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Guitars on the walls, a tour tee with the city name on the back, and a burger under a wall of rock-and-roll relics. The Hard Rock Cafe turned a meal into a souvenir, and in the '90s a Hard Rock shirt from wherever you'd traveled was a small flex all its own.
A 33,000-square-foot spaceship restaurant in Times Square where you literally flew to Mars on a motion-simulator shuttle before tumbling into a three-story underground Martian cavern. It was the largest space-themed restaurant on Earth when it opened, and it felt like it — a pure sci-fi fever dream.
A 600-seat sports cathedral in Times Square where six of the world's biggest athletes put their names on a restaurant and filled it with memorabilia, video screens, and booths shaped like baseball mitts. It was Planet Hollywood's sports sequel — and proof that celebrity branding could turn dinner into an arena experience.
The movie-memorabilia restaurant chain backed by Stallone, Schwarzenegger, Willis, and Moore — where you ate burgers under a display case of screen-worn props. Planet Hollywood was 1990s celebrity capitalism served with a side of fries.
A jungle-themed restaurant chain founded by Steven Schussler, with the first location opening in October 1994 at the Mall of America in Minnesota. Diners ate surrounded by animatronic animals, aquariums, fake tropical rainstorms with thunder and lightning, and the constant squawk of electronic birds. Rainforest Café epitomized 1990s themed entertainment and the mall culture experience.