The Hard Rock Cafe thread...
 

The Redbeards love Hard Rock Cafes. They are familiar and fun and I like the t-shirts. I searched for a thread describing the HRC's around the world, but was unable to locate one...so here we go.

Yes, there are those who despise the big chain restaurants and want to go local whenever they can. You can go somewhere else. ;) There are many of us who like the HRC experience.

My list...

Hong Kong - Very small HRC. and previously my "home" restaurant. It's near where we usually stay in Kowloon, and in walking distance.
Shanghai - AFAIK currently closed. My first HRC and my favorite t-shirt. (until United lost it. :mad: )
Beijing - Very large restaurant, and very crowded since it's near a large expat area.
Singapore - :td: the worst. Bad service and substandard food. Nothing special here...even bad memorabilia. I didn't even buy a shirt here.
Sydney - Very nice, and conveniently a stop on the city tour bus.
Honolulu - The only time we enjoyed HRC with all four of our kids. The shirt that I wanted wasn't in my size.
Bangkok - Located in a huge tourist area, and very crowded. My first pulled pig sandwich. ^
Denver - Nice location in 16th street mall. Good service and food. My favorite shirt that I still have.
San Diego (Gaslamp) - Went with Mother Redbeard. Nice nacho appetizer before heading to the airport.
Sacacrappo - Ho hum...nothing special
La Jolla - Old downtown La Jolla, on Prospect Street. Usually not crowded because more trendier restaurants are all around. Had my 40th birthday party there.
Orlando - Largest HRC in the world...two giftshops in case you get lost. It's part of CityWalk at Universal. Nice evening.
Nassau, Bahamas - Possibly the smallest in the world. Only about a dozen tables.
Chicago - Celebrating Redbeard Jr.s graduation from Navy boot camp.
Cabo San Lucas - The nachos tasted like they used canned beef, not the good stuff we've had at other restaurants.
New Orleans - Biz trip to the Crescent City
San Juan, Puerto Rico - I'll count this one as international. ;) Recently remodeled after a fire a few years ago.
Washington, DC - Cool giant guitar sculpture behind the bar.
Las Vegas - Nice business lunch.
Phoenix - Pre-Freddies snack
New York - Right in Times Square. Great memorabilia. They have the Beatles outfits from the first trip to the US.
London - The original
Paris - Just needed the HRC fix.
Amsterdam - nothing special...overlooking a canal
Dublin - In Temple Bar area. They have a car from U2 suspended from the ceiling.
Cairo - Rather quiet snack before headed to the airport
Sharm El Sheikh - Not surprisingly, in a ultra-tourist area of Naama Bay.
Niagara Falls, USA - needed me some twisted mac on the way to my project site
Toronto

Totals:
Domestic: 13
International: 16

The problem that I have with the international restaurants is there's not usually unlimited refills on Diet Coke because it's in cans and not on fountain. :(

Supposed to reopen at a later date...We shall see on this one.

Surprisingly I've never looked internationally, but I would find it really strange if they served Coke since they use Pepsi in the Corporate owned cafes.

I usually go to HRC if there is one available...not so much to eat as to collect pins. They are a good souvenir as they don't take up much room in the suitcase. My list so far:-

Sydney - My home town and close to work
Melbourne
Surfers Paradise
Singapore
London
Paris
St Thomas
Amsterdam
New York
Chicago
LA
New Orleans
Las Vegas
Newport Beach - A sentimental favourite
La Jolla
San Diego
Tijuana
Aspen..which closed a while back
San Francisco...the old location
Honolulu
Hollywood
Bali

I am planning on a few more visits shortly..I hope :)

One of my favorite souvenier t-shirts is from the HR Nairobi

Nairobi = Renegade = fake :)

There's a few other HRC collectors here on this board.

AAA members get 10% off.

I find the HRC Amsterdam to be a reliably good dining spot, near the Leidseplein. So many of the restaurants around Leidseplein are a rip-off with poor quality food and I've always had a decent meal when dining at the HRC.

I collect t-shirts from cheesey chain establishments (though the last HRC I was at in La Jolla was pretty good), and the tackyier the better...

That being said....

I have a HRC shirts from Guangzhou, Rio de Janeiro and Tokyo.

A Hooters shirt from Buenos Aires

A Planet Hollywood shirt from Singapore. They have a Hooters there... had I known that....

I should probably order shirts from the other places I've been to but haven't gotten a chance to go into like KUL, LON, HKG etc.

I don't think HRC's are bad at all... the one in La Jolla is pretty good in fact for a decent bacon cheeseburger.

Singapore HRC T-shirt?
 

I just got into visiting the Hard Rock Cafe's in my travels.

I was recently in Singapore and did not think to get a T-shirt until after I left. From their Website, it did not seem they are for sale unless you are at the HRC itself.

Is there any way to get a Singapore HRC T-shirt? (besides eBAY, which I am considering).

NICK

It is against corporate policy for cafes to do any types of mail phone orders. The only way to get city specific merchandise is either have someone pick it up for you or eBay. They do sell city specific merchandise on the website although you don't get to pick the city and most of the stuff is clearance.

I work 200m away from HRC i Stockholm, it not so big, but nice service and a lot of big plasma screens to watch music on. They used to hava a big car in the seeling, but they rebulid the bar so the car is gone.

Dallas has one. It seems kinda small on the inside but there is an upstairs with an excellent view of the stage and an outside area.

HRC? I guess I don't really care for them. Nevertheless I have visited several them and have found their burgeres to be pretty good. A lady friend collects memorabilia from them, so on one visit to Kuala Lumpur I picked up some of those long whiskey shot glasses for her.

I didn't like Planet Hollywood either.

My biggest objection to these types of places is the overly loud music.

Z

Got Vancouver?
 

Souvenirs must be comparatively rare, since the location is long dead.

Thanks for the confirmation, kluau88, I thought that was the case.
D@mn, not sure when SIN will be on my trip list again.
At least I can stop looking
and just consider eBay.

NICK

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.

You might want to fill out the survey from the bottom of your receipt about the service in Miami. You should get a response from the cafe directly. Once you complete the survey you'll get a $5 coupon off your next visit at a participating cafe.

Thanks! Now to find it in the jumble of receipts from a 9 day trip!

We usually visit HRC when we can. Would have to look at the pin bucket to see which I've been to, and which I've just got stuff from.

Short list of favorites:
Best View, Kona
Best Food, St. Thomas
Favorite Single Display Item, Wash DC (signed handwritten music from Sgt. Pepper's LHCB)
Display that set me on my heels: Baltimore, concert flyer from Fort Worth for Jimi Hendrix last US tour: I was at the concert (May 9, 1970).

First HRC for me was Wash DC, most recent Puerto Vallarta

I was at the Jimi Hendrix concert in Fort Worth also. It was at Will Rogers Memorial Coliseum. I think it cost $4.

My older brother attended also; he claims that he convinced Stevie Ray Vaughn to do some Hendrix covers back when they were both in Double Trouble.

I enjoy looking at the memorabilia; I have been more impressed than I was at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. It is really fun to walk around and point at all the groups that I saw in my younger and wilder days: Clapton, Hendrix, the Stones, Led Zepplin ...

I do not go to many HRC's, but the best one I have been to was Copenhagen. It sits on the edge of Tivoli Gardens. When I was there 6 yrs ago, the bar waitress allowed myself and the girl I was with to enter the Gardens for free after a good meal and decent tip. (I was in the midst of a eur-rail impromptu tour by myself, meeting different people as I went along.) Never heard from the girl after leaving Denmark, but I do still have the hurricane glass from the HRC.

It was something like that, but your memory is probably better than mine.

That show almost cost me my wife. Young brother-in-law sez, "Hey, ya wanna go see Hendrix tonight? I go 2 tickets and my date can't go." I reply in the affirmative, quickly and loudly. My bride of 5 years sez, "Hey! Can I go too?" I just naturally step into it by answering, "Sure, if you can find a babysitter and a free ticket." :rolleyes:

She has forgiven me, but I think her purchases of Enya, Yanni and Josh Grushin/Grogan/whatever CD's is by way of long term payback. :D

I enjoy visiting the HRC's to buy the shirts; I only occasionally bother to eat at one! :D

The alltime best HRC shirt I own is from Los Angeles. I got it 9 or 10 years ago, embroidered logo on the left chest, good heavyweght cotton T-shirt that still fits (the polo shirts have a nasty habit of shrinking up on me and becoming useless :( ).

The downside is that the polos are becoming too generic; logo on the sleeve instead of the chest; etc. I'd prefer either the 'classic' logo or one that's tweaked tobe custom for each locale.

When I was younger, my mother would always bring home Hard Rock t-shirts for me from her various trips. She has never had the opportunity to travel outside of North America, however so I have many shirts from the various US/Canada locations courtesy of her.

Since I've started traveling for work, I've had a chance to return the gifts to her with Hard Rock shirts from London, Paris, Berlin, Munich, Rome, Moscow, Cairo, Sydney, Beijing, Hong Kong, Singapore and Bangkok.

I visit them in every city I go to specifically to buy my mom a shirt and most of the time end up eating at them as well.

My personal favorite: Moscow.

Buying a shirt without eating there is like picking up a ticket stub off the ground and saying you went to the game.

BTW - San Diego is getting a Hard Rock Hotel in gaslamp.

At least I'm buying them AT the restaurants! It's not as though I bought them on eBay! :)