I usually only visit HR's when I've been away from home for a while and want a 'hamburger fix'. So far I have been to:
London
New York
Montreal
Pittsburgh
Rome
Las Vegas
Honolulu
New Orleans
Miami
Queenstown, NZ
Orlando

I just noticed a new one has opened in Dublin this week. Saw a couple of people wearing the T-shirt the day after it opened :)

Louisville and Destin also opened up in the last month. Foxwoods is up next.

The Vancouver Hard Rock Cafe, the few times I went, was decent -- but it has long since closed. The Planet Hollywood, which was better located, also closed.....

The HRC in Montreal is one of my favourites; the one in Berlin was awful with bad service and terrible food.

I personally prefer Planet Hollywood and my favourite one is Cannes.

Just as an FYI there is big SIN DO planned for FT. Maybe you could convince one of the people on the trip to pick one up for you.

Back in 1990 when there were only about 25 HRCs, I started collecting HRC teddy bears and decided to visit each one. In around 1992 or 1993, they started expanding like crazy and now have over 100 locations throughout the world. I still have my goal but it will take a lot longer to accomplish. I have teddy bears from all of the locations that I have actually visited. I almost never eat the food; I look at the memorabilia (better than the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame), use the facilities (they have great bathrooms), and buy bears and pins.

There are a lot of collectors out there and many sell on ebay. I belong to the HRC Teddy Bear Collectors Group and we buy bears for each other and also trade bears.

So far, I've been to:

London (the original established in 1971; Eric Clapton's guitar was the first piece of memorabilia)
Paris
Edinburgh
Stockholm
Cologne
Munich
Madrid
Amsterdam (including two of the old fake ones that sold great t shirts)
Antwerp (closed)
Sydney
Queenstown
Beijing
Tokyo
Tokyo Uno Eki
San Juan
St. Thomas
Tijuana
Vancouver (closed)
Whistler (closed)
Edmonton (closed)
Banff (closed)
Calgary (closed)
Toronto
Toronto - Sky Dome
Montreal
Niagara Falls, Canada
Honolulu
Kona
Maui
San Francisco
Los Angeles
Hollywood
Newport Beach
La Jolla
San Diego
Las Vegas
Phoenix
Salt Lake City
Aspen (closed)
Dallas (one of the first ten that opened in the USA)
San Antonio
New Orleans
Chicago
Cleveland
Niagara Falls, USA
Nashville
Atlanta
Orlando
Miami
Myrtle Beach
Washington, DC
Atlantic City
New York
Boston

The website at www.hardrock.com provides a list of all of the HRCs.

If anyone has any old HRC teddy bears that they want to sell, please let me know.

I also started collecting bears, but after a while I found that my house was being overrun with bears. I switched to pins, they are cheaper, easier to pack and sit in a shoe box at home. :)

I guess now I must have over 300 pins.

On the HRC pin club page it notes that there are now over 120 cafes and to make it into the top 100 you need to have visited at least 48 of them. Seven people have visited 100 or over. They obviously have more money and time than I do :)

Phoebe

What about AARP?

The only one I've been two was London at midnight. Line out the door, but I was willing to pay anything for a real burger. Guide book tip of asking for a table downstairs for dinner got us ahead of the line wanting to drink and shout upstairs. It was so-o-oo good.

Collectors: Be aware there are two in San Diego. One downtown and one in La Jolla.

David Rodriguez who is number 2 on the list with 121 cafe visits is actually a member of FT :)

Yes - there's a few of those around. The one I like the best is in Dar es Alam (spelling, can't be bothered checking) Tanzania. I bought a shirt from there just for the sake of it (after all, it cost about $US2), and it fell apart in the first wash.

DaDOKin DC - it may be against corporate policy for HRC's to do any mail phone orders (I didn't know this), but if you e-mail them or call them, they're willing to make exceptions - I had a HRC Florida pin that broke, and I got in touch with the cafe and they sent one free of charge all the way to the UK. Another time, I was in Edinburgh and they didn't have any pins in stock besides special valentines day editions etc, so afterwards I got in touch and said I was dissapointed because I collected them, and I managed to buy one over the phone when new stock came in. I don't think they make a habit of it, but if you call and tell them you're a collector, and visit a lot of HRC's, they're quite helpful and might make an exception :)

eBay for HRC Pins?
 

Not a good idea, IMHO! I used to avidly collect HRC pins. Unfortunately you almost always have to buy at least some pins on evolBay. At least 6 or 7 times the pins have never arrived, several times the pins arrived damaged, and a couple of times my order was missing one or two pins.

A few dealers are decent and will provide a replacement. But unless you purchase extra cost "insurance," most will just tell you that, "Well, I mailed it" or "I don't send out damaged pins," and you have to take his/her word for it.

Funny thing, though, none of my other mail ends up missing or damaged, including a number of other eBay purchases. :confused:

Even if the pins actually arrive, most of these dealers pad the bill with outrageous shipping charges. Many charge upwards of $3 to ship a pin that costs 50 cents postage and 25 cents for a bubble mailer. In fact, they are really padding the shipping to cover their eBay and PayPal costs.

Wow...I can't believe I've found a thread dedicated to Hard Rockaholics...anywho, I've been to a few of them, but have stopped since...since I realized that I'd prefer the local cuisine...although a couple have added their own touches to the menus. Now, to the list:

London
Paris
Rome
Key West
Washington, DC
Salt Lake City
Atlanta
Ottawa
Yokohama
Hong Kong (Kowloon)
Bali
Seoul
Manama (Bahrain)
Beirut
Buenos Aires
Jakarta
Louisville

I went to the one in Kowloon in 2003 and they had a weird but decent seafood stew. Additionally, there was a placard on the table describing what measures they have taken in the restaurant to defend against SARS.

Even though this is a Hard Rock thread, here goes the Planet Hollywood list:

New York (57th St.)
New York (Times Square)
London
Paris
Munich
Acapulco
Las Vegas
Atlantic City
San Diego
and potentially another that has escaped the density that is my mind :confused:

Hello, My name is Mike and I am a Hard Rockaholic. It has been three weeks since my last visit to a Hard Rock Cafe (Indianapolis)

I have been to way too many Hard Rocks. I primarily started going because I travel more than my friends and some people wanted pins. After that I started picking up pins for myself. I eventually started going to cities just because they had a Hard Rock.

My list is: London (including two Thanksgiving dinners), Los Angeles, New York, Stockholm, Chicago (my first one), Honolulu, La Jolla, Sydney, Boston, Washington D.C., Singapore, Orlando (cafe, hotel and live venue), Las Vegas, Puerto Vallarta, Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, Paris, Tiajuana, Berlin, Atlanta, Newport Beach, San Juan (currently closed) Miami, Bali (Stayed at the hotel and ate at the cafe), Hong Kong (Kowloon also saw the shop at The Peak), Madrid, Las Vegas (cafe and hotel/casino), Vancouver (now closed), Copenhagen, Whistler (now closed), Melbourne, Hollywood, Baltimore, Barcelona, Memphis, Edinburgh, Guam, Salt Lake City, San Diego, Rome, Amsterdam, Indianapolis, Manchester, Queenstown, Pattaya (Stayed at the hotel and ate at the cafe), Birmingham UK and Louisville.

The hotel at Pattaya had the nicest hotel room I have ever stayed in. My first room flooded (cheapest available) so they upgraded me to a King Suite (one floor from the top, big enough to have four balconies).

I tried to go to the Cape Town cafe, but discovered once I got there that it had closed a couple of months earlier. I have also been to the fake cafes in Zagreb and Mombassa.

My pin count is about 225, all of which have come from cafes I visited with the exception of ones bought on ebay from closed cafes.

Until last week, I had only visited London, San Francisco and Gatlinburg. Last week I added Miami, Nassau and Key West. All were noisy & crowded. Miami was particularly bad. After 15 minutes of no service I had to go back to reception and ask to be reseated at another table. I don't collect bears, pins or T-shirts but I do like the Pig sandwich. I buy the shirts for my sons on request and the 16 year old is particularly proud of his HRC jacket from the London casino. It is surely the only one in Anniston Alabama.