Enterrium (formerly known as Level 257 then Pac-Man Entertainment) is a contemporary American restaurant and video arcade located at

Woodfield Mall Woodfield Mall is a shopping mall located in the northwest Chicago suburb of Schaumburg, Illinois, United States, at the intersection of Golf Road and Interstate 290. The mall is the largest shopping mall in the state of Illinois, the second la ...

Schaumburg, Illinois Schaumburg ( ) is a village mostly in Cook County and partly in DuPage County in northeastern Illinois, United States. Per the 2020 Census, the population was 78,723. Schaumburg is around northwest of the Chicago Loop and northwest of O'Hare ...

. The restaurant and entertainment destination was originally inspired by '' Pac-Man'' and the name refers to the famous

kill screen ''Kill Screen'' (stylized as ''KILL SCREEN'') was a print and online magazine founded in 2009 by Jamin Warren and Chris Dahlen and owned by Kill Screen Media, Inc. It focused on video games and culture, but also included articles based on e ...

, which occurs when the player reaches the 256th level of the original ''Pac-Man'' game, meaning "the next level of dining and entertainment". It was owned by Bandai Namco Entertainment from 2015 to 2021, which also owns all Pac-Man-related intellectual property. The restaurant celebrated its

soft opening A soft launch, also known as a soft opening, is a preview release of a product or service to a limited audience prior to the general public. Soft-launching a product is sometimes used to gather data or customer feedback, prior to making it widely ...

on March 2, 2015, and its

grand opening An opening ceremony, grand opening, or ribbon-cutting ceremony marks the official opening of a newly-constructed location or the start of an event.

in April 2015. In March 2021, the location was sold to National Entertainment Network and was rebranded as the Enterrium.

Style

It sits on 42,000 square feet which was previously used as a warehouse for a

Sears Sears, Roebuck and Co. ( ), commonly known as Sears, is an American chain of department stores founded in 1892 by Richard Warren Sears and Alvah Curtis Roebuck and reincorporated in 1906 by Richard Sears and Julius Rosenwald, with what began a ...

department store. In addition, the restaurant also features sixteen boutique bowling lanes, table tennis and social sports, as well as video and board games in the Lost & Found Game Lounge. The interior decor is up-scale modern urban-chic in style and includes levels of references to the video game character Pac-Man. The menu also features references to well-known video game terms of the 1980s, such as "1-UP", chocolate "power pellets", and "Game Over".

History

The restaurant was first conceived as a prototype in 2013, when Namco announced that the restaurant (codenamed ''Level 256'' at the time) was being developed in partnership with a restaurateur in Kansas City, saying that were eyeing the Chicago area for possible locations. The restaurant celebrated its soft opening on March 2, 2015. In March 2021, Pac-Man Entertainment was sold to National Entertainment Network following Bandai Namco's decision to withdraw amusement facility business in North America, citing the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

heavily impacting their business. Pac-Man Entertainment would be rebranded as the Enterrium, stripping the location of its Pac-Man theme.

Events

The restaurant celebrated the 35th anniversary of Pac-Man on Friday, May 22, 2015. It featured a live performance of " Pac-Man Fever" by Jerry Buckner of Buckner & Garcia.

References

External links

* {{coord, 42, 02, 44.6, N, 88, 2, 5.6, W, region:US-IL_type:landmark, display=title Former Bandai Namco Holdings subsidiaries Pac-Man Restaurants in Illinois Restaurants established in 2015 2015 establishments in Illinois Theme restaurants Video arcades Buildings and structures in Cook County, Illinois