The Hard Rock Cafe has hit Dublin, courtesy of the media-shy family behind Fitzers restaurants, writes Rosita Boland
Life in the restaurant trade can be, ahem, like being between a rock and a hard place. They come, they go. Observant punters may have noticed that the Sports Bar on Dublin's Fleet Street has now vanished. Hey presto, taking its place in the same location is The Hard Rock Cafe - an international chain that started trading in 1971, and which opened its first franchise in the Republic this week.
The core staple of the Hard Rock Cafe menu is burgers. It does sell other dishes, but burgers are pretty high up the Hard Rock food chain menu. Burgers are not that difficult to come across, so the Hard Rock Cafe folk know they need something else to get people in the door. Hence, the 100-plus Rock Cafes around the world have a collection of more than 60,000 bits and pieces of music memorabilia. Among the items in Dublin are a pair of sunglasses worn by Bono when he recorded the Beautiful Day video; a red-and-white guitar strap used by Bob Dylan on his 1991 tour; a platinum disc awarded for Van Morrison's Moondance and a bass guitar that once belonged to Phil Lesh of the Grateful Dead.
The Hard Rock Cafe chain is not to be confused with the Planet Hollywood chain. True, they both serve up a lot of burgers and have lots of stuff on their walls. However, the difference is that the Hard Rock Cafe has music stuff on its walls, and Planet Hollywood has movie stuff. Planet Hollywoodopened on St Stephen's Green in 1997 and closed within two years, so that particular venture could not be described as a success. Unsuccessful also was the Manchester United Red Cafe on Westmoreland St, which came and went faster than a little Red Devil. In 2002, Belgo, the Belgian-themed restaurant in Temple Bar, also closed. The McDonald's chain, however, is still very much with us.
There is one other existing Hard Rock Cafe in Ireland, in Belfast. The people who have the franchise for the Dublin outlet are the media-shy Fitzpatrick family (no relation to the hoteliers). The Fitzpatricks run a number of restaurants and catering businesses, the best known of which is Fitzers. They currently have Fitzers in Dawson Street, Temple Bar and the National Gallery. They also had a restaurant in the RDS, which is now closed. Their catering business is extensive. They are the appointed caterers at Powerscourt in Enniskerry, and also cater for conferences, weddings, parties and corporate events. Their website, www.fitzers.ie, currently states that they are on the panel of caterers at the National Gallery; the Royal Hospital, Kilmainham; the RDS; the Helix at DCU; and the Point Depot.
Working with the former managing director of Bewley's, Bobby Kerr, under the name of Rochelle Foods, they also run the Dublin coffee shops, Perk. Earlier this year, they opened a restaurant on Dublin's Chatham Street. This one is not called Fitzers, however; it's called the Chatham Brasserie. It would appear the family want to diversify away from the core Fitzers brand.
The directors of Fitzers Holdings, as recorded by the Companies Registration Office, are listed as Padraic, Geraldine, Frank, Desmond and Sharon Fitzpatrick. The last available records are for the year ended 2002. The principal activity of the group is described as the operation of restaurants and the provision of outdoor food catering.
The turnover for Fitzers Holdings for 2002 was €10,049,452. For the previous year, it was €8,662,181. However, although turnover was up significantly that year, profit was not. The operating profit was €490,738 in 2002, compared to €684,719 in 2001. Their wages and salaries bill (excluding directors' salaries) was also significantly up on the previous year, from €1,826,427 in 2001 to €2,447,034 in 2002.
Given the string of failures of similar themed restaurants, people in the trade will be wondering why the Fitzpatrick family think the Hard Rock Cafe will succeed in Dublin when Planet Hollywood bombed. Also anxiously rating the number of punters coming in the door will be the employees - all 180 of them; a remarkable number for a single restaurant.
Hard Rock: by numbers
1971 The first Hard Rock Café opens in London.
7 The number of cafes in Japan. Other cities which have cafes include Bali, Bangkok, Beirut, Cairo, Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur, Niagara Falls, Melbourne, Shanghai, Stockholm, and Sydney
9 The number of Hard Rock Cafe Hotels
20,000 The number of individual pieces of memorabilia at Hard Rock Cafe's archives, in Orlando, Florida.
Motto "Love all, serve all".
Menu: Typical food includes the Hickory Bar-B-Que Bacon Cheeseburger and the Hunka, Hunka Chocolate-Banana Love