Ribera Steakhouse

Ribera Steakhouse
Ribera Steakhouse
	A shot of one side of the exterior of the Meguro location
Restaurant information
Food type	Steak house
City	Gotanda
Country	Japan
Other locations	Shimomeguro

Ribera Steakhouse (ステーキハウスリベラ, Stēkihausu Ribera) is a Japanese professional wrestling, boxing and mixed martial arts-themed steak house restaurant with two locations. The original location is in Gotanda, and there is a second, larger location in Shimomeguro. Professional wrestlers frequent the restaurant when touring in Tokyo, a rite of passage in the wrestling community.^[1]^[2] In addition, some wrestlers receive a complimentary satin Ribera Steakhouse Jacket from the owners.

History

Chris Jericho credits wrestler Stan Hansen with "discovering" the restaurant in the 1970s.^[3] Hansen, however, credits Bruiser Brody with being the first American wrestler to discover the restaurant.^[1] In the late 1970s and early 1980s, American professional wrestlers began to frequent the restaurant when they were wrestling in Tokyo.^[2] Over time, the owner began to cover the walls with hundreds of pictures of the wrestlers who ate at his restaurant.^[2]^[4] The owner rotates the pictures to correlate with the wrestlers currently touring the country.^[3] The restaurant is also decorated with other sorts of memorabilia such as title belts and trophies.^[5]

The owners of Ribera Steakhouse give out the Ribera Steakhouse Jacket to selected patrons.^[2] The jacket is satin and has a bull logo on the breast.^[2] Road Warrior Animal popularized wearing the jacket with Zubaz pants.^[2]^[6] Later, it became a rite of passage for American wrestlers to go to the steakhouse and receive their own jacket.^[1]^[2] Ricky Fuji has said that in English Ribera means, "I'm a wrestler, and I've been to Japan."^[3]

The restaurant features New York-style steaks in three sizes—1/2 pound, 1 pound, and 1 1/2 pounds—and sides such as corn, rice, salad, and soup.^[5] There is also a Ribera Akebono eating challenge.^[5] The challenger must eat 1.35 kilograms of steak and several side dishes in under 30 minutes to win 10,000 yen (approximately US$73 as of June 2022).^[5]

A second and bigger location was built in Shimomeguro, and it is run by the original location's owner's son.^[2]