The '90s Restaurant Chain Sports Fans Adored For Cold Beer And Big TVs

Founded by some of the world's top athletes, the aptly named Official All Star Cafe was a favorite among sports lovers, who undoubtedly believed the bar and eatery should have hung around longer. Its flagship location opened in 1995 in the one and only Times Square in New York City, funded by tennis greats Andrei Agassi and Monica Seles, hockey legend Wayne Gretzsky, football icon Joe Montana, basketball hall-of-famer Shaquille O'Neal, golf star Tiger Woods, and baseball great Ken Griffey Jr. In early 1996, a second store would open in Cancun, Mexico, followed by a third location in April of that year in Las Vegas, Nevada. In total, there were eight All Star Cafe restaurants, with the remaining stores launching over the next few years in Orlando and Miami, Florida; Honolulu, Hawaii; San Diego, California; Atlanta, Georgia; and Melbourne, Australia. 

The Official All Star Cafe offered a fairly diverse spread of menu options ranging from burgers and steaks to buffalo wings and pasta. Beloved for its beer selection, dozens of large TVs for catching all the action in big games, iconic and valuable sports memorabilia (including players' jerseys and collectible trading cards), and seating and tables fashioned in the shape and likeness of sports equipment (e.g., baseball gloves and balls), the establishment seemed destined for greatness. Yet the Cancun location closed up shop after only three years in business, followed closely by the Las Vegas bar's closure in November 1999 after just over three and a half years in operation. The next year, the New York location also shuttered its doors. Sadly, the negative trend continued, and by 2007, with the shutdown of the Orlando spot, all of the brand's eateries had become defunct.

The All Star Cafe's unfortunate fate was tied to the 1999 Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing of its parent company, Planet Hollywood — ranked last on our list of themed dining chains in the US — which was largely due to unsatisfying food options. Planet Hollywood in general, and All Star Cafe in particular, had reportedly rested too much on its restaurants' appeal as fun, entertainment industry-themed experiences and paid inadequate attention to the quality of the fare it was offering. And, as with many themed restaurants, the mediocre food was priced rather high, which was a problem, especially for a place that was trying to be a family-friendly eatery. 

Attracting returning customers proved to be a major challenge, a risk the sports bar had hoped to offset with its locations in popular tourist areas, but competition with other themed restaurants had limited its foot traffic in terms of new customers as well. The restaurant business is notoriously tough to thrive in, and this can become markedly more difficult when a brand struggles to find its identity and audience. The Official All Star Cafe may have tried too hard to be everything to everyone, awkwardly attempting to fuse a sports bar and family restaurant together instead of picking one lane and fully committing to it. And that's a big part of why the establishment landed on our list of 10 defunct '90s restaurant chains that should have stuck around longer.