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Welcome to the jungle
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February 5, 1997: 4:45 p.m. ET
Schussler creates a little taste of the jungle with the Rainforest Café
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NEW YORK (CNNfn) -- The Rainforest  Café may be the latest eatery to enter the ever-encroaching jungle of theme restaurants, but it has quickly established itself as the lion.
The restaurant, which donates a portion of its profits to environmental causes, has doubled its earnings in just the most recent quarter and outperformed most of its restaurant peers in the last year.
Diners at the Rainforest Café are greeted by mechanized jungle animals, real parrots, volcanoes and nine dollar hamburgers.
Theme restaurants like Planet Hollywood and the Fashion Café have been sprouting up with a mix of food, memorabilia, and glitz.
Rainforest Café creator Steven Schussler spent seven years in the research and development stage, turning his Minneapolis home into a prototype for the restaurant.
"I was like 'The Nutty Professor.' I'd come home every day and put a white coat on, a pair of glasses and I'd actually turn every room into (a) new adventure," said Schussler, appearing on CNNfn's "Business Unusual."
The experiments have been successful. As proof of that, Schussler is adding nine more Rainforest Cafés this year.
Schussler credited hard work and a great team with helping him get through the rough parts of the journey. A sense of humor also helped.
"There were many nights when I went to bed crying and then five minutes later I ended up laughing at myself. I think that's the true entrepreneurial spirit." 
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