Have you ever gone to a restaurant as a joke?

you cant live in a town that has a hooters in it and not do this at least once

I've never been to hooters tbh

what is the average % of large chain restaurant sales attributable to ironic visits

you cant live in a town that has a hooters in it and not do this at least once

― Thu'um gang (jjjusten), Thursday, March 15, 2012 1:40 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

The first and only time I went to Hooters, the waitress said, "Sit anywhere you're comfortable" and I mumbled "So, another restaurant?"

What about 'no, but I would consider it'? There's a kind of creepy looking place in my hometown called Encounters, which I'm sure is some sort of weird swingers place. I'd definitely go there - I don't know if it would be a joke, but it would definitely be for reasons other than 'this place seems like it'll serve amazing food'.

I went to a John Birch Society meeting as a joke. The service was terrible!

*instant rimshot in 7/4 time*

I was thinking about going to tourist misery sink Aberdeen Angus Steakhouse in order to write an article comparing it with Gaucho. And then I looked at the prices and decided that would be an unjustifiably expensive, and probably very unfunny, piece of satire.

I guess my answer is "sorta yeah" -- a Longhorn steakhouse opened in Tupelo last year and I knew it probably wouldn't be very good, but I went anyway, wondering how not-good it would be. The joke was totally on me.

isn't the joke always on you given that you're giving them your money?

hooters + the weird dive bar whose owner takes out ads in the Onion to express his far right-wing political opinions, and also shows porn on weekend mornings.

A friend of mine once ordered an egg roll at Knoxville's infamous slam dancing thrash metal venue China King. we were all aghast, like truly concerned for his health. he ate it and we all went "AAAAAAH"... we couldn't even look.

isn't the joke always on you given that you're giving them your money?

― lex pretend, Thursday, March 15, 2012 3:10 PM (5 minutes ago)

That's why most of the time I, being a Renaissance Man who has a cognitive-ability range that goes beyond Feigned Helplessness at one end and Learned Helplessness at the other (with Petulant Four-Year-Old smack in the middle), COOK FOR MYSELF.

i don't know how to answer this. sometime last year i went to kfc because i was craving shitty greasy oversalted frankenchicken, and said experience was strangely satisfying. is that jokey?

i *almost* went to hooters once -- a friend was craving hot wings -- and i was vaguely curious (in an "as a joke" way), but another friend talked us out of it. i had no problem being talked out of it.

a craving is not ironic, it's the realest thing there is

bunch of big city elitists in this thread imo

I've been to a Hooters, and the wings were good.

I currently live about half a mile from restaurants that the President takes his wife to for Valentine's and Anniversaries, and my mother wants to drive the opposite way to go to Outback and my thought it "so be it, that's what she digs, it's cool."

Hell, in Southern Alabama my friends and I would go to the bar at TGI FRIDAYS on a Friday night. That was our fun.

I was once approached by a man at said TGI Fridays and he asked me if I was gay. I was caught between the utter fear of getting my ass kicked in the parking lot when I left and the self-righteous "fuck you homophobe" attitude I tend to reactively cop. I went on a big thing about "so what if I was" but then it turned out he was gay and was just hitting on me. I felt bad until he said he was "only in town for the night" and I was all "am I piece of meat?". Chain restaurants can surprise you. And I've had good steaks at Longhorn, SO THERE.

the one time i went to hooters a girl i went to HS with was our waitress, which is how i found out that waitresses at hooters often use fake names (as a creep deterrent). i was a vegetarian at the time so i ordered the one veggie option they had (grilled cheese)

gukbe killin it

Years ago, I think it was a birthday or something, co-workers came by told me they were taking me to BJ's for lunch. I lol'ed out loud. And I kept lol'ing all the way to the restaurant. But everyone was so dead inside that I was the only one who got ANY enjoyment out of the name at all. That's the best PART of that place. You come back from lunch? Where'd you go? *big grin*. BJ'S.

It sells itself!

Mr Veg had to go there for a work function not long after I went, we have since worked up an ideal BJ's menu of corndogs, lollipops, bananas, popsicles etc

Such a wasted opportunity.

I didn't go there AS a joke, I went there HOPING for a joke. And got none. :(

waitresses at hooters often use fake names (as a creep deterrent).

a better creep deterrent: not working at hooters!

Help me understand how this would work. Who is the audience of the "joke"? Are you supposed to order your food in a sarcastic voice? Should you constantly comment about how crazy this is and how you can't even believe you're doing this between ironic bites? And do you go to your aspergers support before or after "eating"? So many questions!

my main problem with it is the whole "vote with your dollars" thing. why would you give money to a place that sucks? you're only prolonging the suck.

have you ever changed careers as a joke? how would you like to have an ironic job??

would take an ironic job at this point tbf

would me working at hooters be an ironic job

would me being the waitress at hooters at whom whiney mutters be doubly ironic?

would said ironies cancel each other out

how big are your ironic boobs

there it is

Whenever we eat at a Beeafeater or Harvester or Wetherspoon's or wherever it's generally an annoying consensus choice to satisfy a big family group. Or, like last night, because they're opening a new one and we get free food / hotel room at their staff rehearsal (a friend works for a big chain).

When I was a teenager, we used to go to old-timey diners as kind of a joke. These places had other undeniable benefits for us in that they were open all night and had free refills and let us smoke, but there was an element of kitsch to it too.

Would never go to a Red Lobster or Hooters unless I had some particularly gruesome obligation.

Answering q: Sort-of.

When we went on holiday to Tenerife, we ate out a lot (as you do), picked really nice places that weren't expensive, all good.

Final night, not wanting to eat massive, we saw a crummy pizza place and said "ah what the hell, let's eat a lousy pizza fthellofit."

Pizza was really nice. For a flat, marguarita style no-frills pizza, I'd actually recommend the place.

So, double-irony count.

Pretty sure some of the Workshy Allstar Teadrinkers Society of North posse used to visit McDonalds "as a joke" on a regular basis back in the mid-2000s.

the only places round here I can think of that overt 'humour' could be wrung out of a visit are Hooters (not been, not gonna) and some steakhouse kinda place near my house that does like gigantic 'finish your meal and it's free' offers and looks utterly abject

i sometimes go to places partly out of a smartarse/defiant "eff you elitists" stance, but only if i really like the uncouth crap they sell anyway

Write in vote for: No, but I think this is a perfectly acceptable thing to do.

i don't know why the hell you'd do it unless you found the food pleasurable tho

"Rock and Roll Burger Bars"

Where they dance on the counter, "Dreamboats/Petticoats" style.

Irony, again, is that the food was alright. As opposed to the 'we look like a restaurant, but actually we dont give a shit" where the food is bad but humanity is spared. Or something.

(Actually, all the R&RBurgerplaces seem to have gorn. Except for Ed's Diner, but you know...

i can't handle people "entertaining" me while i'm trying to have a meal

There is a restaurant I regularly go to with friends where the food is pretty good - not amazing, but very cheap for what it is - but the service is terrible and the toilets are barely large enough to use. At first it was a bit of a joke, taking unfamiliar people with us and telling them it was "an amazing experience" but now it's just become our default dining experience when we're all together. The portions are insane: you get a "salad" with most starters which is just one solitary grated lettuce leaf.

i can't handle people "entertaining" me while i'm trying to have a meal

But...but...

http://blog.wfmu.org/photos/uncategorized/2008/07/24/animatedrae1_2.gif

I've been to a strip club and had a meal there
Not really a joke but like "ha ha let's go to a strip club", then I was hungry

once i hung out with some of my college friends in the town i grew up in, and somehow they decided they really wanted to go to Hooters and dragged me along and the whole time i was afraid/hopeful that we were gonna be waited on by someone i went to high school with, which we didn't so i was relieved/disappointed

I have never been to a strip club or a Hooters. Or an Applebees.

I am 42 and white, btw.

^^ craig'slist ad

Whenever we eat at a Beeafeater or Harvester or Wetherspoon's or wherever it's generally an annoying consensus choice to satisfy a big family group

Do Beefeaters and Harvesters still exist? Always think that these places must have been doing something astonishingly bad to virtually disappear without even prompting Little Chef-style nostalgia.

I don't really understand why anyone would go to a restaurant for a joke unless they're on some posh twat slumming it tip. You still have to stump up a reasonable amount of cash and actually eat the shite food, it's not like going into a terrible pub for a laugh.

I was going to say no but then I remembered meeting jjj and AP at THE BIERSTUBE a couple of years ago

i don't think joke is the right word, but i've gone to IHOP before on a lark.

DON'T WORRY YUMMY IHOP I WILL PROTECT THEE

http://foodfrenzy.ocregister.com/files/2009/02/bbq-005.jpg

Matt - Beefeater is owned by the company that own the hotel chain Lenny Henry advertises - they're all tied to the hotels now, essentially. They own several of these restaurant chains and roll them out strategically depending on locale and clientele of the hotel next door. They also own one of the large coffee chains. Massive, massive business and seems to be doing very well at the moment.

Harvester have a big TV ad campaign on at the moment, so they're definitely still going.

I had forgotten until now that we once did this with a Rainforest Cafe while visiting Niagara Falls. It was actually really amusing! The whole thing is very low-grade Disney in a very funny way.

Actually I forgot there's a Harvester not far from me with a big garden out front. It always seems to be full of lost looking divorced fathers who have been given the kids for the weekend.

I mean they look like this!
http://www.livingcolor.com/wp-content/gallery/rainforrest/RainforestCafe.jpg
http://www.schusslercreative.com/images/RFCSaltwaterArchedAquariumDiningRoom_001.jpg
https://s3.amazonaws.com/luuux-original-files/bookmarklet_uploaded/1_188.jpeg

And there are all kinds of 'animals' that don't even live in rainforests!

And I think once an hour there's some kind of rainstorm schtick and all the waiters have to do some bullshit that I don't remember.

I've been to a Rainforest Cafe more than once. Horrifying. One plus: their fruity alcoholic drinks are powerful.

Would eat in the fish room! Not fish, though, that would just be impolite.

man I don't know how I'd react to having a giraffe looking me in the eye

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rainforest_Cafe

Large marine aquariums are common in most restaurants. Automated water sprinklers and synchronized lights set to specific patterns are also featured. A simulated thunderstorm occurs every thirty minutes, utilizing simulated rain as well as timed flashing strobe lights and high-powered subwoofers for lightning and thunder. There is a tree usually located in the gift shops named Tracy that talks and gives information on rainforests.

The restaurants are partitioned into several rooms by means of rain curtains that fall into basins running along the tops of partition walls and booths. The Rainforest Cafe serves food ranging from seafood, beef, and chicken to pastas and pizzas, as well as its award-winning crab dip. There is also the tradition of yelling, "Volcano!" when somebody orders a "volcano" sundae.

The staff of Rainforest Cafe are named in accordance with the safari theme. Servers are called Safari Guides, hosts/hostesses are Tour Guides, retail sales associates are Pathfinders, bartenders are Navigators, bussers are Safari Assistants and kitchen staff are named Trailblazers. Rainforest Cafe restaurants have a retail village, where rainforest themed merchandise is sold.

But do they have a shit animatronic worzel gummidge?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6jBVjRMAgYg

to the thread question: I went to college in the early 90s, I'm not sure I've ever done anything that wasn't ironic.

Does any chain restaurant kitchen actually feature a flame grill like that? I get the impression that there's just this one reel of stock footage of some meat cooking on one that has been used in every commercial since 1983.

Yeah, Rainforest Cafe is horrible. Only eaten there when I've taken my daughter to Disneyland Paris. All the eating there is uniformly wretched and expensive. Can't understand why anyone eat in one of those places unless it was that or starve.

xxxxxxxpost Jay Rayner reviewed an Angus steak house a couple of years ago.

in high school my friends would go to the diners around here because of PA/NJ 'diner culture' but I think diners are actually pretty cool and would happily eat at them in a pinch

I answered no, but just remembered that I ate at Planet Hollywood in Mall of America underneath a big clear ball containing a frozen Stallone from Demolition Man.

My path how I got there is foggy, but I'm pretty sure we were being "funny".

actually tbf I don't think I've ever gone to a restaurant as a joke b/c eating is serious business, but I spent a year of college getting drunk regularly as a joke & even joined a fraternity ironically

were the dues ironic

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ko54l8CNk5Y

the beer that the dues paid for was consumed ironically

Showbiz Pizza reminded me of the only time I went there (unironically; I was 10, and it was my friend's birthday party). The animatronic band played "Sexy Sadie."

Went to the Picadilly branch of "Rainforest Cafe" once.

It was alright, but as we were preparing to leave, we saw a real mouse running around an empty part of the seating.

We told the staff, they were very "oh yeah.."

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

i just remembered how some of my brothers high school friends celebrated graduation by supposedly dressing up in suits and cowboy hats, going into a ribs place and spending the whole dinner talking in macho hillbilly RIBS MHMM RIBS voices. presumably they actually enjoyed eating the ribs, though, one would hope.

i haven't but i'm very keen to go to Edinburgh’s Armenian Restaurant: Aghtamar Lake Van Monastery in Exile.

http://www.jamescave.net/2010/11/aghtamar-lake-van-monastery-in-exile-a-review/

my friend's review of this place was "it's very cold and you're not allowed salt"

My family does this ALL THE TIME, like "let's go to Chili's" when they make fun of it behind closed doors. Then I go to Chili's with them and they make fun of me because I seriously try to find something edible there.

Ironic McDonald's visit leads to unironic atherosclerosis .

I went to a Denny's once and when the lady asked if I was ready to order I just started guffawing, knocked over all the glasses at the table, threw down my menu, took all of my clothes off, and walked out of the restaurant whizzing.

one time i helped some friends of mine move - i had a truck, they offered to pay me (and the other volunteers) with dinner and beers. when it came quitting time and someone asked "where do you guys want to go for dinner?" everybody looked around at each other very tiredly with looks of "eh" on their faces. finally, the youngest and hottest female among us says surprisingly "let's go to hooters!" and so we went. i had a fish sandwich which was pretty damn good.

the table next to us was a dad who had taken his son and some of his friends' there for his THIRTEENTH BIRTHDAY. not one of those boys ever looked up from the table, nor stood, presumably wearing raging boners of shame in their pants.

I do have to say my one ironic visit to Hooters resulted in me unironically enjoying some wings

i have gone to a strip club as a joke.

also i have gone to a strip club v v seriously :\

I also remember having like a 10 minute, Kevin Smith-style conversation at Hooters about why it was totally backwards to have "911 Wings: Call the Paramedics" be somehow hotter than "3 Mile Island Wings;" since the former is just one person taking a trip to the hospital and the other, ostensibly milder wing, is represented by something that irratidated Pennsylvania and killed a shit ton of livestock. It's just stupid.

that's more early linklater than kevin smith, i think.

with a hint of jarmusch ?

Denny's isn't ironic to me. They have veggie omelette. Anyone with 24 hour hash browns is NOT ironic in my book. I do know people for whom it is out of character! Once a restaurant gets sued for discrimination I won't eat there. I know some people say "screw political correctness" and do it anyway.

Denny's is kind of ironic, at least if you eat there in the daytime and you're not drunk. It's all elderly couples having 3pm dinner, it's kinda cute.

Plus it's fun to say Moons Over My Hammy

but the reality is kinda sad and depressing, not really very lolsy.

much prefer drunk/hungover Denny's

Old Country Buffet is ironic for me and for a lot of people at a certain age...because who doesn't love buffet? But there is a stigma to it, like those casino buffets!

What I hate is stuff like when (x) restaurant gets sued for discrimination against gays or whatever...and anti-PC crowd goes out of their way to eat there, as a protest.

idgi. if you go to a shitty restaurant, who is the joke on?

Aimless, I think it's like this: you have friend or family who is pain in the ass food snob. So then you get together with like minds and eat at that place they wouldn't be caught dead at. Like I said, my brother does this a lot, he is the oldest child though, and they are aggressive people not used to compromising.

that's more early linklater than kevin smith, i think.

― the kids of boris midney high (get bent), Friday, March 16, 2012 10:26 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

^ otm

I sincerely loved the Denny's in my old hood but, they tore it down. It was a late 60's or early 70's one, much loved. Since then Denny's is just meh.

My ex and family love Carrabas, Red Lobster and Olive Garden and UGH! I hated going to those places and will never set foot in those establishments again. They started on Cheddars but we divorced before I had that experience.

When we travel I dig Waffle House. I try and stay clear away from anything with a black buggy parked in front.

I generally don't joke around with food and money. Never have.

Depending on where you live, Red Lobster is not a joke. Some parts of the United States aren't big on seafood and Red Lobster is your quick fix.

Blimey. Branches of the Aberdeen Angus Steak House chain have had a makeover. The Garrick Street branch is like Waynetta Slob in Gucci. Not real Gucci, mind; the tacky knock-off stuff you'd buy in the market on your summer holidays. There is overly clean, dark-wood panelling, bare brick of the sort used to build new bungalows on the outskirts of Swindon and a continuous line of red neon around the top of the walls which casts the room in the sort of glow I last saw in Amsterdam behind a big picture window framing a woman in her pants who was for hire. Am I selling it to you? Am I?

FUCK THIS ATTITUDE. FUCK THIS CUNT. WELL DONE YOU ARE A SAVVY CONSUMER YOUR PURCHASING POWER HAS BOUGHT YOU GOOD TASTE KILL ALL THE PLEBS TWAT TWAT TWAT

good taste was invented in the 18th century so that the middle classes cd still protect their cultural hegemony as mass production spread out by the way. scum.

Yes, there is a lot of annoying literature on this topic! But if you're of a literary mind, you also know that good taste was becoming an enormous burden for the culture industry in the late nineteenth century.

Sunny and I went to the Lone Star Steakhouse while I was in Sydney. Ordered a Bud off the import menu. No peanut shells on the floor and you still had to ask for a small cup of ketchup for the "chips."

omg rainforest cafe. when i was about 12, my cousin (who has terrible taste in everything, it must be said) took me there. apparently he'd already been dozens of times; he loved it. i'd say -- well, he was 12 -- except that's pretty much where his taste is at now, and he's 34.

ok wait i guess it wasn't rainforest cafe b/c that first opened in 1994. but it was basically the same thing. robust "jungle" decor, plush wild animals everywhere, etc.

About the only thing I know about Rainforest Cafe is that it was one of Michael Jackson's favorite restaurants.

rainforest cafe would be the shit if they served vegetarian food

my shitty taste is 100% sincere.

Lol @ everyone going to Hooters "as a joke". Sounds like everyone who eats there is having a laugh riot.

I voted I did and it was a really good joke, except what I really meant was I have and there were times when it was lots of fun and there were times when the irony bit us on the ass.

eating somewhere as a joke = building a fake restaurant, giving fake training to the servers, hiring fake cooks to make fake food, and then on fake Opening Night, coming in to eat and letting the poor waitstaff know that the restaurant is a sham.

Any terribleness of Red Lobster will be significantly mitigated by the free cheddar biscuits. Anything terrible would be mitigated by free cheddar biscuits. ANYTHING.

xp LOLOL

i have appreciated the absurdities at various tacky restaurants, but my relationship with the food purchased has never been a joke.

sometimes I'm glad that my palette is so terrible and that mostly all food tastes good to me because I have no idea what true 'good' food tastes like.

however that also leads to things like me ordering the Double Down at KFC

Have I ever gone to a restaurant as a joke? Yes. Several times in college, I would go to Denny's, alone. Pretty much feeling like a joke.

the double down was so disappointing, conceptually brilliant but just a bun-less chicken sandwich in practice. you couldn't really TASTE the decadence, just see it and feel it on your fingers.

and thighs

i once ate a grilled cheese sandwich that had fried mozzarella sticks inside of it at denny's
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x18/gr8080/16494616.jpg

it was delicious.

What about bad holiday jokes? My mom is a sick (sometimes) mentally ill person who will force the entire family to eat cheap diner food on Christmas...just because she "isn't in the spirit this year". She thinks this is funny, sometimes she just gets in a bad mood about the sappiness of Christmas and wants her neighbors to know it!

Walked by Rainforest Cafe last night and thought of this thread.

i would never go here, but it sounds like some of you might:

http://www.fatsandwichcompany.com/Madison/index.html

review: http://www.thedailypage.com/eats/article.php?article=27067

oh and if you are hankering for boobs but are more in a "grande decaf" mood than a "hot wings" food, lubbock's got you covered:

http://www.ooolalattes.com/

(they have a "jungle fever" milkshake.)

"A trip to OLLs will be an experience filled with coffee aromas"

sure

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

thread delivers

Denny's doesn't.

"They abhor restaurant clichés (Carnegie Deli, Peter Luger) and studiously avoid chains (Olive Garden, McDonald’s) but are not above the occasional ironic trip to either."

http://nymag.com/restaurants/features/foodies-2012-4/

went to a michelin starred restaurant as a joke. what an expensive joke! everyone was cool about it, though. would joke again.

I'm starting to think that the entire internet is out to troll me at once.

if i win mega millions lotto, i'm gonna joke the dickens out of french laundry.
if i only hit four numbers, i'll have to restrict my lol-eating to per se.

no wait, it's ad hoc. jesus i'd need at least five numbers to joke-eat at per se.

At one point, Chang turns to me. “So what’s your favorite restaurant in New York?” she asks. Without thinking, I give my standby answer, which hasn’t changed in the past four years or so: Eleven Madison Park. I feel the air whoosh out of the room. “Ah.” There falls a pause while I savor, perhaps for the first time, at age 35, the full extent of feeling old and out of touch.

hands up if you read "35" and "old" and winced really hard

quiddities post right there

quidcelsior

from the comments:

I wish people like her would just stay on the West Coast. They just make EVERYTHING more and more insufferable!
SHUT UP!

^ I read this post first when looking at this thread and instantly knew the article you were talking about