This entry was posted on Monday, February 11th, 2008 at 5:09 pm and is filed under Breaking news. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
The Viper Room, the venerable Sunset Strip venue, has been sold. As of Feb. 1, the new majority owner is Pink Taco founder Harry Morton, whose father, Peter, founded the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino. Harry Morton, who might be best known in pop-culture circles for once dating Lindsay Lohan, plans to keep the Viper Room name, and he hopes to capitalize on the club’s international cachet by opening other Viper Rooms in cities such as Las Vegas and Scottsdale, Ariz. Former owners Blackhawk Capital will retain a minority stake in the new venture.
In addition, several East Coast cities have expressed interest in having their own Viper Rooms, sources say. Arich Berghammer, president of the yet-to-be-named company overseeing the chain of clubs, says that the Viper Room brand “is strong” and that they will not make significant changes at the management level. “It works as it is,” he says, adding that they will only make minor cosmetic changes to the Sunset Strip location.
Morton himself says that his “goal now is to shine up the gem and expand it nationally and internationally.” The Pink Taco owner plans to eventually open up new Viper Rooms in Miami, Portland, Seattle, New York, London and Tokyo.
Since 1993, the Viper Room has hosted big names in the music world, such as Johnny Cash, Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers and Stone Temple Pilots. Despite competition on the Strip from larger clubs such as the Key Club and the House of Blues, the Viper Room, once owned in part by Johnny Depp, has managed to stay relevant by hosting well-attended local music showcases on Monday evenings. It also helps that the occasional big-name star drops in for an impromptu jam session, such as John Mayer did in 2004 with ZZ Top guitarist Billy Gibbons, or Queens of the Stone Age, who have played the club several times over the last few years.
– Charlie Amter
Photo of Viper Room by Ricardo DeAratanha / Los Angeles Times
so what? another day another club closes, that’s l.a. mijo.
No Viper room is special…a landmark. This is where River Phoeniz OD and died. Sad.
I was there awhile ago and Johhny Depp was inside and I chatted with him as well as Russell crowe and Paris Hilton.
Awesome place…
They made smart investment, during grand opening they should book tom petty.
Some guy in ZZ Top is a “big-name star”?
How old are you, Charlie?
Awesome. It can only get better.
I like their free Mondays. This doesn’t mean they are closing, it just won’t smell as bad anymore.
I’m 35, my young friend! And yes, Billy is a star–for many musicians, especially–including John Mayer who was beyond thrilled to play with him that night. He remains a guitar god and a star to anyone old enough to remember when they actually played videos on MTV (ZZ Top were staples of the cable channel in the 1980s). Yes, sadly, I’m that old.
And regarding the first post, it *is* news, I believe, when a stand-alone club is about to become a chain.
Hi there,
I created the Pink Taco restaurant & bar concept and opened the original in May 1998 — a year before the Mortons opened their first.
The controversy and community response to their version is tame compared to what I faced in ultra-conservative Manhattan, Kansas. We had aggressive picketers, petitioners, hate letters, anonymous threats, an onslaught of negative letters-to-the-editor, and police
discrimination.
There were many stories in the local papers. The ABC affiliate out of Topeka came to Manhattan and did an on-site story that ran state-wide on the evening news, and the CBS affiliate invited us to join them in-studio for their half-hour morning show (which we declined since things were spiraling out of control).
I would do Internet searches at the time that would call up page after page of hits about me and my store. My Pink Taco dominated the regional news and spread nationwide through online postings and reprinted stories in towns across the country.
Anyway, I have written an article recounting the history of the original Pink Taco and the intense controversy it caused (complete with pictures and links to about a dozen of the news stories). You can read it on my blog if you’re interested:
http://helpmestartauniversity.com/2008/04/17/the-amazing-true-story-of-the-original-pink-taco-restaurant-bar/