6 Celebrity Owned Restaurants You Should Know About
Celebrities have always been known to branch out and diversify their investments and many of them have created restaurants. Perhaps surprisingly, many of these restaurants don’t lead with the fact that they have a famous owner. Instead, many of these celebrity owned restaurants stand on their own merits and have a lot to offer.
This fun dining (yes fun, not fine) establishment is housed in a building that dates back to 1897 when brothels were legal in New Orleans. Saints & Sinners aims to bring back some of that sinful spirit from the good old days of New Orleans’ famous red-light district.
Channing Tatum and his longtime friend and business partner Keith Kurtz channeled their love for the Big Easy’s laissez les bones temps rouler attitude and colorful history to create Saints & Sinners. The restaurant itself is styled after the famous red-light district bordellos and burlesque halls of New Orleans’ Storyville era. You can rest assured that your sinful time will do some good because Saints & Sinners uses its venue and profits to help charity organizations locally and worldwide. So why not party for a good cause? We love when celebrity owned restaurants partner up with charities and do good in their communities.
Saints & Sinners serves up New Orleans favorites like crawfish étouffée and fried alligator tail and of course, you can find a wide selection of cocktails at their Storyville era bar.
Want to get romantic with Ryan Gosling? Well visiting his romantic Morrocan restaurant, Tagine, in Beverly Hills is probably the closest you’re going to get. Gosling teamed up with Chef Ben after eating plate after plate of his food at a Hollywood event. Ryan asked about the caterer and stated that this was “food he would eat every day for the rest of his life.”
The two became fast friends and eventually decided that LA was missing a place that made you feel warm & satisfied. They decided to create a place where food is created with love and that showed off the impressive cooking skills of Chef Ben and the family recipes he brought to LA from Morocco. Tagine serves up a modern take on cuisine that has been enjoyed for centuries.
Not all celebrity owned restaurants are flashy and expensive. New Jersey-based JBJ Soul Kitchen is a very interesting example of how a celebrity can take a restaurant and turn it into something that does good for the community. The idea behind Bon Jovi’s restaurant is “community dining with dignity”. You won’t find prices on the menus at this community-style restaurant. Instead, customers are encouraged to donate $20 and if you’re unable to do so, they invite you to join their community and learn about resources and volunteering opportunities.
The culture of this restaurant is built entirely around community even down to the way you’re seated. Not only is there community-style seating, but you’re also encouraged to introduce yourself to your neighbors and converse with them. This is a community breaking bread together and creating an incredibly uplifting experience in the process.
As you might imagine, JBJ Soul Kitchen is dedicated to eliminating hunger, building relationships, and celebrating community. That’s a noble cause, especially in the world of celebrity owned restaurants!
Several years back, Justin Timberlake took a trip with two of his close friends to Memphis, Tennessee for a birthday celebration. Justin and one of his fellow Tennessee-native friends were determined to show their other friend from New York City what the South was really all about. The three enjoyed Memphis delicacies, endless plates of BBQ, and delicious drinks all provided with the welcoming embrace that makes you feel at home in the South.
Justin’s friend that hailed from NYC thanked them for true southern hospitality and making him feel like he was truly at home. Never before had he experienced a culture that treated strangers as friends and he was inspired by it.
That experience later produced Southern Hospitality, a New York City restaurant that made guests feel right at home and dished up classic Southern comfort food like cajun catfish, chicken and waffles, shrimp and grits, and baby back ribs with a selection of all “the fixins” (mac and cheese, collard greens, Boston baked beans).
Nobu started as an upmarket Japanese-Peruvian fusion restaurant when Robert De Niro, celebrity chef Nobuyuki “Nobu” Matsuhisa and film producer and entrepreneur Meir Teper decided to join forces in 1994. A lot has changed since then with this Robert De Niro restaurant venture! Nobu is now the world’s most recognized Japanese restaurant, known for its innovative new style cuisine paired with a hip crowd and celebrity following but that’s not all.
Today, De Niro and his co-founders own a whopping 39 restaurants and 8 luxury hotels across five continents. Nobu was no longer just a restaurant, it was a massive worldwide brand. In 2009, the team launched its lifestyle brand, Nobu Hospitality, and the brand continues to grow and expand. As far as celebrity owned restaurants go, this one is in a universe of its own.
If you’re a big fan of blues, you probably know that Clarksdale, Mississippi has long been described as “ground zero” for blues. Clarksdale is where it all started. Morgan Freeman and his partners decided to create Ground Zero Blues Club to celebrate the area’s rich blues heritage and to provide a place where it can continue.
We know personally that Ground Zero Blues Club is a great place because as Flyght clients, we have a close relationship with them. If you’re a fan of blues, you should definitely check them out. You’ll find them next door to the Delta Blues Museum in the heart of historic downtown Clarksdale. If you’re looking for an authentic Delta Blues experience, you’re going to love Ground Zero Blues Club.
Have you been to any celebrity owned restaurants? Which ones would you recommend?
