Rainforest Cafe



Rainforest Cafe is a jungle-themed restaurant chain owned by Landry's, Inc. of Houston. It was founded by Steven Schussler. The first location opened in the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota, on February 3, 1994. By 1997, the chain consisted of six restaurants, all in the United States. The first international location opened in London, England in June 1997. In 1998, it was planned to build 12 additional restaurants in the United States, seven in Mexico, and five in the UK, for a total of 22 restaurants by 2008.

In 2000, the Rainforest Cafe was bought by Landry's Restaurants Inc., a company specializing in dining, hospitality, entertainment, and gaming, based in Houston, Texas. To date, the company owns restaurants in the United States, Canada, France, the United Kingdom, the U.A.E., and Japan. Rainforest Cafe focuses on local tourism for the majority of their income.

Themed ambience
Each Rainforest Cafe restaurant is designed to depict some features of a tropical rainforest, including plant growth, mist, waterfalls, and figures of rainforest animals, including elephants, gorillas, tigers, leopards, snakes, crocodiles, frogs, iguanas, butterflies, and tropical birds. It also includes fish tanks. Most locations also have themed exteriors as well as interiors. The Rainforest Cafe in Disney Springs (formerly Downtown Disney) in Orlando, Florida and Galveston, Texas is located under a large artificial volcano that erupts during the simulated thunderstorms. Others, such as the locations in Atlantic City, New Jersey and Niagara Falls, New York; have the appearance of ancient jungle ruins, particularly resembling Palenque. Mall locations usually have waterfalls and simulated plant growth outside of them, visible to those who pass in the mall. Nearly all locations have a 'wishing pond', usually with an animatronic crocodile, where guests are invited to toss coins, aiming for the crocodile's mouth, teeth, legs, body and tail.

Some of the restaurants are partitioned into several rooms utilizing rain curtains that fall into basins running along the tops of partition walls, rock formations, and curtains of sparse foliage. There are also more reef fish tanks in each restaurant. Most locations have two tanks connected over the throughway from the gift shop to the restaurant, but at the Walt Disney World Resort locations, three tanks are connected. One portion of most locations include a bar located underneath an enormous mushroom. The chain is known for its characteristic bar stools, made to resemble the legs of animals, designed and sculpted by the artist Glenn Carter. There is usually a star ceiling in the middle of the restaurant, which is designed and manufactured by Fiber Optic Systems Inc, located in Whitehouse Station, New Jersey.

Rainforest themed merchandise is sold in the gift shop, mostly printed by the Atlanta-based fashion apparel company, Boxercraft Inc. Toys including stuffed toys and action figures of the restaurant mascots are sold as well. Rainforest Cafe also has a set of mascots, called "The Wild Bunch". These characters include Cha! Cha!, the frog; Iggy, the iguana; the Nile, the crocodile; Rio, the macaw; Maya, the jaguar; Tuki, the elephant; Bamba, the gorilla; and Ozzie, the orangutan. These eight characters may be represented on children's menus, merchandise, or the company logo.

Animatronics
To enhance the theme, some of the animals are animatronic, manufactured by Russells Creative, LLC of Apopka, Florida, formerly UCFab International. Nearly all locations have elephants, tigers, gorillas, leopards, snakes, crocodiles, and butterflies. Elephants are typically found in a pair consisting of an adult and young with small and large tusks. Like most animatronics, these face diners from a raised area off a wall. Tigers are a relatively new addition to Rainforest Cafe, and they are normally found in groups of four, with a male, female, and two cubs. The male stands up high on a rock, while the female reclines beside it. In the Disney Springs location, lemurs are hanging from a tree in the restaurant. Gorillas are the most numerous of the animatronics, and there are usually four or five gorillas in each restaurant. Each group usually has a silverback, a baby hanging from a tree, and one or two other gorillas that are sometimes beating its chest and leaning on palm trees which they shake during their motion sequences. Leopards may be found at every location, but they are generally perched on a high ledge or tree with their tail and one forelimb hanging down. In the San Antonio Riverwalk location, panda bears are resembling the adult and young at the upper level in the restaurant. Snakes are mostly positioned at the entrance of the retail village, wrapped around a branch and greeting guests from above. In the gift shop, a talking tree named Tracy Tree entertains shoppers every few seconds. Crocodiles are located in a wishing pond or waterfall either outside and inside the gift shop, where guests are invited to toss coins at them. At the Opry Mills location, a hippopotamus is replacing the crocodile. At the Katy Mills and Ontario Mills locations, there is a young elephant with small tusks is on the rock and the bushes that are close to the rivers, waterfalls, and the crocodile next to the snake are located inside and outside the gift shop. At the Sawgrass Mills location, a baby gorilla is hanging from a tree that is close to the waterfalls, rivers and the crocodile next to the snake is located inside and outside the gift shop. Each location usually has multiple butterflies that have animatronic flapping wings as well. The descriptions of these animatronic animals are not always the case at every location though and will vary slightly to dramatically by each restaurant, for example, Rainforest Cafe in Disney Springs has a family of four leopards on a high ledge, as well as the more typical leopard in the gift shop.

Menu
Rainforest Cafe serves food ranging from seafood, beef, and chicken to pasta and pizzas.

In popular culture

 * The restaurant's former location in Burlington Mall in Burlington, Massachusetts appeared in the 2009 film Paul Blart: Mall Cop.