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Celebrity Owned or Invested in Restaurants (CSV Format)

 
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Submitted by VinceCANuvi on Sun, 02/14/2010 - 5:00pm.

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Last updated 12/29/2010

Raw file: Celebrity Owned or Invested in Restaurants.csv (211.41 KB)

Includes 809 locations in the following areas:

  • United States: AK, AL, AR, AZ, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, HI, IA, ID, IL, IN, KS, KY, LA, MA, MD, MI, MN, MO, MS, MT, NC, ND, NE, NJ, NM, NV, NY, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, WA, WI, WV
  • Canada: AB, NB, NL, NS, ON, QC
  • some may be in: DC, MEX (near a border)

80 location(s) outside USA/Canada

Summary: This is a list of restaurants that are or were owned or invested in by a celebrity.

Details: Celebrity sports figures, both athletes and commentators, seem to have an affinity for opening bar & grills or steakhouses. Musician, athlete, and artist also own or invest in restaurants as a way to meet the public and express who they are.

The intent behind this POI is to locate restaurants that are celebrity owned/invested where the actor, musician, athlete, or artist themselves or their friends are likely to go. They are ones where there may be some evidence of the celebrity's involvement, such as memorabilia display about their career on the walls (like Sonny Bono's shag vest at Bono's Long Beach) or an express their career through the menu, such as many do at their sports bar and grill. This POI is the parent POI to "Celebrity Chef's Restaurants."

Most of the POI locations are single establishments where there is a good chance of meeting the celebrity and perhaps talk with them about their sports career or acting career. There are some "site of" locations meaning that is where a now closed establishment resided. With this POI, you still can be at the location of a closed celebrity owned restaurant and reminisce of what it must have been like there. For example, former New York Jets quarterback football player Joe Namath initially announced his retirement from football in June 1969 rather than sell his interest in Bachelors III night club chain (new York, Chicago, Florida) and avoid a suspension from pro-football for alleged gambling activities at Bachelors III. Also, per Bussman, Jane. (September 8, 2002). Mail on Sunday (UK), "A la-la carte", people used to attend Cigar Night at the now-closed Arnold Schwarzenegger's "Schatzi on Main" restaurant in Santa Monica, CA to stand around a kingly-seated Arnold and intentionally go after and inhale Arnold's coughed up secondhand cigar smoke as a celebrity souvenir.

Open? Closed? Relocated? It's hard to keep up. When celebrity owned restaurants close, all heck usually (but not always) has broken lose concerning the restaurant (mismanagement, bankruptcy, the typical sports-bar shooting, you name it) and the celebrity's handlers try to keep the celebrity's name from being dragged into the muck others created. Celebrity owned restaurant closings are not well publicized so the open/closed status of some restaurants in this POI may be off. Some non- "site of" establishments may be closed, but the addresses in this POI are painfully correct even if the restaurant is no longer be there. For example, the Chicago Tribune article Want to See the Famous? Take a Look at the Odds article at http://tiny.cc/M054K had a lot of celebrity owned restaurant addresses, but the article was from July 30, 1993 and some of the listed places likely are closed. Before heading to a restaurant in this POI, check its open/closed status at Yelp.com. Please let me know if you find any location closed so I can update the POI.

The Serious Players. The POI also contains locations for some of the larger restaurateurs, including: Ashton Kutcher and friends in the Dolce Group. Phil Rosenthal, American television writer and producer (Everybody Loves Raymond). Don Shula, former American football coach. Ryan Seacrest, Tori Spelling, Rob Lowe of the Innovative Dining Group. Ted Turner and his Ted's Montana Grill. Crawford Ker, former American football guard in the National Football League. Celine Dion, Canadian singer. Jimmy Buffet, singer. Celebrity chefs Emeril Lagasse and Wolfgang Puck.

The Best
TriBeCa Grill is widely recognized as the top celebrity owned restaurant in the world. As for the world's top celebrity restaurateur, there is a tie between actor Robert De Niro and actor Michael Caine.

  • THE Celebrity Owned Restaurant: TriBeCa Grill, 375 Greenwich St, New York, NY 10013, owned by actor Robert De Niro.
  • Top Celebrity Restaurateur: American actor Robert De Niro for his ability to attract A+ list celebrity's and publicity to his restaurants (TriBeCa, Nobu, etc.).
  • Top Celebrity Restaurateur: English actor Michael Caine for his ability to attract the world's best chefs to work at his restaurants (Langan's Brasserie, etc.): "Other actors have alcohol, women or dope", Caine told a newspaper in 1997. "When I get depressed, I open another restaurant."

There's more.
There still are many restaurants that could be added to this list and I am looking for help. You can find some restaurants through the following links:

Please geo code them in the style of this POI and email them to me. Thanks.

Want more?
Here are some related sources:

  • Book Flash in the Pan: Life and Death of an American Restaurant ISBN 0671686925 (The rise and fall of actor Matt Dillon's early 1990s SOHO restaurant "Falls")
  • Book Hot Potatoes: The Collected Recipes, Wit, and Wisdom of Well-Known Potato Lovers ISBN 0385468849 (Celebrity restaurant potato recipes)
  • Book Stargrazers, Gourmet Recipes Inspired by the Passion of Celebrity Restaurateurs http://www.stargrazers.com
  • Booklet The "Famous Potatoes Booklet" (Celebrity restaurant potato recipes) Send $1 to Famous Potatoes Booklet, c/o the Idaho Potato Commission, P.O. Box 1068, Boise, Idaho 83701.
  • Oral history -If you are traveling to Los Angeles and want the whole Celebrity Owned Restaurant experience, stay at the Secret Garden Bed & Breakfast (8039 Selma Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90046), where the owner Raymond, a former maître d’ at Chasens (LA's TriBeCa Grill/Nobu of yesteryear), has met and has first hand observations about every major celebrity from early Hollywood to today.
  • TV Show TV Guide's Celebrity Dish - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celebrity_Dish
  • Website - http://headlinerdiners.com/complete.aspx
  • Website - http://www.chefdb.com/ (Chef and Restaurant Database)
  • Website - http://www.seeing-stars.com/Dine/index.shtml
  • Website - http://www.tvtix.com/celebrity-owned-restaurants.php
  • Website - http://www.yelp.com/find (Yelp celebrity restaurant reviews with addresses; restaurant open/closed/relocated status)

Discussion Topics
If you know of other celebrity owned or invested in restaurants, please post at:

Related POIs

Change History

  • VinceCANuvi - Dec 29, 2010
    Added 42 more locations

  • Don B - Feb 18, 2010
    Added locations from Don B

  • VinceCANuvi - Feb 15, 2010
    Added more locations

  • VinceCANuvi - Feb 14, 2010
    Starts project and originates file containing Celebrity Owned or Invested in Restaurants