Kiss News

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Rock legends and Rock & Brews Co-Founders Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons, along with Co-Founding Partners Dave and Dell Furano and Michael Zislis, announced today the expansion of the rock-inspired Rock & Brews restaurant concept to the St. Louis area. The new restaurant, slated for an October 2016 opening will be the first Rock & Brews in Missouri, and the 18th location in the United States and Mexico.

The rock icons, in partnership with Multi-Unit Franchise Partner Kirk Williams, plan to open the 8,600 square foot family-friendly Rock & Brews this Fall at the Chesterfield Commons Shopping Center (17258 Chesterfield Airport Road in Chesterfield, Missouri.) This marks the third Rock & Brews for Williams, who also owns and operates Rock & Brews restaurants in Oklahoma City and Overland Park, Kansas.

The deal for the site was brokered by Grant Mechlin with St. Louis based Sansone Group along with Larry Leon and Bryan Cornelius with Venture Commercial on behalf of Rock & Brews.  Eddie Cherry with The Staenberg Group represented the landlord.

The new Rock & Brews will have ample seating to accommodate more than 300 guests. Serving the brand�s signature quality American comfort food, Rock & Brews ensures that there is something to satisfy every taste, including local flavors and signature dishes on the menu.

In addition to serving more than 50 craft and international beers, Rock & Brews will dedicate one bar exclusively to local Missouri craft beers.

Dining is available both indoors and outdoors on the large, 1,600 square-foot patio that welcomes kids with a play area. The restaurant is also dog friendly.

The rock-inspired atmosphere features concert lighting, oversized canvas rock artwork, a great wall of rock and concert-style music videos on flat screen televisions.

�I am excited to be a part of the Rock & Brews World tour and with demand growing across the United States, and beyond, I feel privileged to bring Rock & Brews to the St. Louis area as part of the brand�s thoughtful expansion,� said Williams. �Our high-quality food, excellent service, energized atmosphere make Rock & Brews a great place to enjoy a meal with family, friends or co-workers in a fun environment.�

Grand opening activities hosted by Stanley and Simmons will take place prior to the end of the year benefitting veterans and active military. For information about Rock & Brews, visit www.rockandbrews.com.  

By George Prentice  / www.boiseweekly.com

He's a bestselling author, painter, philanthropist and a bit soft-spoken. He's also one of the world's premier badasses. Paul Stanley, aka Starchild, co-lead singer of KISS and co-writer of many of the band's best-selling hits, is preparing for the band's current 35-city tour�dubbed "Freedom to Rock"�which begins in Boise on Thursday, July 7.

"Any band with money can put on a KISS show, but they can't be KISS," said Stanley, who spoke to Boise Weekly about his life and legend.

Is there any part of touring that you still love?

Honestly, it's a lot like winning the lottery but complaining about having to pay taxes. Everybody should have my life. It's everything anyone could ever dream of. All presidents want to be rock stars; but rock stars don't ever want to be president.

To that end, do you feel some responsibility to your fans?

We have a legend to live up to and a standard that we've kept from the very beginning. I don't take it lightly. This kind of stature doesn't come without hard work. But that doesn't mean it can't be fun.

I'm certain I'm not the first to tell you that I could be at a KISS concert and see my kids and my parents there.

It would be pretty uncomfortable if I looked out on an audience that looked like an outing for a retirement community. That said, it's amazing that we've become much like a tribe that crosses all generations. It's still a thrill to see a neighbor, little brother or grandfather at our show. It's the world's largest cult and everybody celebrates their membership.

I must tell you that it was a bit of a surprise to learn in your 2014 autobiography, Face the Music, that you were born with a misshapen left ear resulting in a hearing deficiency.

Perhaps part of my quest for fame was really about my own insecurities. Those were magnified by having a birth defect and feeling very insecure, being a little kid who was stared at or being made fun of. Face the Music ended up being a New York Times bestseller and translated into languages all over the world. I really wrote that book for my children, for them to know what it takes to succeed and for them to understand we have a choice to see ourselves as victims or to lead the life that we deserve. For me, it's very rewarding to share with kids to know that life can be difficult but the outcome can be terrific.

Have you ever considered that KISS arrived at the exact right time in our history of popular culture?

So it seems. I guess we were needed as much as we thought. KISS started as being the band we wanted to see but never saw. As a rock fan, I felt certain things were missing from the bands I was seeing. I think there was a lack of respect, a lack of appreciation for audiences. You had bands on the stage thinking they were doing audiences a favor. I think KISS was a wake-up call, the right band at the right time to mount the attack.

And as far as your endurance�and we're talking about more than 40 years�my sense is that KISS is an essential rock band but the makeup and pyrotechnics only amplify that.

A crappy band with a big show is still a crappy band. We've seen enough of those. You've got to have the content. You can't last 40 years on a gimmick. You're only the new band on the scene just once and once that buzz dies, it's deafening. You may end up on the cover of Rolling Stone by putting a teapot on your head; next year you'll be serving fries.

How do you design one tour to be different from another while not being too different for diehard members of the tribe?

What are we going to do? Come out wearing red leather and hats? We're KISS. But we try to do a better, more powerful version of what we've done before. It doesn't get bigger, but it sure can get better.

This is the latest release in the ‪‎KISS‬ x Ukiyo-e Project series. These limited edition handmade prints are signed by the band.

Get yours today - http://ukiyoeproject.com/ec/products/list.php

In this week's Big Issue...

These are crazy, crazy times - Gene Simmons tries to kiss it better

Gene Simmons has plenty to say. He always has plenty to say. And while he�s strident, if rather fascistic, on folk he�d like to send to a gulag and how he�d sort societal ills, he is also uncommonly expressive about his mother�s time in a concentration camp and very moving about discovering her name on a Nazi list of kids put on a train to the camps.

It�s a great Letter To My Younger Self.

http://www.bigissue.com

For a time in the 1980s, it looked as though KISS' Gene Simmons was set to be the movie villain to beat...

by  Tim George / www.DenofGeekcom

In the mid-80s, KISS� Gene Simmons tried his hand at acting. He never really broke out, but he had plenty of fun. He was at his best playing bad guys, and while the films might be spotty, he managed to carve out a golden run of villainous ham. Here is a selection of the prime cuts.

Runaway (Michael Crichton, 1984)

​In the future, robots have become a major part of everyday life: they plant crops, construct buildings and do household chores. Jack Ramsay (Tom Selleck) is a cop with the �Runaway� unit - his job is to stop robots when they malfunction. His life and work become considerably more complicated when robots begin to kill their human masters. And all the evidence is leading back to one man...

CLICK HERE to read the rest of the article.

Rock & Brews to Open in Chesterfield, Missouri

STLRestaurant.News

It�ll be time to majorly rock and roll this fall when Rock Superstars, Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons, open their new restaurant,Rock & Brews, in Chesterfield. Well known for its members� face paint and stage outfits, Stanley and Simmons are the only remaining original members of the popular hard rock band KISS, the group that rose to prominence in the mid-to-late 1970�s with their extravagant live performances featuring fire breathing, smoking guitars, shooting rockets, and pyrotechnics.

The two founded the chain with restaurateur/hotelier, Michael Zislis, and concert promoters/brothers, Dave and Dell Furano. The concept is to be more of a lifestyle restaurant where folks can come to make it their home � their hang out.  So, don�t expect a museum with dead musicians� clothes on the wall. It�s all about living today and celebrating today in an atmosphere that is comfortable and pays homage to their �rock & roll spirit.�  What you can expect in the 8,600-square-foot space is 35 televisions, playing concert footage or music videos synced to rock music playing on the restaurant�s speakers.

The restaurant will also feature at least 52 beers on draft, and fresh, high-quality foods like burgers, wings, pizzas, and pretzels.  The Chesterfield Rock & Brews is not only the chain�s first location in the St. Louis area, but it�s also the first in Missouri.  It will be the 18th Rock & Brews chain location. So get ready to salute rock & roll for the grand opening in October at 17258 Chesterfield Airport Road in the Chesterfield Commons shopping plaza.

www.RockandBrews.com

Come on down to the Honda Center in Anaheim!

Make-A-Wish

Adam Sichko / Nashville Business Journal

A Music Row executive who's helped shaped the careers of Bon Jovi, Diana Ross, KISS and Darius Rucker is opening a restaurant in Midtown Nashville.

Doc McGhee, CEO of McGhee Entertainment, is one of the co-owners behind Tartufo, according to an announcement made June 2. Others involved in the project include McGhee's wife, Wendy; longtime local real estate developer Mack McClung; and the restaurant's executive chef, Rome native Marco Rossi.

The upscale Italian restaurant is occupying the building at 1808 Hayes St. formerly occupied by restaurants Mambu and, most recently, Magnolia South. Those behind Tartufo spent $800,000 renovating the 1890s building. The project is another indication of slowly growing retail and restaurant investment in this part of Midtown, near Church Street. It also points to how the city's legacy music industry can have other effects on the local economy (similarly, country singer Alan Jackson is an investor in Acme Feed & Seed downtown, for instance).

The dining room will seat 48, and an outdoor covered patio contains 26 more seats. The restaurant also features a bar and piano lounge. It is named after an Italian dessert.

Guests can also eat at the chef's table, which will be located in the kitchen. For $500, a guest at that table will eat a seven-course meal with five wines.

The restaurant formally opens at the end of next week.