The Official All Star Cafe was a chain of sports themed restaurants developed by Planet Hollywood. Planet Hollywood recruited

Wayne Gretzky Wayne Douglas Gretzky ( ; born January 26, 1961) is a Canadian former professional ice hockey player and former head coach. He played 20 seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL) for four teams from 1979 to 1999. Nicknamed "the Great One ...

Joe Montana Joseph Clifford Montana Jr. (born June 11, 1956) is an American former professional football quarterback who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 16 seasons, primarily with the San Francisco 49ers. Nicknamed "Joe Cool" and "the Co ...

Shaquille O'Neal Shaquille Rashaun O'Neal ( ; born March 6, 1972), commonly known as Shaq ( ), is an American former professional basketball player who is a sports analyst on the television program ''Inside the NBA''. He is a and Center (basketball), center ...

, Ken Griffey Jr.,

Andre Agassi Andre Kirk Agassi ( ; born April 29, 1970) is an American former professional tennis player. He was ranked as the List of ATP number 1 ranked singles players, world No. 1 in men's singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) for 101 ...

, and

Monica Seles Monica Seles (born December 2, 1973) is a Serbian–American former professional tennis player. She was ranked as the List of WTA number 1 ranked singles tennis players, world No. 1 in women's singles by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) for ...

to invest in the concept. Restaurants featured "stadium cuisine" and sales of professional sports merchandise and souvenirs.

History

The chain's first location opened on December 18, 1995, at

Times Square Times Square is a major commercial intersection, tourist destination, entertainment hub, and Neighborhoods in New York City, neighborhood in the Midtown Manhattan section of New York City. It is formed by the junction of Broadway (Manhattan), ...

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

. Two more locations opened the next year in Cancun and at the Showcase Mall on the

Las Vegas Strip The Las Vegas Strip is a stretch of Las Vegas Boulevard in Clark County, Nevada, that is known for its concentration of resort hotels and casinos. The Strip, as it is known, is about long, and is immediately south of the Las Vegas city limits ...

. Planet Hollywood International announced on September 25, 1997, the formation of a joint venture for an Official All Star Hotel. With theme restaurants' novelty wearing off and Planet Hollywood's reorganizing by December 1998, Planet placed the chain up for sale. Also, the plans for a Chicago location were canceled. From 1997 until 2001, Official All Star Cafe locations also were to be operated alongside Planet Movies by AMC entertainment complexes at select locations in the United States. An Official All Star Cafe was also located at Disney's Wide World of Sports Complex in 1997, its opening year. With its parent company's first bankruptcy filing of October 11, 1999, one location was closed, leaving nine corporate locations. In February 2000 after exiting bankruptcy, Disney offered to purchase the location at its sports complex. The last Official All Star Cafe, the one at Disney's Wide World of Sports, closed on September 23, 2007.

Hotel

The Official All Star Hotel was a joint venture of Planet Hollywood International (20%), Vornado Realty Trust (40%), and Hotel Properties, Limited (40%). Hotel Properties, Limited is a Singapore company involved in entertainment, lodging, and retail whose managing director at the time, Ong Beng Seng, was then a major stockholder of Planet Hollywood and an investor in rival

Hard Rock Cafe Hard Rock Cafe, Inc. is a chain of theme restaurant, theme bar-restaurants, memorabilia shops, casinos, hotels and museums founded in 1971 by Isaac Tigrett and Peter Morton in London. In 1979, the cafe began covering its walls with rock and roll ...

. Planet Hollywood would have received trademark royalties for use of "Official All Star" as a percentage of merchandise sale and hotel room rate at the hotel. Planet Hollywood, Vornado Realty Trust, and Hotel Properties formed on September 24, 1997, a joint venture for an Official All Star Hotel. The joint venture would revamp the

Hotel Pennsylvania The Hotel Pennsylvania was a hotel at 401 Seventh Avenue (15 Penn Plaza) in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, across from Pennsylvania Station and Madison Square Garden. Opened in 1919, it was once the largest hotel in the world. It remained t ...

over a two-year period. The plans were halted by mid-1999 as Planet Hollywood sold its stake to a New Jersey–based real estate investment trust.

References

Restaurant chains in the United States 1994 establishments in the United States Sports-themed restaurants Defunct restaurant chains in the United States Wayne Gretzky Companies that filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 1999 Companies that filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2001 {{US-restaurant-stub