Chimpy's Pizza Safari
Chimpy’s Pizza Safari was a chain of two jungle themed entertainment centers in the Chicago area. They both had a classic 3 stage Rock-afire Explosion show, with customized outfits to fit the safari theme. The original Niles was only open a few years, but the follow-up location in Libertyville was open for 12 years remaining into the 2000s, leading to it being decently well documented.
History / Background
The restaurant was started by Spectrum Restaurant & Entertainment Group out of Chicago. They opened up their first location, called "Chimpy’s Jungle", in Niles, IL in late 1991 or early 1992. It would be rebranded to "Chimpy’s Pizza Safari" by early 1992. In August of 1992, Spectrum started looking for more sites around Chicago to expand the Chimpy’s franchise. They started negotiations for several new sites, but ultimately only opened one additional restaurant.
The second location, now called Chimpy’s Pizza safari, had its grand opening in June 1993 in Libertyville, IL. Just two years later in 1995, the original Niles location would quietly close. The final documentation of Niles is in a newspaper article from December 1994. The Libertyville location would remain open for another 10 years.
The Rock-afire Explosion Shows
Both shows had custom cosmetics to match the jungle theme. At Libertyville, Billy Bob remained mostly unchanged. Looney Bird had a tan spray-painted barrel (though in footage half the paint has worn off) and he wore a safari hat with Birthday Bird on it. Their Smitty’s backdrop was removed and their stage was mostly bare, with just a blue sky background and faux plants. Mitzi had a cheetah print dress and all white & tan shoes. Beach Bear had blue shorts. Fatz was naked, to more resemble a gorilla that would be found out in the jungle. Dook had an all tan safari outfit. Rolfe and Earl remained unchanged, but their stage had no rainbow or rain curtain, with just a blue sky background and faux plants much like the other side stage. The bottom of the stage had a bamboo border trim.
At Niles, the show seems to be mostly the same as Libertyville, with Mitzi sporting her cheetah dress and maracas. Few photos of the band exist, but in the few that have been found it appears Beach Bear is naked like Fatz. Dook wears the safari hat. Looney Bird had a bamboo barrel as well.
Both shows also had a standard show selector and played a variety of both early and later shows such as The Ride, Linger, and Catch-A-Wave. The showrooms had fake palm trees, and murals of jungle animals were painted onto the walls. The set at Libertyville was found (via serial number) to have come originally from the ShowBiz Pizza Place in Hutchinson, Kansas. The origin of Niles' show is a mystery. Both shows were most likely sent back to CEI (after the closure of the ShowBiz locations) and were then sold to Chimpy’s.
Chimpy's Final Days
Libertyville remained open until 2005 with the show slowly degrading in condition amid declining sales. In April of 2004 a new Chuck E. Cheese's also opened in nearby Vernon Hills, IL which likely impacted Chimpy's sales as well. A Rock-afire Explosion fan (CircusPizzaFan) helped maintain the show throughout the 2000s, doing his best to help keep the show running - often times offering his labor free of charge to the establishment. When the business finally closed, the manager called him and told him he could have the show - for free. This was done as a show of appreciation for helping the store maintain it's animatronics at little to no cost, especially considering assistance from Creative Engineering always came with a hefty price tag that the struggling business couldn't afford. It was uninstalled and brought to CircusPizzaFan's private residence aka "Dook’s Garage", where some of the characters were held onto and the rest were scattered to other collectors. The unique cosmetics from Dook and Mitzi survived, with the Dook Safari costume being used on the character at Dook’s Garage, even though the Chimpy’s bot has since been sold.
Information & Details
Chimpy's Jungle / Chimpy's Pizza Safari
8526 W Golf Rd
Niles, IL 60714
Opening Date: Late 1991 / Early 1992
Closing Date: 1995
Fate of the show: Unknown
Chimpy's Pizza Safari
1360 S Milwaukee Ave
Libertyville, IL 60048
Opening Date: June 1993
Closing Date: 2005
Fate of the show: Given to CircusPizzaFan and was then dispursed to several fans since 2005
