Hip-Hop Joins NYC’s Themed Restaurant Craze

New York Business:

Two new theme restaurants, the first of a national franchise chain, will be opening their doors in Manhattan this summer: the HipHop SodaShops in Harlem and Union Square.

H3 Enterprises, the Manhattan-based parent company that owns the restaurants and sells other hip-hop themed products, has invested more than a million dollars and expects to finalize leases at the two properties by the middle of next month.The restaurants are slated to open their doors in two months although the 3,500-square foot Union Square location is likely to open first as the space will need less renovation work, according to a company spokeswoman.

The 2,500-square foot Harlem restaurant, which is to be located on 125th Street less than a block from the Apollo, will be the flagship location, and rapper Juelz Santana, a Harlem native, will be one of the restaurant’s main investors along with NBA star Ben Gordon.

HipHop SodaShop boasts a menu of rap-inspired healthy fast-food such as “MC’s Hammajamma,” a ham and cheese “rap” laced with strawberry jam, “Ja Rula’s Tuna Meltdown” and “Snoop’s drop it like it’s Hot Dogg.” Salads, called “hi-greens,” are more marijuana-influenced with names like “Toast’d Thai.”

Diners will be able to bite into their “Fat Joe�? potato salads while listening to a soundtrack of blaring rap music.