"As celebrity restaurant mascots, athletes offer a tidy sense of vertical integration: Why not supply the very calories they need to expend on the field? I'm surprised there are so few successful models. We have all mostly forgotten (or agreed not to talk about) George Brett's restaurant in Kansas City, Brett Favre's Wisconsin steakhouse, or those 31 Papa John's franchises Peyton Manning coincidentally shed two days before the NFL dropped the pizza chain as a sponsor."
"Still, tables have been reliably booked at 1587 Prime-a mashup of Patrick Mahomes's and Travis Kelce's jersey numbers, along with a word that vaguely connotes "beef"-since it opened in Kansas City in August. I left an eight-year gig as a KC restaurant critic in 2023, but the mania surrounding the opening was enough to summon me out of retirement. Like a washed-up former detective, I couldn't resist stumbling half-drunk into my old precinct for one last job."
Athletes as celebrity restaurant mascots create a sense of vertical integration by selling the calories associated with their sport. Historical examples evoke George Brett's Kansas City restaurant, Brett Favre's Wisconsin steakhouse, and Peyton Manning's shedding of Papa John's franchises ahead of an NFL sponsorship split. 1587 Prime combines Patrick Mahomes's and Travis Kelce's jersey numbers with a beef-connoting name and opened in Kansas City in August. Noble 33, a Miami-based fine-dining group, executed the concept. The steakhouse attracts long waits and fan-driven bar crowds, relying on visual polish and celebrity spectacle in a city shaped by stockyards history.
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