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 Search engine optimisation 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 workforce and we actually dreamed about an concept to carry nice chili canine—Sonic’s chili canine to actual life,” Search engine optimisation shared. “And so there was lots of design conversations, dreaming conversations, and it lastly led to the workforce working with our group, Secret Sauce Society, to carry collectively superior sizzling canine.”
Sonic the Hedgehog Pace Cafe was bustling once we visited the placement within the coronary heart of Gaslamp—it had a few four-hour wait time from what we might inform, as the road stuffed with online game followers queued down the block. The menu curation has quite a lot 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 known as the “Knuckles Sandwich,” as a result of it has a success of spice that may punch you within the face (I attempted it!).
Search engine optimisation 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 had been truly peppery with umami. Of the curation Search engine optimisation 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 you could get in [the Sonic the Hedgehog] cookbook.” Sides and drinks embrace “Golden Ring” onion rings and colourful frozen slushes impressed by Sonic, Knuckles, and Tails.
The design and ambiance felt proper at residence with the unique SEGA Genesis aesthetic. “It was like, we’re quick meals meets Sonic,” he stated, hence the identify “Right here’s lots of racer stripes that go together with Sonic, so that you’re going to see lots of that theme that’s round. Our merch is impressed by that as nicely. If you happen to have a look at a few of the designs that we’ve got, it’s sort 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 finally is a Japanese model. So we stored that for lots of our hoodies and shirts with authentic logos from Japan as nicely.”
Click on by means of for a have a look at the Sonic the Hedgehog Pace Cafe now open by means 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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