Sens House Sports Bar and Grill (formerly Hard Rock Cafe)

[J.OT13]

The Hard Rock Café will be closing on September first. No word on what will be replacing it. I loved the look and feel of the place, but talk about terrible food!

Hard Rock to close its doors Sept. 1


Keith Taggart of Hurley’s and Hooters fame to retire from restaurant business

By Zev Singer, OTTAWA CITIZEN July 3, 2013


OTTAWA — After 17 years as a ByWard Market fixture, the Hard Rock Cafe will close at the end of the summer.

Management of the Ottawa location has confirmed the theme restaurant’s last day of operation will be Sept. 1.

While some locations are the property of the international Hard Rock chain, currently owned by the Seminole Tribe of Florida, others, like Ottawa’s, are franchises. The owner of the Ottawa location is longtime restaurateur Keith Taggart.

Heidi Frankish, one of the managers of ByWard Market Hard Rock, said her boss is simply ready to retire from the restaurant business.

“Mr. Taggart has just chosen not to renew his franchise agreement after many, many great years,” she said. “He’s just at a point in his life where he doesn’t want to continue to run a restaurant.”

The Hard Rock was the final restaurant for Taggart, who started the Hurley’s chain of eateries with business partner John Thompson in 1980. At its peak, the chain had 10 locations, with five in Ottawa and another five between Toronto and Calgary, before it eventually went bankrupt. Other restaurants Taggart has been involved with include Denim and Diamonds Saloon, the Bud City Smokehouse and BBQ and Hooters.

Frankish said that after 17 years, the Hard Rock had reached the point where a significant new investment would have been required to renew the place and Taggart, who recently turned 60, decided it was time to sell. She said the identity of the buyer is still confidential. It will be a restaurant, she said, but not a Hard Rock.

The closing will leave Canada with just two remaining Hard Rocks: Toronto’s Yonge Street location and Niagara Falls, Ont. The corporate-owned Toronto Hard Rock was the world’s second location after the original Hard Rock, in London. By 1996, there were 11 Canadian Hard Rocks, including two Ottawa locations, the ByWard Market and the then-Corel Centre. Taggart and Thompson were involved in both of those.

Luca Derito, a manager of the Toronto Hard Rock, said that since the Seminoles bought the chain in 2007, corporate head office has been more aggressive in pursuing profits, which has led some franchise owners to drop out. He said the corporation has also shifted its focus to some degree toward growing its stable of Hard Rock hotels and casinos. On Wednesday, Vancouver residents learned they’d be getting the country’s first Hard Rock casino, as the Boulevard Casino in Coquitlam, B.C., is rebranded as the Hard Rock Casino Vancouver. Derito said there has been talk of a potential Hard Rock hotel in Hamilton.

Frankish said the sale of the Ottawa location was not related to any corporate changes.

“This has absolutely nothing to do with the corporate structure,” she said. “We have a great relationship with Hard Rock International. It’s a great management team. The Seminoles are marvellous owners. They’re very supportive.”

Frankish also gave credit to Taggart for giving the restaurant’s approximately 50 employees a lot of advance warning of the closure. She said they were told last September, a year in advance.

“I have never known an employer who would give all of his staff, with all of the risk that you take in letting your staff know you’re closing, a year’s notice,” she said.


Read more: http://www.ottawacitizen.com/enterta...#ixzz2Y4oG2kn2

[J.OT13]

Labour Day was its last day of operation. After renovations, it will be open as... wait for it... a brew pub. Like we don't enough of those already.

[Harley613]

Originally Posted by J.OT13

Labour Day was its last day of operation. After renovations, it will be open as... wait for it... a brew pub. Like we don't enough of those already.

Personally I welcome more brew pubs! I would like Ottawa to become a mecca for microbrew.

[McC]

how many do we have? I count 3 in central Ottawa: only one of the Clocktowers is a brewpub, Les 3 Brasseurs, and Mill Street; then Big Rig in the burbs, Brasseurs du Temps in Old Hull, and Ashton outside the city limits. Am I missing any? In any event, I think we're a long way from the saturation point there... now if you were talking about a wood fired pizza place on West Welli in Hintonburg, on the other hand, then I'd agree with you!

[ars]

Originally Posted by J.OT13

Labour Day was its last day of operation. After renovations, it will be open as... wait for it... a brew pub. Like we don't enough of those already.

As a non alcohol drinker, that kinda sucks. Hard Rock Cafe was a great location for a restaurant IMO.

[Jamaican-Phoenix]

Originally Posted by Harley613

Personally I welcome more brew pubs! I would like Ottawa to become a mecca for microbrew.

We're already halfway there.

Big Rig, Ashton, Cassel, Beau's, Les Brasseurs du Temps, Broadhead, Beyond the Pale, Kichesippi, Hogsback, and the Clocktower Brew Pub are arguably the most prevalent local microbreweries.

3 Brewers/3 Brasseurs is French (France), and Mill St. hails from Toronto. Now, granted, places like Toronto and Montreal have far more local craft breweries, but Ottawa has a decent amount. Especially considering that most if not all of the ones I listed have only popped up/gained prominence in the past decade or so.

[J.OT13]

My beef is with the overload of pubs. I know that the "Royak Oaks" and the "Heart and Crowns" aren't Brew Pubs, but I'm sick of anything that's considered a pub. Fish and chips are great, but I'd like something different. Pubs are going up at faster rates than coffee shops and Shopper's.

[McC]

Death to mediocre, industrial pubs; CAMRA for life!

[citydwlr]

Originally Posted by J.OT13

My beef is with the overload of pubs. I know that the "Royak Oaks" and the "Heart and Crowns" aren't Brew Pubs, but I'm sick of anything that's considered a pub. Fish and chips are great, but I'd like something different. Pubs are going up at faster rates than coffee shops and Shopper's.

I have to agree. Wasn't this an issue a couple weeks/months ago when city and/or the Byward Market vendors wanted less emphasis on clubs and bars and more on retail?

I do, however, think the Byward Market was bound to get a brewpub at some point. Any word on what company is actually moving in? Is it local or a chain/franchise?

[gjhall]

Originally Posted by McC

Death to mediocre, industrial pubs; CAMRA for life!

Sing it!

[Harley613]

Pubs and Microbreweries over Shawarma and Shopper's Drug Marts any day!!!!

[teej1984]

The space is pretty massive so I think something widely appealing like a brewpub would do well there. I agree Ottawa has far too many pubs, but a lounge (which Ottawa definitely needs) or some other trendier restaurant would look weird in such a huge restaurant.

[Acajack]

Le Gainsbourg opened this spring in the old bar Le Bop on Place Aubry in Hull. It is set to begin brewing its own beer and is locally-owned (by the same people who own the Chelsea Pub in Old Chelsea).

It's good but slightly overpriced in my opinion. Although most of these brewpub places tend to be overpriced in IMO.

[McC]

it's inefficient, and therefore more expensive, to brew beer properly; that's why the BIGs use corn syrup and who knows what else in their swill.

[OTSkyline]

Couldn't agree more; the market needs to diversify. Right now pretty much every damn restaurant is a pub offering fries, burgers and beers. That's about it...

How about a good italian restaurant with amazing pasta? Or a sushi place? Nope... But one can dream...

[McC]

Wasabi and Kinki?

[MountainView]

It would be really cool to see a downtown Big Rig here!

Or just to add... What if Kitchissippi created their own restaurant? I think it'd be a great idea & would probably be successful for them!

[Postmaster]

I was a bit bummed out to learn that HRC was leaving. I like to convene there with my friend who visits from BC occasionally. I loved the atmosphere and it was cool when a good 80s song came up on the system. Granted the food wasn't superb, but then again I usually stick with tried and true so top notch food is not what i usually go out for.

It's one of the best locations on the market. Hopefully they won't waste the opportunity.

[J.OT13]

Originally Posted by Postmaster

I was a bit bummed out to learn that HRC was leaving. I like to convene there with my friend who visits from BC occasionally. I loved the atmosphere and it was cool when a good 80s song came up on the system. Granted the food wasn't superb, but then again I usually stick with tried and true so top notch food is not what i usually go out for.

It's one of the best locations on the market. Hopefully they won't waste the opportunity.

I agree, that was truly an one of a kind restaurant in the Ottawa area. I loved the atmosphere, the Rock and Roll memorabilia and the music, but the food was not great.

What I would like to see is a German restaurant. There was a good one in Wakefield, but I haven't been there in years. I don't know any in Ottawa.

[Norman Bates]

For German cuisine we are limited in the region.

Alpengraus in Wakefield is pretty good.

Rocky Mountain House in Renfrew has schnitzel.

The Grainery (AKA the Schnitzel Haus) in Eganville is okay.

Cafe Amadeus in Kingston is pretty good.

There's also the Maple Leaf - Almrausch Club on Farmers Way. They have meals on Friday/Saturday.

The lovely Alison Geehan closed the Lindenhof last year, and the New Dubrovnik closed just last month.