Usain Bolt to Expand His Restaurant Business
Usain Bolt has a ascended to legend status for his skills as a runner—he’s won eight gold medals at the Olympics, and he’s widely regarded as the fastest person on the planet. Now, the superhuman athlete wants to parlay his fame into the expansion of his chain of Jamaican restaurants after announcing his retirement last week.
Bolt announced that he would end his athletics career after the U.K. Athletics Championships earlier this month, where he won the bronze in the 100m but had to bow out of the 4x100 relay due to an injury. He’s not letting retirement get the best of him, however: Instead, he’ll be opening his eateries, called Usain Bolt's Tracks & Records, in the U.K., and hopes to have 15 storefronts operating by 2022, reports Business Insider. This is no pipe dream: The franchise company Franjam, of which Bolt is a partner, has already signed a contract to build the locations through Casual Dining Restaurant Group, the company that runs the U.K. locations of KFC and Pizza Hut.
In fact, Bolt’s restaurant business is already operating in Kingston, Jamaica, where he opened the first outpost in 2011. The second location is in Ocho Rios.
The restaurant—which features an illustration of Bolt in his famous “lightning pose” as its logo—serves burgers as well as traditional Jamaican food like jerk chicken, salt fish, rice and peas, Red Stripe beer, and plantains, according to Business Insider. Bolt famously indulged in 1,000 chicken nuggets while attending and competing at the Beijing Olympics. Clearly, the man knows his fast food.
He’s hardly the first athlete to invest in a successful restaurant business: Although it doesn’t bear his name, LeBron James is one of the backers on the fast-growing Blaze Pizza. Seems like for these guys, being the best athletes in the world isn't enough—they want to win in the food world, too.
