Patch Notes // updated 2019.04.19
CityWalk · Universal CityWalk · Universal Orlando
On April 19, 2019, Universal and Hard Rock signed a contract extension guaranteeing the CityWalk cafe's presence through at least 2039.
The vacant original guitar-shaped Hard Rock Cafe building was demolished in September 2011, about 13 years after its 1998 closure, to free the back-of-house road the structure sat over for Universal's new Superstar Parade floats.
In December 1998 the original guitar-shaped restaurant closed and Hard Rock Cafe relocated to a larger new building in Universal's CityWalk with the attached 3,000-seat Hard Rock Live venue, becoming the largest Hard Rock Cafe in the world.
When Hard Rock relocated to CityWalk in the late 1990s, the large section of the Berlin Wall from the original restaurant was moved with it and put on an outdoor display beside the venue, where it remains.
The original Hard Rock Cafe Orlando opened in April 1990 as a standalone guitar-shaped building adjacent to Universal Studios Florida, the chain's 13th location and its first built from the ground up.