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Rainforest Cafe is a jungle-themed restaurant chain owned by Landry's, Inc., of Houston. The first location opened in the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota , on February 3, 1994. By 1997, the chain consisted of six restaurants, all in the United States.
May 17, 2016 · The Rainforest Cafe would open its doors on February 3, 1994, and within a week the wait for a table was as much as three hours.
The restaurant opened in 1997 in the London Trocadero building and was the first Rainforest Cafe to open outside of the US. I never visited prior to working there but many people report happy childhood memories and good experiences in its earlier years.
Jun 7, 2024 · The first Rainforest Cafe opened its doors in October 1994 in Bloomington, Minnesota, at the Mall of America — the largest shopping mall in the US. Getting it off the ground was no easy feat: It took 1.5 years to build; It cost $1k per square foot (~5x the cost of a normal restaurant build) and went a million dollars over budget; Scenes from ...
- Zachary Crockett
- The Founder Brought The Rainforest to Minnesota, of All places.
- Shocker: Success Wasn’T Immediate.
- Then, A Casino Magnate Saved The Day.
- It’S More Than An American phenomenon.
- It Takes A Village to Run Even One location.
- Forecast: Stormy with A Side of Raging Thunder Buffalo Wings.
- The Fare Isn’T Exactly Tropical.
- Building Each Restaurant Required Some Real Expertise.
- This Is ‘Eatertainment’ at Its finest.
- Good Luck Getting Your Kids Out of there.
The chain is the brainchild of entrepreneur Steven Schussler, who in 1989 turned his home outside Minneapolis, Minn., into the prototypefor the Rainforest Cafe—replete with live tropical birds, a baboon named Charlie, 150-pound tortoises, giant aquariums, a greenhouse/bar on the roof, even retail products for purchase—to attract investors.
Miranda 72, Flickr // CC BY 2.0 Schussler lived in his artificial rainforest for months, changing that baboon’s diapers and spending more than half a million dollars building rock formations and indoor waterfalls; initially, investors weren’t too interested. As a local broker (who, spoiler alert, co-managed the company’s eventual IPO) told Fortunei...
Miguel, Flickr // CC BY-NC 2.0 Schussler’s luck began to turn around when Lyle Berman, co-founder of Grand Casinos, came on board. Shortly thereafter, the first official location opened—not surprisingly—in the Mall of America in 1994. Remember, this was an era when Hard Rock Cafewas still going strong, and Planet Hollywood had just opened three yea...
Miguel,Flickr // CC BY-NC 2.0 These days, after dozens of openings and closings, Rainforest Cafe has restaurants in 13 states—plus Niagara Falls (the Canadian side), Tokyo, London, Paris and Dubai. Notably, none of those locations have natural rainforests, though Dubai certainly is trying.
There’s the veritable army of “navigators” (bartenders), “safari guides” (waiters), “trailblazers” (cooks), “safari assistants” (bussers), and more. And it takes more than a manager to look over the menagerie, human and animatronic: The headset-donning director of operations, at least at the 33,000-square-foot location on San Francisco’s Fisherman'...
Jesse Kline,Flickr // CC BY-NC 2.0 Speaking of storms, every 20 minutes a simulated thunderstorm rips through the place. Lightning flashes, thunder cracks, and the rain picks up, pouring into waterfalls and pools and alarming the animatronic wildlife—macaws, jaguars, gorillas and more. And, on occasion, terrifying younger diners.
Don’t let the names (Mongoose Mai Tai, the Beastly Burger, Tribal Salmon) fool you. The most popular dishes on the menu here? The Rasta Pasta, an alfredo pasta with chicken, broccoli and spinach, and the Sparkling Volcanodessert, a mountain of brownies with ice cream, whipped cream and chocolate and caramel sauce. In years past, the dessert for two...
Each location’s fiber-optic ceiling, for example, was developed and installed by Whitehouse Station, N.J.-based Fiber Optics Systems. The surface resembles a September night sky; after dark, diners can try and spot 400 constellations and the occasional shooting star.
Christian Lambert Photography, Flickr // CC BY-ND 2.0 Rainforest Cafe holds a title that other concept restaurants can only dream of: It’s the only spot to open in every singleDisney location.
Dario Sepulveda, Flickr // CC BY-NC 2.0 The place’s tagline says it all: “A Wild Place to Shop and Eat.” Notice which activity comes first. In true Disney fashion, each restaurant spills out into its own gift shop, where you’ll find stuffed tree frogs, souvenir T-shirts, flip-flops and more. This is also where you can purchase your souvenir portrai...
- Sara Morrow
Feb 22, 2023 · Schussler opened the first Rainforest Cafe at the nascent Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota, in 1994, where it was a runaway hit. He dreamed up the restaurant’s concept in the late ’80s,...
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Dec 13, 2021 · In Canada, the Rainforest Cafe opened in Metrotown in 1998. A year later, two more locations were opened at Scarborough Town Centre and Yorkdale Shopping Centre in the Greater Toronto Area.
