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We can finally say that nature is truly healing.
According to the New York Post, crowd-pleasing restaurant chain Planet Hollywood is opening inside a 17,500-square-foot space in Times Square at 140 West 42nd Street between Sixth Avenue and Broadway.
Before we get into the details of the new endeavor, we'd like to note that celebrity chef Guy Fieri—who used to own a now-infamous restaurant in Times Square—will actually have a presence inside the revamped Planet Hollywood. Namely, a 100-seat outpost of his eatery Chicken Guy.
In addition to Fieri's restaurant, patrons will get to order from a ghost kitchen set to dish out food from the likes of MrBeast Burger and Pauly D's Italian Subs, an overall indication of founder Robert Earl's propensity to hedge his bets in favor of celebrity-backed food brands.
The space, which will turn out to be the third Planet Hollywood iteration to ever open in New York, will take over four different floors of a building that is also home to a Hilton Garden Inn.
In 1991, Earl first set up the concept on West 57th Street. He eventually moved it to 1540 Broadway, smack-dab in the middle of Times Square, where the destination benefited from the seemingly never-ending presence of tourists that quite literally turned the chain into a New York City must-visit. The latter destination closed right before COVID-19 plagued the city amid rent-related discussions.
According to the Post, the newest franchise will look remarkably different from its predecessors, presenting patrons with "two distinct themes." Just as the originals did, a portion of the venue will pay homage to the history of movies, but parts of it will feel more like an exhibition space "showcasing works of famous artists who focus on their own Hollywood twists."
Perhaps most interestingly, the founder also told the paper that Planet Hollywood will offer food delivery services to the hefty amount of people who work and frequent the area—a function that the original institutions never served.
We're sure that the new Planet Hollywood will benefit from tourist-related traffic in Times Square. That being said, we are particularly curious to analyze Fieri's role in the project overall. He, after all, seems to have a complex relationship with the area.