Hard Rock Cafe

In ever-evolving Palm Springs, a downtown inn will be converted to a Hard Rock Hotel as the desert city continues to crank up its appeal for younger, hipper visitors. By year end, the Hotel Zoso on Indian Canyon Drive will be turned into a 160-room Hard Rock, where guests can borrow electric Fender guitars to noodle on in their rooms or check out a fancy sound mixer to practice their DJ skills. Hard Rock brand hotels, casinos and restaurants operate across the nation and in several countries.

In ever-evolving Palm Springs, a downtown inn will be converted to a Hard Rock Hotel as the desert city continues to crank up its appeal for younger, hipper visitors. By year end, the Hotel Zoso on Indian Canyon Drive will be turned into a 160-room Hard Rock, where guests can borrow electric Fender guitars to noodle on in their rooms or check out a fancy sound mixer to practice their DJ skills. Hard Rock brand hotels, casinos and restaurants operate across the nation and in several countries.

More than 15,000 of Orange County's young and trendy gathered Sunday in a Fashion Island parking lot to welcome the latest addition to the local social scene: the Hard Rock Cafe. The 250-seat rock-'n'-roll eatery, which opens to the public today, joins outlets in 10 other cities. Determined not to be outdone by last month's glitzy opening of rival Planet Hollywood--the movie eatery--at South Coast Plaza, the Hard Rock Cafe benefit struck a populist note.

Tioga Road in Yosemite National park reopened Wednesday. The popular east-west crossing of the Sierra Nevada has been closed since an early season snowstorm dropped a foot of snow earlier this month. . . . Iconic Vegas nightclub Studio 54 will close its doors Jan. 8 after a 14-year run in the MGM Grand . The closing is part of MGM renovation that includes guest rooms, the casino floor and dining areas. . . . Recycled Percussion, a “junk rock” band that mixes buckets, power tools and anything else they can get their sticks on, will play a 24-hour fundraiser at the Hard Rock Cafe in Las Vegas starting Nov. 22 at 10 p.m. To get in, bring a $10 donation or a new, unopened toy. . . . The Andaz West Hollywood RH Bar, with views of The Sunset Strip, is toasting Wednesdays with $7 drinks, $7 apps and $7 valet parking from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. . . . Utah's   Snowbird Ski and Summer Resort   plans to open some intermediate and advanced terrain on Friday . . . .  Lawmakers in Indianapolis, site of this year's Super Bowl, plan to try to push through an expanded smoking ban that would add bars and hotel rooms to Marion County's existing ban. . . . . Sites of other upcoming Super Bowls: 2013 New Orleans, 2014 New York/New Jersey.

Hard Rock Cafe International has hired James Berk, director of the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences Foundation, as president and chief executive. Berk, 36, succeeds Arthur Levitt as chief executive. Levitt, 38, a former Walt Disney Co. executive, announced in December that he would return to Disney. Berk will join Hard Rock Cafe in April.

A welder who left his torch on a strip of insulation at a Hard Rock Cafe that is under construction set the structure ablaze Wednesday, but the fire was soon extinguished by firefighters, officials said. The fire started about 11:50 a.m. and was put out about 35 minutes later, Los Angeles County Firefighter Larry Duran said. The flames ran along the insulation in the three-story structure and never ignited the frame, Duran said. There were no injuries.

The restaurant chain said it is seeking American investors to help it finance a worldwide chain of eateries. With flagship restaurants now in Los Angeles and New York, Hard Rock plans to open in such cities as Boston, Washington and Reykjavik, Iceland. Hard Rock Cafe PLC said it will offer investors 2,240,000 American depositary shares, each of which represents five of its Class A ordinary shares at an initial price of $14 to $16 each.

The city Ethics Commission ratified a settlement Wednesday for the owner of the Hard Rock Cafe chain to pay a $12,000 fine for breaking campaign contribution limits. As part of the deal, Peter Morton and Hard Rock Cafe America admitted their wrongdoing. He attributed the violations to accounting errors. In 1991 and 1992, Morton, Hard Rock and an affiliated company gave a total of $6,000 in illegal contributions to former City Councilman Mike Woo, who ran for mayor in 1993 and lost in the runoff.

Monies from the sale of all meals and beverages at the Hard Rock Cafe on Monday will benefit the food bank, Love Is Feeding Everyone (LIFE). A number of TV, film and recording artists also will be on hand from 7 to 9 p.m. to assist. Celebrities scheduled to appear include Dick Clark, Emilio Estevez, Muhammad Ali, Lily Tomlin, John Ritter, Maud Adams and Mayor Tom Bradley.

The Hard Rock Cafe was granted a conditional use permit this week by the Los Angeles County Regional Planning Commission to serve liquor at its new restaurant under construction at Universal CityWalk. Members of the Studio City Residents Assn. and the Cahuenga Pass Property Owners Assn. spoke at the hearing Wednesday against issuance of the county permit, saying there already are too many CityWalk establishments that have liquor permits.

Rolling Stone is about to take a leap into the entertainment industry, starting with a large-scale restaurant and nightclub in Hollywood. Owners of the venerable magazine hope to leverage its status as a preeminent chronicler of the rock music world and pop culture into a new business built on food and drinks. The first Rolling Stone outpost is set to open next summer at Hollywood & Highland Center. "We've been looking for the ideal opportunity to expand the Rolling Stone brand," co-founder and Editor Jann S. Wenner said.

In re: "Kansas City BBQ" (June 28): I am a California expatriate who has lived in the Kansas City area for 12 years. It's obvious that reporter Catharine Hamm did not spend enough time catching up with relatives because of a huge omission and a bit of nincompoopery reporting. First, the nincompoopery. Kansas City, Kan., is the economic "can do" city in the region. The Kansas Speedway, Cabela's, Nebraska Furniture Mart, the Legends Shopping Center, Schilitterbahns Waterslide Park and, possibly, a Hard Rock Cafe/Casino at the Speedway.

WASHINGTON -- Dorothy's ruby slippers. Kermit the Frog. Archie Bunker's chair. As the curator of the Smithsonian National Museum of American History's entertainment collection, Dwight Blocker Bowers oversees some of the institution's signature items. But right now, weaving through a maze of metal cabinets in a storage room in the depths of the museum, Bowers wants to talk about Dustin Hoffman's fake breasts. "Ooh, I do have to show you these," Bowers says as he grabs a small yellow box.

The ex-wife of Peter Morton, founder of the Hard Rock restaurant and casino empire, is alleging that he dealt her a bad hand by understating the value of her ownership in the business and fraudulently persuading her to sell him $12.8 million worth of stock for $451,000. In a lawsuit filed last week in Los Angeles County Superior Court, Tarlton Morton also alleged that her ex-husband transferred to himself an additional $29 million in company stock that had been in her name.

HE has a brand new Richard Meier house, his son is/was dating Lindsay Lohan, "The Art of Happiness" by the Dalai Lama is on his desk, and the dean of the UCLA medical school is on the phone.

Leisure and gaming conglomerate Rank Group said Tuesday that it might sell its iconic Hard Rock Cafe chain to concentrate on gambling in Britain. Shares in Rank, which last year sold its DVD business and split off its film production unit, rose 2.5% on the London Stock Exchange after it announced a review of the Hard Rock chain's "potential strategic options."

Rejecting the notion that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, the West Coast owners of the Hard Rock Cafe chain filed a lawsuit in Los Angeles on Thursday against rival eatery Planet Hollywood. The U.S. District Court case alleges that Planet Hollywood executives conspired to force Hard Rock Cafe to sell its assets below market value by creating "a chain of highly publicized entertainment/music themed restaurants . . . similar (to Hard Rock) but of substantially lower quality."

It takes a lot to rock this town. But from the looks of the glitteratti wining and dining in downtown La Jolla Saturday night, amid groupies, spotlights, and chauffeured limos, San Diego has found something it can really get excited about--at least for one night. The Hard Rock Cafe.

Hard Rock Cafe International is suing teen-clothing retailer Pacific Sunwear of California Inc. for selling merchandise under the "Hard Rap Cafe" label. Hard Rock has invested more than $50 million in promotions featuring its trademark logos on merchandise, the company claims. Hard Rock Cafe T-shirts "have achieved a unique cult-like aura and popularity," Hard Rock claims in its lawsuit, filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Tampa, Fla.