Hard Rock Cafe - Gaslamp

Guitars on the ceiling, drum sticks on the walls, wigs behind plexiglass, and T-shirts for sale. HRCs are everywhere because they're fun places to eat and drink, and this place in particular has a pleasingly expansive bar area, with a cool sunk-in-the-wall TV behind the bar showing conversation-gap-filling music videos. While in the bar area be sure to look up. No other Hard Rock Cafe--no other anywhere --has that dazzling, instantly-sobering stained glass ceiling, a relic from a far-away Elks Lodge that was installed in 1983. Restaurant-wise, it's the usual yummy American fare: Burgers, ribs and other foods that bring the word "platter" to mind. This downtown location opened in 1998, 10 years after the one in La Jolla.