Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Chuck E. Cheese's's fight club

In the news:

In Brookfield, Wis., no restaurant has triggered more calls to the police department since last year than Chuck E. Cheese's.

Officers have been called to break up 12 fights, some of them physical, at the child-oriented pizza parlor since January 2007. The biggest melee broke out in April, when an uninvited adult disrupted a child's birthday party. Seven officers arrived and found as many as 40 people knocking over chairs and yelling in front of the restaurant's music stage, where a robotic singing chicken and the chain's namesake mouse perform.

Chuck E. Cheese's bills itself as a place "where a kid can be a kid." But to law-enforcement officials across the country, it has a more particular distinction: the scene of a surprising amount of disorderly conduct and battery among grown-ups.

"The biggest problem is you have a bunch of adults acting like juveniles," says Town of Brookfield Police Capt. Timothy Imler. "There's a biker bar down the street, and we rarely get calls there."

Calling All Cars: Trouble at Chuck E. Cheese's, Again (Wall Street Journal)
I've not had the pleasure of dining (or fighting) at a Chuck E. Cheese's. But I'm wondering: say that you're Chuck, and you want to talk about the problems at some of your restaurants. What is the plural of "Chuck E. Cheese's"?

[This post's title includes my whimsical try at the possessive of "Chuck E. Cheese's."]

comments: 2

Anonymous said...

Use of the possessive apostrophe can be confusing, though I think in this case it resolves itself in a reasonably straightforward way.

1. If Chuck E Cheese is the name of an individual or a single organisation you would use:

The restaurant of Chuck E Cheese.

Or, if you prefer, Chuck E Cheese's restaurant.

2. If Chuck E Cheese is the name of more than one person or organisations (though from your report it sounds as if one is enough!) you would use:

The restaurant of Chuck E Cheeses.

Or, again if you prefer, Chuck E Cheeses's restaurant.

Thanks for helping us all to communicate more effectively.

Michael Leddy said...

Thanks for commenting, Andy. I was being facetious, really, as the restaurant name is already a possessive.