A restaurant is one of the riskiest businesses you can start. The National Restaurant Association estimates that 30 percent of restaurants fail in the first year. It takes more than creating a menu and hiring a chef and servers to survive. There are countless things to consider, but effective marketing is arguably one of the most important ways to bring customers to your establishment.
Adding star power to your business is sure to generate buzz, which is why so many celebrities have entered the restaurant industry: singers, actors, and reality TV stars have opened countless concepts.
While some are still going strong, like Bad Bunny's Miami steakhouse Gekko and Mark and Donnie Wahlberg's burger chain Wahlburgers, not all celebrity-owned restaurants have been successful. In fact, some have even closed down that you may not remember.
To refresh your memory, we've compiled a list of some of the most notorious celebrity-owned restaurant concepts that have failed over the past few years.
Britney Spears – Leek
The pop princess opened her restaurant at New York City's Dylan Hotel in 2002, the same year she and Justin Timberlake split. What began as a Cajun restaurant and quickly pivoted to Italian cuisine was plagued by health violations and financial difficulties.
Britney abandoned the project that same year, and the restaurant closed shortly thereafter.
Jennifer Lopez – Madres
J.Lo opened a restaurant in Pasadena, California, in 2002. Madre's serves Puerto Rican and Cuban cuisine in an upscale dining room, and even has an on-site cigar maker. Lopez hired her first husband, Ojani Noa, to run the place, but fired him after six months.
Eater Madre's received poor reviews but reportedly stayed afloat thanks to J.Lo's star power, before closing for good in 2008.
Flavor Flav – Flavor Flav's Fried Chicken
Hypeman, rapper, and reality TV star Flavor Flav decided to step up his game in 2011. Flav's Fried Chicken is based on his own homemade chicken recipe and he once dreamed of taking it nationally. But those dreams were quickly dashed when his business collapsed just four months after opening.
The reasons for Flave's Fried Chicken's closure are up for debate, but a dramatic falling out between Flave and his business partner likely played a part. Another downfall was its location. Whoever approved the restaurant's opening in downtown Clinton, Iowa, made some… choices.
Hulk Hogan – Hulk Hogan's Pastamania!
WWE legend Hulk Hogan opened his big fast-casual pasta restaurant in 1995. The mix-and-match noodle joint was located at the Mall of America in Minnesota and served branded dishes like Hulk's Power Pasta and Hulk Caroni.
Unfortunately, marketing alone wasn't enough to sustain the business, and Hulk Hogan's Pastamania! closed within a year.
Steven Spielberg – Dive!
Film director and producer Steven Spielberg decided to try his hand at the restaurant business in 1994, opening Dive! in Los Angeles' Century City shopping center. The 300-seat restaurant cost a whopping $7 million to build and garnered a lot of media attention, centered around a giant submarine tower on the outside of the building. Naturally, the menu centered around submarine sandwiches.
The theme restaurant received mixed reviews and closed in 1999. A second location in Las Vegas also closed a few years later.
Jessica Biel – Oh Fudge
Actress Jessica Biel made waves when she opened a children's restaurant called Oh Fudge in an upscale West Hollywood neighborhood in 2016. Media described the concept as a “SoHo House for kids,” and the menu featured everything from chicken nuggets to omelets topped with caviar.
But the publicity alone wasn't enough to keep the business afloat. Jimmy Kimmel LiveBeale acknowledged that the restaurants were not profitable; Au Fudge closed in 2018.
Eva Longoria – Beso & Son by Mortons
Eva Longoria has had a rocky start in the restaurant business: Her first venture was an upscale Las Vegas steakhouse called Beso (with a nightclub called Eve), but even with celebrity chef Todd English running the kitchen, the restaurant was riddled with scandal and lawsuits.
In 2013, the Club restaurant closed and SHe opened in its place, a new steakhouse concept aimed at a female clientele. The top-floor nightclub project was cancelled after just seven weeks. The lower half of the restaurant, SHe by Morton's, remained open.
Steak portion sizes were labeled “She-Cuts,” “He-Cuts,” and “We-Cuts.” The dessert menu featured mirrors for customers to reapply lipstick. And in 2014, SHe By Morton's closed after multiple health code violations.
Justin Timberlake – Chi, Destino, Southern Hospitality
Justin Timberlake has been involved in several restaurant ventures over the years, but they were all unsuccessful. His first restaurant, Chi, was located in the Hyatt Hotel on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles. The restaurant and club served dim sum and was best known for an incident in which Timberlake allegedly vomited on the floor while dining there. It operated from 2003 to 2005.
Their second location, Destino, was a bit more successful. This swanky Italian restaurant opened in Midtown Manhattan in 2006, with a menu created by a former Laotian chef. It was panned by critics but was a popular spot among local celebrities and media executives. It closed not because of a lack of customers, but because plumbing problems caused human waste to leak through the walls (yikes!).
His last foray into the restaurant business was in 2007, when he opened Upper East Side barbecue joint Southern Hospitality. Timberlake was attached to the Memphis-style barbecue restaurant for two years before calling it quits. The restaurant remained open until 2012, and a second location in Hell's Kitchen remained open until 2019.
Kevin Costner – Clubhouse
Yellowstone Star Kevin Costner also has plenty of food industry experience: His first business was the restaurant Twin Palms, which he opened with his then-wife, Cindy Silva, in the '90s. When the couple divorced in 1994, he sold his stake and moved on to more affluent surroundings: putting greens, specifically.
The Clubhouse was a golf-themed restaurant that aimed to recreate the luxury of a country club without the exorbitant membership fees. Costner opened it in 1999 in an upscale shopping center in Orange County, California, alongside fellow actor Robert Wagner and several professional golfers. The concept eventually expanded to Atlanta and Chicago, avoided bankruptcy, and remained in business for 10 years before closing under mysterious circumstances.
