All The Celebrity Restaurants That Were A MAJOR Fail
Restaurants are one of the riskiest businesses you can start. The National Restaurant Association estimates that 30 percent of restaurants fail in their first year. It takes much more than creating a menu and hiring chefs and servers for a restaurant to survive. There are countless things to consider, but effective marketing is arguably one of the most important ways to get diners through the door.
Having star power associated with your business is a surefire way to garner buzz, which explains why so many celebrities have delved into the restaurant industry. There have been countless concepts opened by singers, actors, and reality stars over the years.
Some are still thriving today—like Bad Bunny’s Miami steakhouse, Gekkō, and Mark and Donnie Wahlberg’s burger chain, Wahlburgers—but not all celebrity-owned restaurants are success stories. In fact, there are several businesses that have shuttered that you might not even remember.
To jog your memory, we’ve rounded up some of the highest profile celebrity-owned restaurant concepts that have failed over the years.
Britney Spears - Nyla
The princess of pop launched her own restaurant out of the Dylan Hotel in New York City in 2002—the same year she and Justin Timberlake broke up. Nyla, a concept that started as a Cajun restaurant before quickly pivoting to Italian cuisine, was fraught with health code violations and financial troubles.
Britney abandoned the project that same year, then the restaurant permanently closed its doors soon after.
Jennifer Lopez - Madre’s
J.Lo opened a restaurant in Pasadena, California, in 2002. Madre’s served Puerto Rican and Cuban food in an upscale dining room—complete with an in-house cigar maker. Lopez tapped her first husband, Ojani Noa, to run the business, but fired him six months later.
Eater reports that Madre’s received lackluster reviews but stayed afloat because of J.Lo’s star power. It closed its doors for good in 2008.
Flavor Flav - Flav's Fried Chicken
Hype man, rapper, and reality star Flavor Flav decided to expand his résumé in 2011. Flav's Fried Chicken was based on his own homemade chicken recipe, and he once had hopes of creating a national franchise. But those hopes were quickly dashed when the business fell apart just four months after opening.
The reasons behind Flav's Fried Chicken's closure are disputed, but Flav's dramatic fallout with his business partner likely contributed to some of it. Another misstep was its locatio. Whoever signed off on opening this restaurant in the middle of Clinton, Iowa, made some...choices.
Hulk Hogan - Hulk Hogan's Pastamania!
WWE legend Hulk Hogan opened his fast casual pasta restaurant to much fanfare in 1995. The mix-and-match noodle spot was located in the Mall of America in Minnesota and offered branded dishes like Hulk's Power Pasta and Hulkaroni.
The marketing, sadly, wasn't enough to sustain the business. Hulk Hogan's Pastamania! closed its doors within a year.
Steven Spielberg - Dive!
Film director and producer Steven Spielberg decided to give the restaurant industry a shot in 1994, when he opened Dive! in Los Angeles' Century City Shopping Center. The 300-seat restaurant cost a whopping $7 million to construct and got plenty of media buzz—namely for the massive submarine tower on the exterior of the building. The menu focused on, unsurprisingly, submarine sandwiches.
The themed restaurant got mixed reviews and shuttered in 1999. Their second location in Vegas closed a few years later.
Jessica Biel - Au Fudge
Actress Jessica Biel opened Au Fudge, a kid-focused restaurant in prime West Hollywood, in 2016 to a lot of buzz. The media described the concept as "Soho House for kids," and the menu offered everything from chicken nuggets to a caviar-topped omelet.
But the hype wasn't enough to keep the business afloat. In a 2017 appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live, Biel admitted that the restaurant wasn't making any money. Au Fudge closed for good in 2018.
Eva Longoria - Beso & SHe By Morton's
Eva Longoria has had some bad luck in the restaurant industry. Her first concept was a swanky Vegas steakhouse called Beso (which also included a nightclub called Eve). Even with celebrity chef Todd English running the kitchen, the restaurant was full of scandals and lawsuits.
In 2013, the clubstaurant closed and made way for SHe in the same space. The new steakhouse concept was geared toward a female clientele. The nightclub on the top level lasted a mere seven weeks before they abandoned the project. The bottom half of the restaurant, named SHe by Morton's, remained open.
Portion sizes for steak were labeled "She-Cuts," "He-Cuts," and "We-Cuts." The dessert menu came with a built-in mirror for guests to reapply their lipstick. And then in 2014, following several health code violations, SHe By Morton's shut down.
Justin Timberlake - Chi, Destino, & Southern Hospitality
Justin Timberlake has been involved in several restaurant ventures—all of which were ill-fated. His first restaurant, Chi, was located in the Hyatt Hotel on Los Angeles' Sunset Boulevard. The restaurant-slash-club served dim sum and was best known for the time the food allegedly made Timberlake puke onto the dining room floor. It was open from 2003 to 2005.
His second spot, Destino, was slightly more successful. The swanky Italian restaurant was opened in Midtown Manhattan in 2006 with a former Rao's chef behind the menu. Critics panned the restaurant, but it was a popular hot spot for local celebrities and media execs. The reason behind its closure wasn't the lack of business, but rather plumbing issues that caused human waste to leak down the walls (yuck!).
His last foray into the restaurant business was the Upper East Side barbecue joint Southern Hospitality in 2007. Timberlake remained affiliated with the Memphis-style barbecue restaurant for two years before he backed away. That restaurant stayed alive until 2012, and a second location in Hell's Kitchen was open until 2019.
Kevin Costner - The Clubhouse
Yellowstone star Kevin Costner has also had his fair share of food industry experience. His first venture was Twin Palms, a restaurant he opened with his then-wife Cindy Silva in the '90s. When the pair divorced in 1994, he gave up his stake and moved on to greener pastures—specifically, the putting green.
The Clubhouse was a golf-themed restaurant aimed to mimic the swankiness of a country club without the exorbitant membership fees. Costner opened the spot in 1999 alongside fellow actor Robert Wagner and a few professional golfers in an upscale shopping center in Orange County, California. The concept ended up expanding into Atlanta and Chicago, survived bankruptcy, and stayed open for a decade before closing down under mysterious circumstances.
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