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Hard Rock Cafe is a chain of casual dining restaurants. more...

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It was founded in 1971 by Isaac Tigrett and Peter Morton, and their first Hard Rock Cafe opened 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.

History

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.

Expansion around the world

A second location, originally developed by an unaffiliated group and later purchased by Hard Rock International, opened in downtown Toronto in 1978. (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 (Hard Rock America) opened Hard Rocks in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, and Houston while Tigrett (Hard Rock International) did so in New York City, Dallas, and Paris, France.

Eventually Tigrett sold his interest to Robert Earl and Mecca Leisure, but Morton opened several more units including Las Vegas, Nevada; San Diego, La Jolla, and Newport Beach, California; Sydney and Melbourne, Australia; Honolulu and Maui, Hawaii; and Israel (later closed) among many others.

In 1990, The Rank Organisation (now The Rank Group) acquired Mecca Leisure and continued expanding the cafes, acquiring the cafes owned by Morton in 1995 at the same time as purchasing the Canadian units that were developed by an unaffiliated company.

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 and Hard Rock Hotel (Hotels, Casinos, Resorts, Condominiums, and Theme Parks) expansion

In 1995, Peter Morton opened the first Hard Rock Hotel & Casino off the Las Vegas strip and it was an overnight sensation. Under Peter Morton’s leadership, the Hard Rock Hotel in Las Vegas was so successful that a subsequent 1999 expansion was added that nearly doubled the hotel's capacity. Morton spent $80 million to build the hotel, which opened in early 1995, and $100 million to expand it in 1999.

Read more at Wikipedia.org