LIFESTYLE: Now Comes the Bob Marley Theme Restaurant

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Leslie Goffe

ORLANDO, Feb 23 1999 (IPS) - First came the “Hard Rock Cafe” then “Planet Hollywood” and a string of other theme restaurants that took off around the world.

Now there is the “Bob Marley: A Tribute to Freedom” dedicated to the late reggae superstar whose songs chided the rich and powerful and comforted the poor and oppressed, right here in Orlando.

The restaurant is the brainchild of Universal Studios, which also runs an entertainment complex in Central Florida near Disneyworld. Bob Marley’s widow, Rita, and his children, are partners in the enterprise.

Rita Marley says since her husband’s death in 1981 of cancer at the age of 36, she has been inundated with offers from companies seeking to use the Marley name to sell one product or another. The proposal from Universal Studios seemed the “most in tune” with her husband’s image, she says.

“it’s more than just a restaurant, a place to drink and dance” insists Rita Marley, who came to Florida for the recent opening. “It’s an education and a feeling that you have to learn more about bob, his people, his culture and what Jamaica has to offer.’

The 6,000 square-foot venue is an exact replica of Marley’s white clapboard colonial house in Kingston where he recorded some of his best known songs like ‘Zimbabwe’, and where he was shot, and nearly killed, by political gangsters during an election campaign in 1976. Part nightclub and part museum, more than 100 rare photos and portraits of Marley and his family line the walls of the restaurant.

Next door in the new, 30-acre universal studios entertainment ‘Citywalk’ are other theme venues – such as the Motown Cafe and the ‘NBA (National Basketball Association) Restaurant but Rick Florell, a Universal Studios executive says he is confident that Marley’s restaurant will stand out from the crowd.

‘We didn’t want to just put somebody’s name on a building” he says. “There are so many people who sell their name. they say ‘ oh, just put it up there and you can make a restaurant or a bar.’ We prefer to examine the myth, the legend, the lifestyle of the person.”

But not everyone is as enthusiastic.

The restaurant has employed an actor to play a character called ‘Rastaman’ who, like Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck in nearby Disneyworld, wanders around amusing customers. ‘Rastaman’, is semi-serious, however, as he does sing reggae songs and converses on rastafarian philosophy.

And there is also the fact the restaurant serves meat dishes and alcohol whereas Bob Marley, like other rastafarians, was a vegetarian and only drank non -alcoholic beverages.

“Rita and the family have helped us steer away from things that might have been a mistake” Florell says, apologetically. “we had a wonderful pork dish, and as we were testing it Rita looked up and said ‘oh, no, we cannot do this’ it is against our religion. we are learning what we should present to the public, what is true to Bob’s life…we do offer alcoholic drinks, but this is a tourist area and most guests do like to have a drink.”

Tyrone Downie, a longtime keyboard player with Marley’s band ‘the wailers’ is unimpressed. “Bob is turning in his grave,” Downie says, angrily. “He didn’t want to go Hollywood. He wouldn’t want to be marketed like Coca Cola and McDonald’s. He opposed the Babylon system.”

Downie, who has been working as a producer and session musician in Paris, admits however that marketing Bob Marley’s name was inevitable. “This is all about consumption, and he is a product but it is also about the way the sytem can get even by diluting your message, and making you harmless once you’re gone.” But Rita Marley deflects this criticism, and insists “Bob would have been happy with the restaurant.”

“The whole idea is to have Bob in recognisable places,” she says. “Critics will always criticise but we are not restricted to what they think we should do and not do.”

Only time will tell if the Marley venture will last. There’s evidence that if it does not succeed who won’t be because of the opposition of people who believe Bob Marley’s name has been exploited. Many theme restaurants popular five years ago, have been closing down because of declining public interest.

The Fashion Cafe in London went into receivership last year, and Planet Hollywood, the movie theme restaurant linked to actors Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger, recently closed its Jakarta branch in Indonesia.

Still, Rita Marley remains enthusiastic about the restaurant bearing her dead husband’s name.

“It is authentic, She says. “It is amazing, and everybody is in awe. Can you imagine, 17, 18 years after his death, and Bob Marley is still flying…”