Throughout its history, Paris has always given itself American looks, witness of the past, the American bars of Montparnasse, the Select or the Rosebud. And on the Champs Elysée, the City Rock Café, an ancestor of the Hard Rock Café, created by singer RingoSheila’s first husband.
Ringo is not a businessman, the City Rock Café is taken over by a clothing magnate, Michel Axel, in a flamboyant Paris of the 80s where everything was still possible. Michel Axel has disappeared, but the brand still exists, it is to the fancy linen shirt what Bruce Springsteen is to Rock, a shop bears witness to this on rue de Seine in Saint Germain Des Près.
End of the blessed era of the City Rock Café, the Hard Rock Café Paris entered the arena in the 90s. Here, boulevard Montmartre, it’s all for America: authentic decor, a Jimi Hendrix jacket, of Elvis Presley, a skirt of Tina Turner, coke, hamburgers and ribs of beef called T, Bone.
The Hard Rock cafe is the global steak and rock giant, the Parisian establishment is one of the 285 Hard Rocks in the world, from Dubai to San Diego, from Berlin to Panama. And among the majority shareholders, an Indian tribe from Oklahoma, the Seminoles, who made their fortune in casinos.
Last media stunt of the Hard Rock Café Paris, the launch of a thick hamburger as big as the pyramid of the Louvre, called the Messi Burger, yes the very one who hits the ball at Paris Saint Germain. The Messi Burger to taste at the price of 12.50 euros, and 2 euros more if you add a small quail egg. Thanks WHO ?