Tuesday, March 13, 2007

The Theme Chain


Who can forget those family trips where you begged your parents to take you to Hard Rock Cafe so you could get a Hard Rock Orlando shirt to wear to school to show off that not only are so cool that you went to Orlando but that you are so hip that you went to Hard Rock too and have a t-shirt to tell about it.
I noticed that in the mid-nineties a phenomena was occurring. Theme restaurant chains kept on popping up almost everywhere and with every theme. There was the Fashion Cafe, (ummm yeah looking at a 100 lb model really makes me want to finish those fries), the All-Star Cafe (I kinda liked that place), Motown Cafe (I liked that one too probably because I love that kind of music, hello Dreamgirls!), Harley Davidson Cafe (went there - liked it, but I am afraid of Motorcycles), Rain Forest Cafe (a wild place to shop & eat - didn't last too long in the Palisades Center - good b/c my Cheesecake Factory replaced it), Planet Hollywood, etc. Most of these do not exist anymore but for a time they were extremely popular. Of the ones that still exist here is my list of the top themed chain restaurants.

1) Hard Rock Cafe - One of the originals and I think the best. Great hamburgers and fries and awesome memorabilia and they have a pretty cool casino even though I lost money there. Also, I kinda like the t-shirts I made fun of above and they do not allow drugs or nuclear weapons which is a good thing.

2) ESPN Zone - Awesome spinach artichoke dip, great salads and sandwiches and of course a fun place to watch a Yankee game or any game.

3) Planet Hollywood - Average food but cool memorabilia and I think they are planning a casino as well.

4) Senor Frogs - A lot of fun for the spring breaker in all of us.

5) House of Blues - I got a shrimp dish once and it was pretty decent. My brother claims that they have the best rum and coke in the world.

4 comments:

steve said...

Most theme restaurants are overrated.

Unknown said...

I love HArd Rock...didnt we go in Puerto Rico..it was delic

also ESPN Zone has GREAT wings

Anonymous said...

My fav. would have to be Rainforest. The food kinda sucks but it's the only place you can go where in the middle of the meal a thunderstorm begins prompting an animal orgy to erupt in the jungle. It's like eating on the PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN ride in Disney.

Rori said...

I am so glad to see cousin commenting. I haven't been to Rainforest in a while. My real memory of that place is the beanie babies they used to sell there and my mom and brother waiting on line for 5 hours to get me the newest ones.