Hard Rock Cafe is a chain of restaurants that started on June 14, 1971 in London, England. It was founded by Isaac Tigrett and Peter Morton, two Americans. It began global expansion in 1982 when the two agreed to develop their own cafes across the world. Morton opened Hard Rocks in LA, San Francisco, Chicago and Houston while Tigrett did so in New York, Dallas, Boston, Massachusetts, Washington D.C, Orlando, Paris and Berlin. Eventually Tigrett sold his interest to Mecca Leisure.
In 1990 The Rank Organisation acquired Mecca Leisure and continued expanding the cafes, acquiring the cafes owned by Morton a few years later. There are more than 108 HRC's in over 41 countries at current date. Hard Rock was most popular in the 1980s when it was a common hobby to visit as many locations as possible and collection a Hard Rock t-shirt bearing their logo and the location name.
Hard Rock is best known not for its food but for its atmosphere. The cafes solicit donations of music memorabilia and have the world's largest collection of such. Things like autographed guitars, outfits from world tours and rare photographs are oft to be found mounted on cafe walls.
In recent years Hard Rock's direction has shifted. What was once an independently spirited, musically influenced chain has gone commercial. Music videos are piped into all cafes from a central location that are more of a pop music nature than rock and roll. Where once you might see a rare Beatles record now hangs Britney Spears' waitress outfit from a music video clip (as in Hard Rock New Orleans.)
