ttuchris Posted December 2, 2012 Share Posted December 2, 2012 I went to the Hard Rock Cafe last night downtown. I hadn't been in 7-8 years. While the food is about what I would expect, I thought the building was really lame, especially compared to other cities. Then I began to think about the old Kirby location. I couldn't find a single picture of the old building. All I found was the Chronicle article below and an aerial showing the building from above in 2004. Anyone have any exterior or interior shots of the place? The $2 million dollar building had to be better than what we have now and better than the standard Wells Fargo that took it's place. http://www.chron.com...irby-drive.html Houston was the 5th American city to get a Hard Rock and the chain's 9th location. It is amazing how early we got one considering we are not know for tourism. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kylejack Posted December 4, 2012 Share Posted December 4, 2012 I kinda wish it would go. I don't stop in at a Hard Rock even when I'm traveling. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ricco67 Posted December 4, 2012 Share Posted December 4, 2012 I kinda wish it would go. I don't stop in at a Hard Rock even when I'm traveling.I don't hit a McDonald's when I visit other citie, I say those should go as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kylejack Posted December 4, 2012 Share Posted December 4, 2012 Agreed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IHB2 Posted December 6, 2012 Share Posted December 6, 2012 Agreed.sure, those 10s of thousands of people don't need paychecks. maybe Peter Brown will hire them as walkable urban ushers... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kylejack Posted December 6, 2012 Share Posted December 6, 2012 sure, those 10s of thousands of people don't need paychecks. maybe Peter Brown will hire them as walkable urban ushers...Most people eat every day, even when they're not eating at McDonald's. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
refereebrent Posted January 5, 2013 Share Posted January 5, 2013 I went to the old Kirby location 3 times. Nothing special at all. The one thing I will never forget about the old Hard Rock was the grand opening. I was there that night. Well, not exactly there. My wife's godmother lived directly behind the Hard Rock, and we were there that night. We got to hear the entire Kenny Loggins concert and see all of the limos and the beautiful people. Other than that, one of the times I was there I got to eat directly under Paul Stanley of KISS' guitar! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reefmonkey Posted June 13, 2019 Share Posted June 13, 2019 My 12 year old daughter has been obsessed with 80s culture for the last 2 years now, so towards the beginning of her obsession I took her to the Hard Rock Cafe for lunch, explained that when I was her age in the mid-late 80s, Hard Rock Cafe t-shirts were a huge fad (along with Spuds McKenzie shirts until the school district banned the latter), and I bought her one of the classic shirts. Last night she told me she was outgrowing that shirt and needed another one, so we need to go back to Hard Rock. She then said something about how cool it was that she could go to the same restaurant I went to when I was her age. So I had to break it to her that Hard Rock wasn't downtown back then, it was on Kirby, and that got me curious about what years the Kirby location was open, and why they moved downtown. I found this article, didn't realize Houston's Hard Rock Cafe opened as early as 1986 (edit: opening date November 6, 1986), so early into the Hard Rock fad (I don't think I actually ate there until about 1992). Some mildly interesting discussion of the architecture of the building, and (edit) as cspwal points out, check out the old www.theHaif.com ad! http://offcite.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2010/03/RIP_Moore_Cite67.pdf Looks like they moved downtown in 2000 (edit: Kirby location's last day of service was May 20, 2000, Downtown location opened the next day). I remember to going to the "Fire and Ice" restaurant that briefly took over the space in 2001. On the "why" Hard Rock left Kirby, this HBJ article from 2001 sheds some light: https://www.bizjournals.com/houston/stories/2001/11/19/newscolumn3.html Quote Larry Plotsky, a retail broker with The Plotsky Group, says shops and restaurants on Kirby are geared toward a specific demographic. Fire + Ice, he says, did not fit the area's specialized niche. "Both Hard Rock Cafe and Fire + Ice were both entertainment, tourist concepts," Plotsky says. "Kirby Drive is the ultimate for Houstonian traffic, but not for tourist traffic." The property is owned by the prominent Dickey family, who controls several acres of pricey retail land near the intersection of Kirby and West Alabama. Hard Rock had a long-term ground lease on the site. But in early 2000, the rock-n-roll restaurant relocated to downtown's Bayou Place. Fire + Ice was subleasing the space from Hard Rock, which still has about four years left on its lease, says Tommy Dickey. While the future of the high-profile property is still uncertain, Plotsky says a fresh use on the site could prove to be a better fit. I guess it did make sense in 1986 to open a Hard Rock on Kirby (Galleria area would have worked too, hence Planet Hollywood) when downtown was nothing, but once the late 90s early 00s downtown renaissance started, Hard Rock wanted that access. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cspwal Posted June 13, 2019 Share Posted June 13, 2019 I wonder what happened to the car-a-stick piece of art work Also the ad for TheHaif.com 👀 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reefmonkey Posted June 13, 2019 Share Posted June 13, 2019 1 minute ago, cspwal said: I wonder what happened to the car-a-stick piece of art work Also the ad for TheHaif.com 👀 Yeah, I wonder about that too, there is a car inside the downtown one, but I don't think its the same one. Yeah, the old HAIF ad, wasn't that a kick to see? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nate99 Posted June 13, 2019 Share Posted June 13, 2019 Is the Kirby location where the high-rise is now, or further south at the bank turned Schlotzky's (or the other way around). EDIT - per the article, it was 2801 Kirby, which is/was a Wells Fargo branch, at least in December of 2016 when the Google car drove by, in between Schlotzky's Bank and the tower. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gene Posted August 8, 2019 Share Posted August 8, 2019 In semi-related news they are possibly building a Hard Rock Hotel in Uptown Houston: (and yes we all agree that is a kooky location but hey maybe it will make sense in the future) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hartman Posted August 15, 2019 Share Posted August 15, 2019 Oh man the HRC on Kirby... KLOL & HRC teamed up for their grand opening. I managed a rental store at the time and received a phone call stating they wanted me to donate two RVs for the event. To. be used as staging. or dressing rooms. They comped me 4 ticets to this private party/soft opening. Of course I jumped at it. It tunrs out that Joe Walsh was the opening act. There was a huge tent set up in the parking lot and sure enough I was carried back to meet Joe. He was cool & polite but super messed up. He only did three songs and he had to leave the stage. The year was 1986. I still have the white HRC hat with his autograph . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kasper Posted January 27, 2020 Share Posted January 27, 2020 I remember grand opening night & it being a big deal in general for awhile. I also remember cruising by there one night after closing with a friend that decided he wanted the parking sign with their logo on it. He stopped the car right on Kirby, got out, yanked the sign out of the ground concrete & all & threw it the back seat through an open window. Drove off like it was no big deal. From there we cruised lower Westheimer with this thing sticking out the side of the car like an advertisement banner. Pretty sure we'd get shot today for half the things we did back in the 80's. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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