In 1972, two members of the band Wicked Lester, Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley, recruited

a drummer named Peter Chris from an ad in a local rag.

The next year after adding guitarist Ace Freely, the ensemble decided to live and up their

act by donning makeup and costumes, and also changing their name to kiss.

Over the next four decades, kiss became more of a brand than a band, softening into a

nakedly corporate venture with movies, merchandise, video games, rollercoaster rides, and an arena

football team.

Then in 2010, an impromptu brainstorming session, Simmons and Stanley convened with friend

and restaurant tour, Michael Zizzles, as well as Hard Rock Cafe Alums, Dave and Del Ferrano,

led to them breaking ground on a chain restaurant of their own in El Segundo, California.

Out of character for kiss, the concept downplays the clown makeup, blood spitting, and pseudosatanic

imagery of the Touring Act in favor of a casual laid back, pseudogastropub feel that follows

the guidelines established by its rock restaurant forebearers.

In a 2012 Rolling Stone story on the chain's debut, reporter Ian Cohen profiles an expansion

minded Simmons who claims, quote, will have 50 and under two years, and Michael is 505

years.

Three years since its founding, the chain hasn't met Simmons wildly optimistic projections,

or attracted the devoted following of his and Stanley's Psycho Circus Act.

But they do have 12 locations across the continental US, Hawaii, and Mexico, and they become

another valuable territory in the kiss brand's sprawling capitalist empire.

This week on Doe Boys, the conclusion of Rock Doeber Fest 2015 with Rock and Brews.

Welcome to Doe Boys, the podcast about chain restaurants.

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