Sunday, Oct. 11, 2015 | 2 a.m.
A few years ago, P Moss told me a great story. This is characteristic, as Moss has a bounty of great stories from his years as owner of Double Down Saloon near the Hard Rock Hotel and Hard Rock Café, and more recently, Frankie’s Tiki Room on West Charleston Boulevard.
In the early days of Double Down, about 1992, the club struggled to find a consistent clientele. Those who wandered into the tavern typically had been tossed from the Office bar across the street.
Hard Rock Café had opened on the corner of Paradise and Harmon a couple of years earlier and five years before the Hard Rock Hotel opened on the same parcel. Staff needed a place to hang and soon learned of Moss’ darkened enclave, known to serve martinis infused with bacon and a shot called “Ass Juice.”
Hard Rock Café bartenders and cocktail servers frequently showed up and often did not leave until the start of their next shift, freshening their shirts with steam emanating from coffee pots before heading back to work.
This is what we call Las Vegas lore — a moment caught in history. The Hard Rock Café marked its 25th anniversary in September.
In its honor, here are 25 facts about the venue.
25. Twenty-one stars have been set in front of the café since it opened, honoring Jimi Hendrix, Stevie Wonder, the Beach Boys, Michael Jackson, Elton John, Slaughter, Aerosmith, the Rolling Stones, the Beatles, Chuck Berry, Fats Domino, Metallica, Marvin Gaye and others.
24. Hard Rock Café was the site of the largest drag dance number ever, recognized by Guinness World Records. A total of 61 drag queens and kings took part in the April event.
23. Thirty-one gold records hang on the restaurant’s walls.
22. More than 1.1 million pounds of hamburger have been served.
21. Les Paul once visited the 45-foot neon Gibson Les Paul guitar that hangs at the entrance of Hard Rock Café.
20. That same guitar sign was wiped out by a crashing airplane in the film “Con Air.”
19. The Scorpions hosted a meet-and-greet at the restaurant in 1991.
18. Tommy Lee and Heather Locklear visited the café during their marriage.
17. The first Las Vegas performance of “Million Dollar Quartet,” in spring 2012, took place during a media event at Hard Rock Café.
16. The venue’s opening-night concert by Aerosmith was delayed 3 1/2 hours because of a power failure.
15. At the peak of its “Rock ‘N Roll Up Your Sleeve” blood drive in the 1990s, the café collected 465 pints of blood .
14. When Color Me Badd appeared at the café in the ’90s, more than 500 fans showed up for a meet-and-greet.
13. The price of a cheeseburger when the Hard Rock Café opened was $6.95.
12. The price of a cheeseburger today is $16.95.
11. The café has sold more than 21,000 drumsticks — the instruments, not the chicken parts.
10. In the 1990s, it was common for up to 50 motorcycles to be parked in the café’s porte cochere.
9. The café has sold more than 35,000 Hard Rock Café T-shirts.
8. Sixty-two employees are on the Hard Rock Café payroll.
7. The restaurant chain’s first piece of memorabilia was an unsigned red Fender Lead II guitar donated by Eric Clapton, who frequented the chain’s first restaurant in London.
6. There are 145 Hard Rock Café locations in 59 countries.
5. Hard Rock Café opened an outpost in Moscow in 2003.
4. An entire wall of the Las Vegas restaurant is dedicated to Elvis.
3. Up for sale at the venue are Imagine Dragons lapel pins ($14) and café T-shirts ($28).
2. There are more than 1,650 light bulbs in the Hard Rock Café logo on both sides of the Gibson guitar sign.
1. On Dec. 17, 1969, the Doors were on a photo shoot in Los Angeles for the album “Morrison Hotel” when they ducked into the original Hard Rock Café (before the name was used a decade later for the restaurant chain). Pictures of the band outside and inside the club made the album’s back cover and gatefold.
Follow John Katsilometes on Twitter at twitter.com/JohnnyKats. Also, follow Kats With The Dish at twitter.com/KatsWithTheDish.
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