Themed eateries: a complex bill of fare

DENVER--Families waited hours for a glimpse inside Rainforest Cafe when it opened two summers ago at Cherry Creek mall. Now the themed restaurant, with its waterfalls, lightning and alligators could fade to memory as the latest casualty of "eatertainment" dining.

Landry Seafood Restaurants of Houston rescued the suffering chain last month and plans to shut down a handful of mall locations. Officials would not say whether Denver's Rainforest Cafe will close, but industry observers say it's likely. Rainforest Cafe also has a restaurant in Southcenter Mall in Tukwila.

The chain is not alone in the themed-restaurant jungle.

Eatertainment venues--restaurants that mix food with games or that tell a story through the decor--have had a rough go at building repeat business. The challenge magnifies in locations lacking heavy tourist traffic. Many have closed or scaled back growth as Wall Street continues to frown on restaurant stocks.

In Aspen, a small Hard Rock Cafe closed last month after 10 years, but the company said it hopes to find a newer, larger space that can accommodate a new bent toward live music acts.

Despite other restaurants' troubles, new themes and game plans keep emerging--each restaurateur confident his idea and menu will win with customers, parents and kids alike. Several new concepts have landed in Denver this year or plan 2001 openings.

Holoworld Cafe, with a 40-foot-high erupting volcano, spaceship and aliens, opened two months ago. Owner Sydney Haider, based in California, said the response has been tremendous.

"We achieved about 50 percent of our goal for traffic counts in the very first month and we know this is the slow part of the year," he said.

The restaurant, promoted by actor Gary Coleman, plans to expand into New York and Los Angeles next year. Other leases are being negotiated.

The alien theme comes from a story Haider wrote about the history of the planet, he said.

"Holo is the name of the alien that is basically narrating the story of our planet back to us--why were the pyramids built, Stonehenge built, what is Area 51 in Nevada," Haider said.

He wanted to build a restaurant that would please kids and adults, noting that sports bars often alienate kids, while parents dread trips to the noisy and crowded pizza parlors.

Theme restaurants Jillian's Entertainment and ESPN Zone plan to open downtown next year, where they will compete for entertainment dollars with Hard Rock Café, Cafe Odyssey at the Denver Pavilions and House of Blues, which is coming soon. And rumor has it the embattled Planet Hollywood again is eyeing the Denver area.

The Aspen Planet Hollywood operated four years before closing in 1998. The company went bankrupt a year later and killed plans for a downtown Denver location. Planet Hollywood emerged from bankruptcy in the fall. It has a restaurant in downtown Seattle.

The motion-picture-themed restaurant, originally promoted by celebrities Arnold Schwarzenegger, Bruce Willis and Sylvester Stallone, lost money after growing too fast and building in towns too small for the concept.

"They just expanded too fast," said Landry chief financial officer Paul West. "Some of the mistakes they've made have to get resolved."

Landry's will close some mall locations while it revamps the larger Rainforest Cafes in "icon" locations--places like Disney World--that overflow with tourists.

The Landry chain also includes Landry's Seafood House and Joe's Crab Shack.

Allan Hickok, a restaurant analyst with U.S. Bancorp Piper Jaffray in Minneapolis, said Landry's focus on high-traffic locations is a smart one.

"Landry's is a professional organization that knows how to operate restaurants. I think they can probably make a go of that," he said. Rainforest Cafe raced to Denver in 1998, along with Hard Rock Cafe and Dave and Buster's, which this summer opened a second location in Westminster.