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Particularly within the period of fast-food chains collaborating with musicians and celebrities proudly owning franchises, rappers dipping their toes into the culinary trade shouldn’t be exceptional. The truth is, there are fairly a couple of artists named after meals themselves — take Salt-N-Peppa, cupcakKe or Ice-T, for instance. Everybody roughly has a relationship with cooking, whether or not by Sunday household dinners or battle meals throughout exhausting instances.
Eminem’s idea restaurant, Mother’s Spaghetti, drew inspiration from “Lose Your self,” which can be the theme track of his semi-biographical film, 8 Mile. Very similar to the eatery’s title suggests, its dishes vary from easy spaghetti to pasta and meatballs crammed between two items of Texas toast. Equally, Ludacris’ Rooster + Beer picked up cues from his fourth studio effort. Lots of its menu gadgets pay homage to his Southern upbringing, comparable to shrimp and grits, catfish, and collards.
Rap-Up rounded up an inventory of artists who’ve began their very own eating places. From quickly increasing chains to newer institutions discovering their manner, here’s a take a look at the ten rapper-owned eateries you must learn about
1. 2 Chainz’s Esco Restaurant and Tapas
Whereas principally recognized for his music, 2 Chainz has additionally confirmed himself to be a powerful entrepreneur. The “I’m Totally different” artist is the genius behind Esco Restaurant and Tapas, which formally started franchising after settling a lawsuit with Pablo Escobar’s household. Beginning in 2016 alongside Mychel “Snoop” Dillard, Esco boasts areas in Memphis, Dallas, Columbus and throughout the state of Georgia. Its menu options an array of dishes, from tapas and seafood to Southern classics like Cajun salmon and collard greens.
Throughout an interview with “Belongings Over Liabilities,” 2 Chainz stated, “I wish to name this extra of a vibe or a lounge as a result of though we have now nice meals, we have now different issues that stimulate you so far as the music, the TVs and the nice drinks.”
2. Bun B’s Trill Burgers
In 2023, Bun B expanded his smash burger empire by opening Trill Burgers’ first brick-and-mortar location. The restaurant serves fan favorites just like the OG Burger — additionally accessible in vegan choices — which initially gained fame at numerous pop-up occasions. Since its debut in 2021, Trill Burgers has loved widespread reputation, even attracting superstar supporters comparable to Drake, DJ Khaled, Ludacris, Busta Rhymes and fellow Texas native Travis Scott.
“When these burgers got here into my life, I used to be like, that is it,” Bun B instructed REVOLT’s “Drink Champs” again in 2023. “That is what I [have] been ready for all my life. I haven’t felt something like this [feeling] since in all probability Hip Hop, getting married and this.”
3. Eminem’s Mother’s Spaghetti
Impressed by the famed lyric from Eminem’s “Lose Your self,” a themed Mother’s Spaghetti restaurant opened in 2021. The idea eatery, which initially launched as a pop-up in 2017, arrived in collaboration with the rapper’s workforce and a neighborhood Detroit restaurant group. Its menu affords simple, tasty choices of spaghetti — both plain, with meatballs or with vegan “rabbit balls” — and s’ghetti sandwiches, all beneath $15. For many who can’t make it to its brick-and-mortar location in downtown Detroit, Mother’s Spaghetti additionally sells pasta sauce and different merchandise on-line.
Lil Child and restaurateur Chad Dillion, who tragically died in a deadly capturing in July, launched The Seafood Menu Restaurant & Lounge in Atlanta. Although the eatery closed in January, its web site reveals mouthwatering meals comparable to fried catfish and several other seafood boil choices. It additionally provided an array of seven customized sauces, from Caribbean jerk butter to sizzling honey and garlic butter.
5. Ludacris’ Rooster + Beer
Ludacris’ fourth album, Rooster – N – Beer, impressed the title of his restaurant roughly 13 years later. Out there in two areas, Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson Worldwide Airport and Los Angeles Worldwide Airport, the eatery affords all the pieces from crispy fried rooster and shrimp and grits to facet dishes like mac and cheese, soiled rice, and collard greens. Curiously, it’s not the “My Chick Dangerous” hitmaker’s first culinary enterprise. He beforehand owned a Singaporean restaurant in Atlanta known as Straits.
6. Moneybagg Yo’s Cache 42
Opening its doorways in April 2023, the primary location of Cache 42 launched in Moneybagg Yo’s hometown of Memphis, Tennesse. Marking his first foray into the restaurant enterprise, the eatery affords connoisseur dishes comparable to oxtail egg rolls, lamb lollipops, tomahawk steak, and a surf and turf dish, amongst others. Daris Leatherwood, who beforehand served as Lil Wayne’s private chef, leads its culinary operations.
7. T.I.’s Lure Metropolis Cafe
After a prolonged three-year course of, and with a couple of hiccups alongside the way in which, T.I. introduced his Lure Metropolis Cafe to life. Situated close to the rapper’s Lure Music Museum in Atlanta, the restaurant serves brunch, lunch and dinner with all kinds of choices.
“You have got streets, enterprise, tradition, neighborhood, artwork, and all of this stuff intersect proper right here on the Lure Metropolis Cafe,” he instructed ABC 17 Information.
8. Quavo’s V12 Restaurant & Sports activities Bar
Together with co-owners Vinny and Kelan Watson, Quavo opened V12 Restaurant & Sports activities Bar with the purpose of shaking up Atlanta’s eating and sports activities bar scene. Per its reservations website, the eatery is a “new traditional and staple for each locals and vacationers alike.” Appetizers embody fried popcorn shrimp, lobster bites and spinach dip, whereas the primary programs vary from seared salmon and beef quick ribs to a number of rooster dishes. Quavo’s culinary enterprise additionally has an expansive checklist of superstar supporters: Latto, Megan Thee Stallion, Ari Fletcher and even Lana Del Rey, whom the previous Migos member collaborated with on “Robust.”
Relating to his resolution to work with Vinny and Kelan, the rapper solely shared with REVOLT, “It’s natural. They’re nice companions, and I’ve at all times gone to their different spots — like Sovereign Sweets — that they’ve curated, and I needed to be concerned.”
9. Taste Flav’s Flav’s Fried Rooster
Taste Flav teamed up with Iowa restaurateur Nick Cimino to launch Flav’s Fried Rooster in January 2011; nevertheless, the eatery shut down just a few months later. Contemplating that the New York rapper went to culinary faculty, his background promised nice potential, however the endeavor fell quick on the enterprise facet.
When requested what separated his restaurant from chains like KFC and Church’s Rooster, he stated, “The key of FCC shouldn’t be throughout the breading; it is throughout the meat. I season my meat first […] If you happen to take the breading off my rooster, you will nonetheless style the flavour.”
10. Trick Daddy’s Sunday’s Eatery
Having Sunday meals any day of the week is the secret for Trick Daddy’s Sunday’s Eatery. Situated in his native Miami, the restaurant boasts a menu that features quite a few Southern-style dishes — principally notably fried ribs, turkey wings, pork chops and Cornish hen. The rapper additionally his sides down packed; candied yams, peas and rice, candy corn, and mac and cheese are among the many choices.
There’s even blue banana pudding, which TikTok meals critic Stefan Johnson described as “candy however not too candy. It’s creamy, and it’s virtually like they soaked the Nilla Wafers with some type of concoction.”