Theme Restaurants and Clubs
Return to Resources Home Page
During the 1990's the themed restaurant era swept the world, with every retail developer looking at themed restaurants as a way to increase consumer appeal of retail facilities in destination locations.
Themed restaurants included celebrity-backed concepts such as Fashion Cafe (with models Campbell, MacPherson, and Schiffer), Planet Hollywood (Schwarzenneger, Stallone, and Willis), and the Official All-Star Sports Cafe (Agassi, Seles, and Gretzky), among many others.
Pure brand-based concepts included ESPN Cafe, Billboard Live!, Disney Stores, NASCAR Cafe, and dozens of others.
Still other themed concepts were based on intriguing concepts and/or environments such as Jekyll & Hyde Club, Drink!, Discovery Zone FunCenters, Dave & Busters, and Block Party.
Most of the venues created during the themed restaurant era enjoyed some consumer success but ultimately failed as consumers moved to the next concept.
History of Themed Restaurants and Clubs
First Unit - Openings
This chronology includes only some of the more notable entries in this product category from major players, and is not a representative list of all theme restaurant openings during the time period shown.
1971
Hard Rock Cafe (London, England)
1977
Chuck E. Cheese (San Jose, California)
1982
Dave & Buster's (Dallas, Texas)
1983
Medieval Times Dinner & Tournament (Kissimmee, Florida)
1984
Ed Debevic's (Phoenix, Arizona)
1988
Dolly Parton's Dixie Stampede (Pigeon Forge, Tennessee)
1991
Planet Hollywood (New York City)
1992
America Live! (Bloomington, Minnesota)
Drink! (Chicago, Illinois)
House of Blues (Cambridge, Massachusetts)
1993
Entros (Seattle, Washington)
Michael Jordan's Restaurant (Chicago, Illinois)
P.F. Chang's China Bistro (Scottsdale, Arizona)
Front Row Sports Grill (Orlando, Florida)
1994
Rainforest Cafe (Bloomington, Minnesota)
Harley-Davidson Cafe (New York City)
Wildhorse Saloon (Nashville, Tennessee)
Dive! (Los Angeles, California)
Country Star American Music Grill (Universal City, California)
1995
Official All-Star Sports Cafe (New York City)
Fashion Cafe (New York City)
Jekyll & Hyde Club (New York City)
Motown Cafe (New York City)
1996
Billboard Live! (West Hollywood, California)
NASCAR Cafe (Myrtle Beach, South Carolina)
Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. (Monterey Bay, California)
Red's (Edmonton, Canada)
Fulton's Crab House (Orlando, Florida)
1997
Easyriders Cafe (Myrtle Beach, South Carolina)
1998
Motorsports Grill (Orlando, Florida)
ESPN Zone (Baltimore, Maryland)
Theme Restaurant Concepts that Did Not Make it to Market:
Cafe@Play
Classic Sports Network Restaurant
David Copperfield's Magic
National Lampoon Cafe
Sinatra's
Television City
TV Land
Vegas!
Related Topics
About Gathering Places
About Themed Entertainment
About Category Killer Stores
About Great Streets
About Placemaking (Place Making)
About Theme Parks
About Mall Entertainment
About Festival Marketplaces
About Tenant Deal Letters
About Retail Tenant Sign Criteria
About Tenant Store Window Displays
Return to Resources Home Page
Stonecreek Partners Resource pages are provided freely and without limitation for personal, private, non-commercial use, and may be linked to as a source page. All resource page information is based on 30 years of practitioner's experience of Stonecreek Partners' principals, in the retail, entertainment, hotel, residential, and commercial real estate industries.
