Who Owns Peter Piper Pizza?

Tony Cavolo opened the first Peter Piper Pizza in Glendale, Arizona in 1973, pairing a neighborhood pizzeria with games and rides aimed at families. The combination of pizza and entertainment proved durable in the Southwest, and the chain spread through Arizona, then into Texas, California, New Mexico, and Mexico over the following two decades.

Cavolo sold the company to The Venture West Group in 1992. Under new ownership the brand acquired its hometown competitor Pistol Pete's Pizza in 1995, consolidating the Arizona market. ACON Investments bought the chain in 2007 and held it until October 2014, when Apollo Global Management added it to CEC Entertainment, the parent it had just taken private in a roughly $1.3 billion deal.

CEC filed for Chapter 11 in June 2020 as the pandemic closed family dining rooms and arcades. The company emerged in December 2020 under the control of lenders led by Monarch Alternative Capital, with about $1.1 billion of debt restructured. Peter Piper continued operating through the process as a subsidiary.

Under CEC, the brand has modernized steadily. In June 2025 it launched Peter Piper Play Parks, supervised play zones for children under 56 inches, in 25 Arizona and Albuquerque locations plus six trampoline-only sites. A month later it rolled out SoundHound AI voice ordering across its Arizona and New Mexico restaurants, handling phone orders for pickup. Donations to schools, hospitals, and nonprofits run at more than $600,000 annually, a community program it promotes alongside weekday all-you-can-eat lunch buffets.