Theme restaurant
Theme restaurants have a unifying or dominant subject or concept, and utilize architecture, decor, special effects, and other techniques, often to create exotic environments that are not normally associated with dining because they are inaccessible, no longer exist, are fictional or supernatural, or taboo.
[11] In the early twentieth century, so-called “programmatic” or “mimetic” style structures became popular for restaurants, including buildings shaped like vehicles, animals, and even the food they served.
[13] Beginning in the 1920s, a number of novelty architecture buildings were constructed in and around Hollywood, including the famous Brown Derby restaurants and Bulldog Cafe.
[14] Restaurants such as Clifton's Cafeteria also started playing with grand decorations based on non-traditional "kitschy" themes,[15] and movies helped fuel the desire by the average American to travel the Pacific.
Along with a neighbor, he collected old fishing nets, driftwood, and other ephemera from local beaches, and added bamboo and masks to theme his restaurant and evoke the South Pacific and Polynesian culture.
His company went on to open dozens of restaurants, with themes ranging from New England fishing villages and French farmhouses to aviation and World War II.
[20] Another fan of Disneyland, Atari co-founder Nolan Bushnell, integrated food, entertainment, and an arcade into the first Chuck E. Cheese's, opened in San Jose, California in 1977.
Jose Montaner put on his dinner show for years before attracting enough investors to open a location outside Walt Disney World in Florida in 1983.
Following Hard Rock Cafe's successful theme of exhibiting music memorabilia, Planet Hollywood extended the concept to movies in the 1990s, while adding celebrity endorsements and appearances at the restaurants.
[citation needed] Steven Schussler came up with the idea for Rainforest Cafe, and actually turned his house into a model jungle to attract investors, before opening the first location in the Mall of America in 1994.
[23] Dozens of locations around the world quickly followed, and many new theme restaurant chains opened in hopes of copying Rainforest Cafe's success.
[27] Many theme restaurants create environments that are considered exotic because they are largely inaccessible to much of the public (such as rainforests and remote tropical islands), or no longer exist (because they are set in a past time period).
From the very beginning, restaurants in Paris, New York and San Francisco attracted bohemian artists and writers with themes including assassination, imprisonment, death, and hell.
