Sonic the Hedgehog Pace Cafe at SDCC Interview and Pictures

io9 is at San Diego Comic-Con 2023 and we made a pre-convention heart 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 marketing was on the pop-up to clarify how the collaboration with SEGA happened. 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 thought to deliver nice chili canine—Sonic’s chili canine to actual life,” Search engine marketing shared. “And so there was plenty of design conversations, dreaming conversations, and it lastly led to the workforce working with our group, Secret Sauce Society, to deliver collectively superior sizzling canine.”

Sonic the Hedgehog Pace Cafe was bustling after we visited the situation within the coronary heart of Gaslamp—it had a few four-hour wait time from what we might inform, as the road filled 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 in addition that includes a crispy fried rooster sandwich referred to as the “Knuckles Sandwich,” as a result of it has a success of spice that can punch you within the face (I attempted it!).

Search engine marketing 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 Good Eggdog,” which seemed darkly questionable however have been really peppery with umami. Of the curation Search engine marketing mentioned he was impressed by the character profiles, clearly, “Yeah, and ‘The Good 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 house with the unique SEGA Genesis aesthetic. “It was like, we’re quick meals meets Sonic,” he mentioned, hence the identify “Right here’s plenty of racer stripes that associate with Sonic, so that you’re going to see plenty of that theme that’s round. Our merch is impressed by that as nicely. When you have a look at among the designs that we have now, it’s type 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 stored that for lots of our hoodies and shirts with authentic logos from Japan as nicely.”

Click on via for a have a look at the Sonic the Hedgehog Pace Cafe now open via August 20; throughout Comedian-Con (July 19-23), hours run from 11:00 am-midnight.

Location: 910 J St House 2, San Diego