Concert Reports
Rock and Brews Grand Opening
10/18/2016, Corona, Calif.
Rock & Brews has arrived in Corona! The family-friendly restaurant features the brand’s signature quality American comfort food in a 6,400 sq. ft., rock-inspired environment. Beer aficionados are sure to find their favorite brew in the restaurant’s selection of over 100 beers, and grill lovers will love the tender, well-seasoned BBQ dishes featured on the menu. Dine indoors and enjoy a playlist of rock music videos on the restaurant’s flat screen televisions, or dine al fresco by the fire pit area on the patio with your family: bring your dog too, it’s dog-friendly! Rock & Brews Corona also features a kids’ play structure and a game area for adults, with a bean bag toss and life-sized Jenga.
All Photos & Interview: Ray Soto / Central Coast Rocks
ROCK AND ROLL LEGENDS PAUL STANLEY AND GENE SIMMONS HOST GRAND OPENING ACTIVITIES FOR ROCK & BREWS CORONA
Owned and operated by local franchise partner Jon Mesko, Rock & Brews Corona is located in Crossings at Corona, off the I-15 freeway.
Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley rock legends and co-founders of Rock & Brews restaurants, attended grand opening activities for the new location in Corona on Tuesday, October 18, 2016. Celebration activities included a ribbon cutting and private luncheon at 1 p.m. hosted by the rock icons for more than 100 veterans and active military, as well as an evening event from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. that included a sampling of Rock & Brew’s quality American Comfort food.
“If I’m watching my girlish figure I do the Kale Salad. Or if you’re really throwing caution to the wind you’re talking pizzas, burgers all that stuff. The burgers are so big you cannot put your lips around them, they’re too big.” KISS & Rock & Brews co - founder Gene Simmons told us before the day’s festivities began.
A portion of proceeds from the evening event benefited the local charity Guitars for Vets.
“We are very excited to be a part of the beautiful city of Corona and look forward to contributing to the flourishing community with our unique dining and entertainment experience,” said Stanley and Simmons in a joint statement. “We also look forward to honoring the veterans and active military of Riverside county who dedicate their lives for our country.” “When we think of our Military we don’t understand or it’s not forefront that these are our daughters, sons and wives and husbands and family who risk life and limb.” Simmons added when asked about KISS’s history of helping our nations Veterans.
The restaurant is located at 3550 Grand Oaks in Crossings at Corona. This opening marks the third Rock & Brews location for multi-franchise partner Jon Mesko, who also owns Rock & Brews locations in Buena Park and Redondo Beach, and the just opened location in Rancho Cucamonga, CA.
Stanley and Simmons, along with their co-founding partners, restaurateur and hotelier Michael Zislis and concert industry veterans Dave and Dell Furano, are thoughtfully planning for worldwide expansion of the brand. Rock & Brews Corona joins the brand’s growing roster of restaurants that include six Los Angeles area locations (El Segundo, Redondo Beach, Buena Park, LAX Terminal 5, LAX Terminal 1, and StubHub Center in Carson); a restaurant in Paia on Maui; one in Overland Park, Kansas; a location in Albuquerque, New Mexico; one in Oviedo, Florida, as well as two international locations in Los Cabos, Mexico; a location in Oklahoma City, OK; and two others in Texas, one at the AT&T Center in San Antonio and the other at The Colony. Additional Rock & Brews restaurants include the just opened locations at San Manuel Indian Bingo & Casino, and a location in Rancho Cucamonga, CA.
About Rock & Brews
Rock & Brews is a one-of-a-kind, rock-inspired restaurant and entertainment concept designed to engage people of all ages with quality comfort food and local favorites, a broad selection of craft and international beers, and an energized environment that is reminiscent of being at a family-friendly music event.
Founded by rock icons Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley of KISS, along with partners, restaurateur Michael Zislis and concert industry veterans Dave and Dell Furano, the first Rock & Brews opened near Los Angeles International Airport in Southern California in April of 2012. Each location boasts a backstage environment showcasing a “Great Wall of Rock,” iconic rock art, concert trusses and lighting and multiple flat screens sharing some of the greatest rock concert moments of all time. Most offer a play area for kids and many are dog friendly. For more information, please visit www.rockandbrews.com
About Guitars for Vets
Guitars for vets is a (501)3 non-profit organization founded in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 2007. We operate more than 50 chapters in 25 states with the assistance of over 200 volunteers nationwide. Over the past seven years, our organization has refined a guitar instruction program aimed at providing veterans struggling with physical injuries, PTSD and other emotional distress in a unique supportive program. G4V pursues its mission to share the healing power of music by providing free guitar instruction, a new acoustic guitar and accessory kit in a structured program run by volunteers, primarily through the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs facilities and community-based medical centers. www.Guitars4Vets.org
Interview with Gene Simmons
Central Coast Rocks: Thank You for your continued support of our Veterans, most notably the Wounded Warrior Project. Was there a certain Event or Personality that inspired you to support our troops and veterans?
Gene Simmons: Yes, America’s Veterans. When we think of our Military we don’t understand or it’s not forefront that these are our daughters, sons and wives and husbands and family who risk life and limb. People forget about it. Right now here we are opening a new Rock & Brews and we are doing our best for Vets with Guitars For Vets and other wonderful things, giving checks and honor and all that. Right now in Mosul, right in Iraq our guys and gals are over there risking life and limb along with the Peshmerga who is a Kurdish armed forces and Iraqis and their gonna go and fucking wipe the face off of the shit that walks on two legs called Isis. Oh, I’m sorry I shouldn’t say those things. These guys need to be taken out, you just cant, there’s no reasoning. They become like the walking dead, they’re zombies you’ll never change them and they want to live right next door to you, you have to take them out.
Central Coast Rocks: Rock & Brews opened its first location ( El Segundo ) four years ago in 2012, what are some things you Rockers have learned being in the Restaurant Business and what are the Restaurant’s goals for the next four years ?
Gene Simmons: You know, I never thought about this as a Restaurant, if anything if you really think about it you dont have to leave your home to eat. You can stay at home, have a drink get comfortable and grab a sandwich and watch T.V. So when you go out it really is an experience. And when you go to somebody’s house for dinner it’s decidedly different than a restaurant because they make sure everything’s great. They make sure the foods great, you feel good, you’re welcome, they put their arm around you “Come on in, welcome to our home,” you get the best. So this is a combination of that vibe which is as soon as you walk in we have our servers, our team. They make you feel at home, number one. It’s the experience. The other thing is the food just Rocks. If you like Craft Beers we have 60 to 100 of them. If you’re watching you’re girlish figure you can have your Kale Salad. I you’re gluten conscious there’s gluten free beers, gluten free pizzas, or you can go to hell and just eat Godzilla sized burgers and bread pudding and all the good stuff. There’s everything for everybody and the philosophy of terms of a layout of all Rock & Brews is you can be at one end and see all the way to the other end so you can flirt. You can flirt right across the room with people who’s names you yet haven’t found out yet. You can have that come hither look, so relationships are made, relationships are broken up, everything happens here, and the food Rocks. Then of course you’re surrounded by our culture, Classic Rock. It continues to be the music that fills stadiums, The Stones & U2, AC/DC, sometimes KISS. So you’re not going to find obscure alternative bands here cause that doesn’t play stadiums.
Central Coast Rocks: Rock & Brews Menu offers a creative spin on fresh, quality American comfort food, what are some of your personal favorite dishes ?
Gene Simmons: One is called Belinda. See what I did there?
Central Coast Rocks: That dish is Very Tasty I might add
Gene Simmons: Oh settle down don’t get excited, you know your heart. It depends, if I’m watching my girlish figure I do the Kale Salad, stick on some Buffalo Wings on top and you can go to church after that. Or if you’re really throwing caution to the wind you’re talking Pizza’s, Burgers , all that stuff. I don’t wanna be the one to tell you but your girlfriends been lying, size does count. So we do have Godzilla size pretzels. The burgers are so big you cannot put your lips around them, they’re too big. You know what I mean right?
Central Coast Rocks: Rock & Brews also helps support each locations local community in a variety of ways, tell us about that
Gene Simmons: We train local helpers and parts of our team so we hire locally, our Craft Beers have local brew masters. We’re good partners to the local community. Our partners live locally, send their kids to local schools. It’s all designed to be good partners and I have to say the food is fresh. Its not trucked in from Zimbabwe. There’s only one reason why its always packed, people like it. You cant force people to go somewhere that they don’t like. At the airport we have two Rock & Brews, at LAX. One is 84 seats, there are restaurants five times that size but the number one restaurant in all of LAX is one of our two Rock & Brews, the 84 seat one.
Central Coast Rocks: Final words for your fans of Rock & Brews and KISS
Gene Simmons: Rock & Brews continues to grow, we’re also starting the Rock & Brews Casinos. First one is opening in San Manuel. KISS continues, I just came back from Tokyo where I hosted the KISS Expo which is an exhibit of our memorabilia. We continue to tour, we start the KISS Cruise in about two weeks in the Bahamas, we’re playing a few stadiums and casinos, we just have a ball.
All Photos & Interview: Ray Soto / Central Coast Rocks
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