The Forgotten Restaurant Hulk Hogan Opened In The Largest Shopping Mall In The US

Since Hulk Hogan passed away this past July at the age of 71, wrestling fans have gone through his legacy with a fine tooth comb. Naturally, most of the focus on Hogan has related to his wrestling career, one of the most prolific and successful in the history of the business, or his controversial private life, which included a sex tape, a scandal involving racist statements made on the aforementioned sex tape, and his vocal support for President Donald Trump during the 2024 Presidential Election. Those are hard things to look past, especially when the latter likely contributed to Hogan's ill reception during his last wrestling related appearance in January. But there was, in fact, more to Hogan than being a polarizing wrestler/human being. And that more seemed to involve trying to break into the food and beverage industry.

While most would argue Hogan attempted to parlay his wrestling success into acting more than anything else, it can't be denied that Hogan had interest in being some sort of a restauranter. Newer fans are familiar with Hogan's Hangout, the Clearwater, Florida restaurant launched in 2019, which itself was a spin-off to a Tampa Bay based restaurant, Hogan's Beach, that began in 2012 before distancing itself from the Hulkster in 2015. Mid-2000s fans may recall Hogan's attempts to break into the energy drink and microwave food industries with Hulk Energy and Hulkster Burgers. And everyone knows about Real American Beer, the light beer launched a year before Hogan's passing. But for all the notoriety these ventures have garnered, they pale in comparison to the first time Hogan tried to make it in the food industry during the 90s, with a restaurant known as Pastamania.

If you're a wrestling fan who grew up during the Monday Night Wars, you are more than familiar with Pastamania, Hogan's pasta themed restaurant that opened Labor Day weekend 1995 in Minnesota's Mall of America. And the reason you're familiar with it is because you saw the restaurant highlighted a day after it's launch on "WCW Monday Nitro." No, this is not a joke. In between the opening match between Brian Pillman and Jushin Liger and Lex Luger's WCW return is a lengthy segment where Eric Bischoff interviews Hogan from Pastamania about his upcoming main event with Big Bubba Rogers. It's enough to make one wonder if the first ever "Nitro," the launching point for the Monday Night Wars, was as much about getting Hogan some free advertising for his restaurant as it was firing a shot across WWE's bow. If nothing else though, it guaranteed that wrestling fans would remember Pastamania for as long as it lived.

Whether or not that was a good thing for Hogan can be left up for debate. Despite the hard launch of Pastamania, and all the attention it got from Nitro, the restaurant didn't have any sort of legs, ultimately closing its doors less than a year into existence. No clear cut reason is given for why Pastamania ultimately didn't have any staying power, leaving most to conclude that fans just weren't interested in Hulk's Power Pasta, Hulkaroni and Cheese, Mix and Match Pasta's, or any other items that were listed on the Pastamania menu. Regardless, the only things one can say for sure about Pastamania is it didn't stop Hogan from attempting to break into the restauranting business again decades later, and it remains an incredible piece of trivia for one of the most important wrestling shows ever.