Hard Rock Cafe
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Hard Rock Cafe is a chain of casual dining restaurants. It was founded in 1971 by Isaac Tigrett and Peter Morton, and their first Hard Rock Cafe opened at 150 Old Park Lane, (London W1K 1QZ) of Piccadilly near Hyde Park Corner in London, in a former Rolls Royce car dealerships showroom close to Hyde Park, where in 1979 they began to cover the walls with rock 'n' roll ephemera.
The cafe was reportedly named after side one of The Doors' 1970 album, Morrison Hotel, which was in turn named after a now closed bar in down town Los Angeles depicted on the back cover of Morrison Hotel. The Hard Rock Cafe's motto Love All, Serve All was adopted from Tigrett's guru Sathya Sai Baba.
A second location opened in downtown Toronto in 1978.http://www.hardrock.com/corporate/press/content.aspx?id=28 (Toronto is now home to 2 cafes).
The chain began global expansion in 1982 when the two agreed to develop their own cafes across the world. Morton opened Hard Rocks in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, and Houston while Tigrett did so in New York City, Dallas, Boston, Washington, DC, Orlando, Paris, Berlin, and Sydney. Eventually Tigrett sold his interest to Mecca Leisure.
In 1990, The Rank Organisation (now The Rank Group) acquired Mecca Leisure and continued expanding the cafes, acquiring the cafes owned by Morton a few years later. There are more than 143 Hard Rock Cafes in over 36 countries at current date, with several more in the works. Hard Rock was most popular in the 1980s when it was a common hobby to visit as many locations as possible and collect a Hard Rock t-shirt bearing their logo and the location name. Now pin collecting is the current rage.
Hard Rock has now started building hotels and casinos, attracting more visitors around the world. These include:
- Hard Rock Hotel & Casino, Hollywood, Florida
- Hard Rock Hotel & Casino, Tampa
- Hard Rock Hotel & Casino, Biloxi (original opening in September 2005 delayed indefinitely due to Hurricane Katrina)
- Hard Rock Hotel & Casino, Las Vegas
- Hard Rock Casino, London
In recent years, critics say Hard Rock's direction has shifted. What was once an independently-spirited, musically-influenced chain has "gone commercial." The music videos that are piped into all the cafes from a central location are more a mix of pop music and rock-and-roll. Where once one might see a rare Beatles record, now hangs Britney Spears' waitress outfit from a music video clip (as in Hard Rock New Orleans).
Music memorabilia
Hard Rock is better known for its atmosphere than its food. The cafes not only solicit donations of music memorabilia, but also purchase a number of items at auctions around the world. Hard Rock has the world's largest collection of such items. Memorabilia like autographed guitars, outfits from world tours and rare photographs are oft to be found mounted on cafe walls. The collection began in 1979 with the gift of a un-signed guitar (a Red Fender Lead II) from Eric Clapton, who was a regular at the first restaurant in London. Pete Townshend of The Who got wind of this and sent in one of his guitars, also un-signed. Attached was a note: "Mine's as good as his! Love, Pete." Hard Rock has so much material in their archive that they opened a Hard Rock museum named "The Vault" in Orlando, Florida. It closed in 2005. The Vault's legacy continues in Orlando where Tony Hume and Jeff Nolan give daily guided tours of the world's largest Hard Rock Cafe and explain a basic introduction to the history of rock 'n' roll.
See also
External links
- [Official site]
- [Hardrockcafes.info]
- [Case Study about Hard Rock Cafe, Isaac Tigrett and Spiritual Leadership]
- [Hard Rock Cafe Pin site]
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