- Peter Morton
Peter Morton (born
Chicago in 1946) was the co-founder withIsaac Tigrett of the Hard Rock Café, a chain of casual dining restaurants. His father isArnie Morton , founder of Morton's, and his son isHarry Morton , founder ofPink Taco restaurants. His stepdaughter wasDomino Harvey , who was the subject of the October 2005 film Domino starringKeira Knightley and directed byTony Scott . Morton is a graduate of theUniversity of Denver .Morton's first Hard Rock Cafe opened near
Hyde Park Corner inLondon, England . The chain began global expansion in 1982 when the two agreed to develop their own cafes across the world. Morton (Hard Rock America) opened Hard Rocks in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, and Houston,Las Vegas, Nevada ; San Diego, La Jolla, andNewport Beach, California ; Sydney and Melbourne, Australia; Honolulu and Maui, Hawaii; among many others.In 1995, The
Rank Organisation (nowThe Rank Group ) acquired the cafes owned by Morton for $410 million, but Morton retained the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas.In May 2006, Morton sold the Las Vegas "Hard Rock Hotel" to New York based Morgans Hotel Company for $770 million along with the rights to the "Hard Rock Hotel" brand west of the Mississippi River, including Texas, California, Australia and Vancouver, British Columbia. W. Edward Scheetz, a Morgans’ executive, described the 11-story, 670-room "Hard Rock Hotel" as a "trophy property" that will never be replicated in Las Vegas because of land values. The "Hard Rock" pool alone, ranked #1 of the top 10 hotel pools by Travel Channel, occupies land valued at $50 million.
Morton later founded and remains the owner one of Los Angeles’ quintessential dining power spots — Morton’s. For almost two decades, the ability to get a table at The Ivy or Morton’s has defined the level of importance and clout a person possesses in Hollywood. The restaurant was also the subject of
Julia Phillips ' 1991 book, "You'll Never Eat Lunch in This Town Again".External links
* [http://www.usaweekend.com/98_issues/981108/981108talk.html Interview with Peter Morton]
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