io9 is at San Diego Comic-Con 2023 and we made a pre-convention middle detour to the Sonic the Hedgehog Speed Cafe, a fast food activation impressed by SEGA’s Sonic the Hedgehog video game universe.
Secret Sauce Society’s co-founder Kevin Website positioning was on the pop-up to elucidate how the collaboration with SEGA took place. And sure—it all began with Sonic’s iconic chili canine. “This one began with an extended relationship with the SEGA group and we actually dreamed about an thought to carry nice chili canines—Sonic’s chili canines to actual life,” Website positioning shared. “And so there was quite a lot of design conversations, dreaming conversations, and it lastly led to the group working with our group, Secret Sauce Society, to carry collectively superior sizzling canines.”
Sonic the Hedgehog Velocity Cafe was bustling after we visited the placement within the coronary heart of Gaslamp—it had a couple of four-hour wait time from what we may inform, as the road filled with online game followers queued down the block. The menu curation has a wide range of choices impressed by the sport with taste twists, just like the aforementioned “Sonic’s Basic Chili Canine,’’ and likewise that includes a crispy fried rooster sandwich referred to as the “Knuckles Sandwich,” as a result of it has a success of spice that may punch you within the face (I attempted it!).
Website positioning laughed, explaining “That’s why Knuckles Sandwich is spicy, as a result of it as a result of it has a punch.” Moreover, there’s “The Evil Genius” egg salad sandwich and “The Excellent Eggdog,” which seemed darkly questionable however have been truly peppery with umami. Of the curation Website positioning stated he was impressed by the character profiles, clearly, “Yeah, and ‘The Excellent Eggdog’—what’s enjoyable about that’s that merchandise is from the brand new cookbook that simply launched. So we additionally did a play on that, the place we did the very same sizzling canine which you can get in [the Sonic the Hedgehog] cookbook.” Sides and drinks embody “Golden Ring” onion rings and colourful frozen slushes impressed by Sonic, Knuckles, and Tails.
The design and ambiance felt proper at dwelling with the unique SEGA Genesis aesthetic. “It was like, we’re quick meals meets Sonic,” he stated, hence the title “Right here’s quite a lot of racer stripes that associate with Sonic, so that you’re going to see quite a lot of that theme that’s round. Our merch is impressed by that as nicely. If you happen to take a look at a few of the designs that we’ve got, it’s form of like these like racer logos—so all of us introduced all of that really feel in. And in addition for us, we love tradition and we all know that Sonic in the end is a Japanese model. So we saved that for lots of our hoodies and shirts with unique logos from Japan as nicely.”
Click on by way of for a take a look at the Sonic the Hedgehog Velocity Cafe now open by way of August 20; throughout Comedian-Con (July 19-23), hours run from 11:00 am-midnight.
Location: 910 J St Area 2, San Diego
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