 | |
| Company type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Casual diningrestaurants |
| Founded | June 14, 1971; 54 years ago (1971-06-14) London, England |
| Founders | Isaac Tigrett Peter Morton |
| Headquarters | Davie, Florida, U.S. |
Number of locations | 165 restaurants |
| Owner | Hard Rock International (Seminole Tribe of Florida) |
| Website | hardrock |
Hard Rock Cafe, Inc. is a chain oftheme bar-restaurants, memorabilia shops, casinos, hotels and museums founded in 1971 byIsaac Tigrett andPeter Morton inLondon. In 1979, the cafe began covering its walls withrock and rollmemorabilia, a tradition which expanded to others in the chain. In 2007, Hard Rock Cafe International (USA), Inc. was sold to theSeminole Tribe of Florida and was headquartered inOrlando, Florida, until April 2018, when the corporate offices were relocated toDavie, Florida.[1][2] The Hard Rock Cafe chain continues to be owned byHard Rock International.[3][4]
The first Hard Rock Cafe opened on June 14, 1971, at 150 Old Park Lane,Hyde Park, London,[5] under the ownership of two Americans,Isaac Tigrett andPeter Morton. Hard Rock initially had an eclectic decor, but it later started to display memorabilia. In 1978, a second location was opened inToronto, Canada.[6]
The chain began to expand worldwide in 1982 when Morton opened Hard Rock Cafes inLos Angeles,San Francisco,Chicago,Houston, and Tigrett opened locations inJackson, Tennessee,[7] New York, Dallas, Boston, Washington, D.C., Orlando as well asParis (opened in 1991, closed in 2024) andBerlin.[8] Hard Rock Cafe locations in the US vary from smaller, more tourist-driven markets (Biloxi,Pigeon Forge,Key West) to large metropolises (Philadelphia,Baltimore,New York City, Chicago,Boston,Washington, D.C.).
Hard Rock Cafe typically does not franchise cafe locations in the United States. All U.S. cafes are corporate owned and operated, except for cafes inTampa and in the (now closed)Four Winds New Buffalo casino.[9] However, in the transition of theHard Rock Hotel & Casino, Las Vegas property, originally owned and then later sold tothe Rank Group by founder Peter Morton,[10] Morton retained hotel naming rights west of the Mississippi. When Morton sold his Las Vegas Hard Rock Hotel to theMorgans Hotel Group, he also sold those naming rights, which then gave rise to two US franchised hotels (without cafes) inAlbuquerque andTulsa. (The Albuquerque hotel no longer pays for the Hard Rock rights and reverted to its former name in June 2013.) Additional casino hotels franchised from Morgan's were subsequently opened inSioux City, Iowa, andVancouver, Canada.
In 1990, the Rank Group acquiredMecca Leisure Group and continued expansion of the concept in its geographic territory. Rank went on to purchaseHard Rock America from Peter Morton as well asHard Rock Canada from Nick Bitove. After the completion of these acquisitions, Rank gained worldwide control of the brand. In March 2007, theSeminole Tribe of Florida acquiredHard Rock Cafe International, Inc. and other related entities from Rank forUS$965 million,[1] forming the corporate entityHard Rock International, with Hard Rock Cafe owned as a subsidiary. Hard Rock International expanded into hotels and casinos withHard Rock Hotel and Casino, which operates separately from Hard Rock Cafe.
In 2008, anonymous members of the wait staff in London criticized the Hard Rock Cafe business because of its practice of paying them less than half the official minimum wage in the UK, with the business allocating thetips to staff wages, thus bringing their salaries within the minimum wage requirements. Most customers, it was argued, do not realize that they are subsidizing a low wage when they give the tip.[11]
In Argentina, the first Hard Rock Cafe opened in 1995 inRecoleta, Buenos Aires.[12] In 2016, a location opened inUshuaia, Argentina in the province of Tierra del Fuego, with another being opened in the city ofPuerto Iguazu in 2024.[13]
Canada had numerous restaurants but many of them closed, notably the one at Yonge-Dundas Square (nowSankofa Square) in Toronto in May 2017, which had been the chain's second location, leaving just two in that country, Niagara Falls, Ontario, and the Hard Rock Casino in Coquitlam, B.C.[14] At theCanadian Tire Centre, the stadium formerly housed Ottawa's first Hard Rock Café when it opened as The Palladium on January 15, 1996, and for many years when it was known as theCorel Centre. The café closed on August 8, 2002.[15]
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HRC is known for its collection of rock-and-roll memorabilia. The cafes solicit donations of music memorabilia but also purchase a number of items at auctions around the world, including autographed guitars, costumes from world tours and rare photographs; these are often to be found mounted on cafe walls. The collection began in 1979 with an un-signed RedFender Lead II guitar fromEric Clapton, who was a regular at the first restaurant in London. Clapton wanted management to hang the guitar over his regular seat in order to lay claim to that spot, and they obliged. This promptedPete Townshend ofThe Who to give one of his guitars, also un-signed with the note "Mine's as good as his! Love, Pete."[16] Hard Rock's archive includes over 80,000 items,[17] and is the largest private collection of Rock and Roll memorabilia in the world. Marquee pieces from the collection were briefly displayed in a Hard Rock museum named "The Vault" in Orlando, Florida from January 2003 until September 2004. After the closure, items were distributed to various restaurant locations.[18] The London Vault remains open and free to visitors, located in the retail Rock Shop of the original cafe.[19]
The Hard Rock Café is also in possession of aBedford VAL three axle coach. The vehicle was completely refurbished. It is currently displayed in the US, but makes regular appearances in events in the UK, especially at the original Hard Rock Cafe in London. In 2001, a competition was run to win the bus, but it was never given away and remained with the cafe. On June 10, 2021, Hard Rock announcedLionel Messi as its Hard Rock brand ambassador as the company celebrated its 50th anniversary.[20]
In 2025, Hard Rock Cafe was one of the donors who funded the White House'sEast Wing demolition, and planned building of a ballroom.[21]
A Hard Rock Cafe exists in Empire, Colorado, which was established in 1934 that is not part of the chain.[22]
Side 1 ofThe Doors' 1970 albumMorrison Hotel is titledHard Rock Cafe. A café of that name inLos Angeles (now closed) is pictured on the back of the album.[23] In 1977 albumSimple Things,Carole King wrote the song "Hard Rock Café". In her autobiographyA Natural Woman, she reports that she was inspired by a bar in downtown Los Angeles and a small restaurant inIdaho with the same name. At the time, she was not aware of the similarity in name to the restaurant chain. HRC founders Morton and Tigrett were allegedly inspired to give the name by the same bar in Los Angeles.Olivia Molina sang theGerman version of the song. Until February 2017, there was a café inHeidelberg called Hard Rock Café, but it did not belong to the group; after a series of court cases, the restaurant had to change its name.[24]
During the2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Hard Rock Cafe refused to withdraw from theRussian market. An April 28, 2022, study byYale University, intended to identify how companies were reacting to the invasion, placed Hard Rock Cafe in the "Buying Time" category, meaning "Holding Off New Investments/Development: companies postponing future planned investment/development/marketing while continuing substantive business".[25] The only Hard Rock Cafe inMoscow was closed in October 2022.[26]
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