April 25, 2004...
Added my trips to Detroit and the Hard Rock Chicago Hotel, bringing my total to 86 properties.
December 16, 2003...
A week's vacation in New Orleans included a side-trip to the new Hard Rock Beach Club Choctaw in Mississippi bringing my total to 84 properties.
December 8, 2003...
While traveling in Asia I stopped off at the Hard Rocks in Seoul, Uyeno-Eki, Osaka Universal, and Osaka2 which brings my total to 83.
September 30, 2003...
A nice vacation to Reykjavik and Stockholm brings my total to 79.
June 1, 2003...
A quick trip to Phoenix to visit the new cafe there, bringing my total up to 77.
December 14, 2002...
My final Hard Rock visits of the year (Austin and Houston2) helped me to reach my goal of 75 by year-end 2002, and give me a head start on hitting 100 by year-end 2005 with a total of 76.
December 7, 2002...
Two more cafes down (Toronto and the beautiful Minneapolis properties) bringing my total to 74.
November 22, 2002...
A quick weekend trip to San Francisco to visit the new cafe on the wharf brings my total visits to 72.
August 7, 2002...
On my way to visit Frank Lloyd Wright's masterpiece, Fallingwater, I stop off in Pittsburgh to visit my 71st Hard Rock.
May 20, 2002...
I drag my mother through Europe for Mother's Day, and pick up three new Hard Rocks (Belfast, Birmingham, and Manchester) which brings my Hard Rock total up to 70.
December 27, 2001...
Apparently negotiations went sour for the Phoenix cafe, and it is now closed... I guess this means that it will not become the "Scottsdale" cafe once the new Collier Center location opens. The original Phoenix cafe was beautifully appointed with a nifty bleached wood interior that made it unique... here's hoping that the new location will strive for some individuality as well.
December 22, 2001...
How cool! If you get the "Discovery Travel Channel," you might want to keep an eye out for "Travel Channel Secrets" because they have a great hour-long show devoted to the Hard Rock Hotel in Orlando. While some of their "exclusive" material can be easily seen by taking the "Backstage Tour" of the cafe, much of it is a cool "behind the scenes" stuff you'll never see unless you are A) extremely wealthy, B) a rock star, or C) are actually lucky enough to work there.
December 11, 2001...
Filling in my northern Europe Hard Rocks... including Amsterdam, Copenhagen, and Berlin, bringing my total up to 67. Sadly, while I was gone, they've closed the cafes in Buenos Aires and Lima.
November 12, 2001...
Off to the Big Island of Hawaii and the great Kona cafe! Afterwards, I finally managed to visit Honolulu... which should have been my FIRST Hard Rock Cafe visit, but actually ended up being the last HRC city in the US I've been to (until they add a bunch of new US cafes next year). I also managed to squeeze in a visit to the very first cafe I ever visited: Maui. Ah the nostalgia! Still as laid back and interesting as I left it many years ago. This run to the Hawaiian Islands brings my total up to 64 cafes.
July 24, 2001...
Added Ft. Lauderdale (a boring mall cafe) and the new Orlando Cafe & Hotel (cool!) to my list. With the exception of Kona and Honolulu, that's all the Hard Rocks in the USA! Holding steady at 62 properties visited.
July 17, 2001...
Finally managed to make it to Eastern Canada (before those cafes get shut down as well!) but ended up missing Toronto (remodelling) and Kanata (seasonal closing). Even worse than missing out on two new cafes is the new menu, WHICH HAS ELIMINATED THE VEGGIE SANDWICH! So that's yet another vegetarian option gone (you'd think they would at least put a cheese sandwich on the menu!).
May 8, 2001...
A run for the Rockies! Added Hard Rocks in Sacramento, Lake Tahoe, Salt Lake City, and Denver to my list, bringing my total visits to 54.
December 12, 2000...
A quick visit to the Eternal City of Rome has (finally) fulfilled my decade-long goal of visiting 50 Hard Rocks!
November 20, 2000...
In planning my Hard Rock visits for 2001, I decided to try and finish up the five cafes in the Continental US that I've not been to. A quick run to HardRock.com brought about a serious shock: HRC Aspen was MISSING! Surfing over to JB's Hard Rock World confirmed my worst fears: Aspen has been closed without announcement. This bites. I visit HardRock.com every single week and there was NO mention of the closure. WHY? If they would have announced the cafe would be closing, I COULD HAVE MADE IT! First I miss Banff and Calgary, now Aspen. I'm seriously ticked off. A plea to Hard Rock Corporate... LET YOUR FANS KNOW WHEN A PROPERTY WILL BE CLOSING! The very LEAST you can do is give a couple of weeks notice so that those of us who love visiting your restaurants can have a chance to see a piece of your history before you close it!
October 11, 2000...
After a business trip to Japan, I headed toward the equator to add Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, and Bali to my list... now totalling 49. My stay at the incredible Hard Rock Beach Club resort hotel on Bali was excellent, and comes highly recommened to anybody looking to get away from it all.
August 8, 2000...
FINALLY made it to the new restaurant in San Diego, then added Tijuana and Phoenix to my list... capping my new total at 45.
July 26, 2000...
Spent a week in Japan and added 4 new Hard Rocks to my list: Fukuoka, Kobe, Nagoya, and Yokohama... bringing my total to 42.