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How Rolling Stone’s Hollywood and Highland Restaurant Will Differ From Hard Rock Cafe’s

Remember the Rolling Stone restaurant coming to Hollywood and Highland this summer? From the bat, it sorta sounded like a Hard Rock Cafe knockoff come many years too late. But the news that an actual Hard Rock location is coming to the same complex around the same time has L.A. Business Journal stressing their distinguishing features today. So, how will the two differ?

Here’s a quick breakdown:

Space: Rolling Stone will occupy 10,000 square-feet of space in multiple levels. Hard Rock is twice the size at 20,000 square-feet.

Address
: Rolling Stone will be on Highland, on the back-end of the shopping center. Hard Rock will have a more visible location on Hollywood Blvd.

Design: Rolling Stone has a rocker’s design of black brick and leather by Brodin Design. Hard Rock will tailor its memorabilia around L.A.’s music scene and “will tell an L.A. story once you walk inside,” according to one exec.

Ambition: This is Rolling Stone’s first attempt at hospitality but will be a “national chain” if all goes well here. Hard Rock’s very first restaurant was at Beverly Center, now closed. The Hollywood location will currently add a second Hard Rock to the city among the brand’s 150 venues following one in Universal CityWalk, Studio City.

Offerings: RS will have a restaurant of “American dishes with a twist” and a bar, as well as an upscale nightclub with bottle service. There will be merchandise but no retail space. Hard Rock will be a retail store, a live music venue, and the 500-seat restaurant with a classic American comfort menu tourists already know.

Final Words:

A Rolling Stone rep says, “We are a different concept…They are a memorabilia restaurant and we are slightly different. Our design is vintage chic. It’s a very cool, modern design.”

Jim Hustead, an executive with Miracle Mile hospitality consultancy OnSite Consulting LLC, says, “A nightclub doesn’t work for Hollywood & Highland…You are never going to have the cool kids from Sunset Boulevard and West Hollywood. It’s the tourist mecca of Los Angeles.”

An L.A. security guard: “They are going to be battling… It’s going to be a tough run, but I think Rolling Stone will be for the old schoolers and Hard Rock for the young ballers.”

Now you decide. Who do you think will win the hearts and dollars of tourists in Hollywood? Let us know in the comments.

Hollywood Cues Up Food Fight [L.A. Business Journal]

How Rolling Stone’s Hollywood and Highland Restaurant Will Differ From Hard Rock