’ style environment is carried on by Main Event Entertainment, with their six facilities, they have developed the ‘’Main Street Café’ bar and restaurant element to the facility supporting entertainment features.

Well-known facility operation GameWorks, having dropped the original ‘Arcade Warehouse’ concept, a succession of executives failed to grasp the reality that food and drink drives traffic to these places. however, judging by the most recent management team, things have changed. In comes experience from the food and beverage market and the development of the branded dining element such as the ‘Arena Sports Bar & Grill’. The appointment of an Asian beverage lead executive to the company structure, rather than an amusement heavy background shows the real area of company revenue.

The GameWorks operation was inspired by involvement from DreamWorks, whose founding executives had also invested in the Dive! Restaurant chain that had dabbled with themed entertainment. Those existing executives from the previous GW structure have gone on themselves to investigate the food-n-fun element of recreation and are developing the ‘Corner Ally’ concept which brings fin dining and themed styling to the bowling concept.

A lot of what became GW’s was ‘borrowed’ from the Playdium concept that included a mezzanine bar lounge and ‘Megabyte’ pizza and snack bar. The operation has reverted however from the large venue to the more efficient cinema / mall venue and so equipped differently for snacks. The franchising of a specific brand that can be used to help sell the food and the fun was seen with the sports bar concept ESPN Zone. The facility operation has their signature ‘Studio Grill’ dining area, supported by their bar and lounge area.

The mixture of fin dining and bar sports is complimented by the inclusion of more conventional and multi-age supported refreshment. Peter Piper Pizza has embraced entertainment within their venues with the tag line ‘The food’s as good as the fun’. The mix has the venture able to secure its top twenty ranging among pizza chains in North America the facility has seen the actual amusement element supplying roughly 26 per cent of the facility revenue, while the food and beverage sales represents a core element. With an up-market menu and layout aiming for the mature visitor a 10 per cent increase in visitation has been charted. The Incredible Pizza Company also looks towards amusement component to support their 40 franchised facilities with their 50’s styling.

Another market veteran since 1962, Mr. Gatti’s has seen their investment in entertainment go through the roof, the GattiTown flagship location incorporating the Gatti-Café as well as the Market Place Café, non-alcohol environment the ability to look at the Church groups. This detail to the food and fun element saw the launch of the ‘Eatertainment’ brand that has become the mantra for a number of new concepts. One of these new entrants is uWink, with their ‘uWink Media Bistro’ - the conventional restaurant layout has been replaced by four dining areas incorporating the interactive table ordering system that offers food and alcohol automated system, interchanged with yet to be revealed gaming systems - the industry waits for the launch of the Los Angels 2006 opening. The project has proven temperamental from the start with uWink having to drop the ‘media’ name to be now known as just ‘uWink Bistro’ after rumblings of a trademark infringement lawsuit from Media Bistro, a professional journalists’ organization based in Los Angeles.

uWink however may be coming too late to the automated restaurant model, as already in America the application of the RoboServer System has been seen at a number of franchised fast food restaurants deploying kiosks that use the self-serving ordering technology. The RoboServer system offers a claimed 33 per cent serving time reduction, and is already increasing the utilization of credit card payment in many franchises. Though ordering fast food is different to a full three course unique menu, the technology has already been deployed, and uWink will have to prove more than just fancy ordering.

And, although pizza is literally in name of many of these fun-and-food venues, the new generation of such venues is not must about burgers and pasta. They are adding, not just F&B, but healthy eating options.

Where the majority of the venues mentioned would previously have had a signature burger and/or desert, the impact of the healthy eating requirements of a changing audience has proven a difficult requirement to support. The very nature of the entertainment facility is for the BBQ end of the fine dining scale. The sports bar element of the food-n-fun sector sees more likelihood of Buffalo-wings than a low-fat Blue Cheese Salad - but times have changed.

With the hiring of award-winning and respected chefs, specialist menus have been crafted that chart a new era in the ‘Eatertainment’ (to coin Mr. Gatti’s phrase) aspects of the venue scene. Brining aspects of the restaurant trade directly to the gaming hall and unique mix of entertainment and eating has been weaved.

But it is the need to have a socially responsible menu that also drives the new thinking in Food-n-Fun. The social backlash best demonstrated by the ‘Super Size Me!’ issues of serving fast food plays on many minds. Though McDonalds has radically changed its menu to reflect a responsibility to see its clientele have a health choice beyond the Big Mac and Fries, there is an element of possible legal vulnerability that has driven this menu diversification - best illustrated by the development of the ‘McGourmet’ brand. Consideration of regular visitors’ health a factor especially with the family groups.

The younger consumer plays hard, and is prepared to party hard - and this brings us to the other aspect of a Food-n-Fun environment - alcohol! As most venues have their signature dishes, the majority of sites also have their signature cocktails. The aspect of mixing drinking in a conventional Family Entertainment Centre has been a difficult issue, beyond the demarcation of adult bar areas from the main ‘Midway’ children areas this has excluded adults from the games. Some sites have gone father than that with the GattiTown no-alcohol policy. D&B’s have created a strong mix - but the new Food-n-Fun sites looking at a majority mature audience have turned up the bar and snacks element (seen in the score of café designs).

While this feature as fixated on the larger venues there is the growing attention of the smaller, but still important, fast food restaurant franchise business to embrace a form of ‘Eatertainment’ that can salvage a shrinking audience and possible public backlash to their product. It is calculated that there are 115,000 fast-food venues in North America alone. Along with the fast food, there are also the newer coffee houses (an aspect that some Fast Food corporate have diversified into) that also are looking at an amusement component.

Some of the greatest developments in the franchise venue business have been seen by players such as McDonald's, Carl's Jr., Wawa, and Starbucks. Development has seen the creation of new styles of ‘specialist’ sites, and the inclusion of technology into the make-up of the sites. Along with expanding the services provided (such sales of music in Starbucks sites), development to embrace ‘Eatertainment’ has been witnessed.

Building on from the self-service gas pump, the self check-out and self-scanning grocery application the implementation to the fast food restaurant scene of self-serving kiosks will drastically redefine the revenue mix and the focus of venue activities, with entertainment applications seen as a strong ‘venue’ utilization - the argument being if you have to have a restaurant and limit the use of staff and counter needs what do you do with the customers to generate additional revenue?

This augmentation has led to a number of experimental venues being tested by the major fast food franchises. The world’s largest entertainment McDonald’s & PlayPlace was opened in Orlando by the McDonalds fast food operation. The two-floor facility has the whole second story dedicated to the video amusement and other games - part of other themed developed franchise venues such as Sand Lake McDonald’s that incorporates extensive gourmet service and a hoard of 1980’s arcade classic video games.

Previously seen as one-off facilities (such as the Harley Davidson McDonald’s or the Wall Street McDonald’s), these heavily themed and amusement incorporating venues have grown, while the more conventional brand of site has been closed or replaced The first PlayPlace was opened in 1995 as the brand looked towards holding a longer duration of younger visitors’ time at venues. The PlayPlace design has evolved, though the new amusement mix of the current experiments seems to head towards a possible mix-use entertainment methodology.

How relevant this Stinger feature is became clear a few days after it was completed when Walt Disney Company announced that they had cancelled their ten year ($10million) relationship with the McDonalds fast-food operation. It was decided by claimed mutual agreement that the licensing agreement that saw Disney support the Happy Meal children servings with Disney property end. Official statement said this abandonment was not due to any concern on the healthy option of the food or links to childhood obesity, while analysis in American claimed the opposite. No news was available if Disney will be removing McDonalds facilities from property by this marks a major move in the links between Eatertainment!

If fast food can see the benefits in an amusement and entertainment element added to their operation model, and the hospitality sector looks to developing their own entertainment systems - it is only a matter of time before a wider placement for this technology is found.

Breaking Stinger News - Where this Hot Topic has focused on entertainment facilities turning to food, in this news feature we look at a food brand turning to amusement. The Schawn Food Company in 1976 developed a unique home pizza brand, and decided to promote it by adopting the nickname of a famous World War I fighter pilot. Red Baron Pizza grew in popularity to the point that the marketing team formed a Red Baron Pizza Squadron of Stearman biplanes to entertain crowds and publicize the pizza brand at air shows.

In 2004 the marketing team at Schawn decided to mark the 25th anniversary of the World War II biplane squadron and the pizza brand and started to investigate the development of the ‘Red Baron Pizza Museum’ (Marshall, Minnesota). Original low-key plans soon expanded and a 1,300 sq. t., facility was created which opened in November 2004.

The difference between this corporate museum and others such as the Disney, Intel or Microsoft museums is the dedicated use of the latest interactive attraction technology to offer an enthralling experience for the guests. The venue became the first facility to utilize the revolutionary ‘Immersa-Dome’ display system that fully immerses the guest in their own mini-dome display system. Developed by VirTra Systems, the units to that date had only been used in the corporate promotion and exhibition scene.

Supporting these displays, the facility also installed a MaxFlight simulator that ran a special Stearman biplane simulation flight, along with the conventional Rollercoaster and air combat experiences. Also included in the venue was a detailed guided exhibit charting the brand, stunt planes and icon behind the pizza, and a theatre experience for large parties.

In developing this successful brand promotional venue, Schwan Foods has opened up a brand new way to promote their brand, and also generated a repeat visitation experience unlike any other. It is expected that this style of venue will become a common factor in the promotion of brands and corporate identity, the inclusion of immersive, but interactive experiences adding to their appeal.