"Prohibition is located in a mixed retail and restaurant development. In the back of the lower courtyard is the door to what appears to be a defunct antique shop. Beside the door is a large red phone booth. You simply enter the booth, dial the number on the old fashioned rotary dial phone, and a secret door in the back wall of the phone booth opens up."
You can read a detailed review here, and see lots of photos of the interior here. Via.
1. Tim Rogers makes lots of excellent and funny observations about video game designs in this post at Kotaku. In fact, there are observations about design in general and how even napkin dispensers are a sort of game:
In short, a "perfectly usable" videogame is no fun at all. If Super Mario Bros. were perfectly "usable", you would walk right from start to finish in a world free of obstacles, monsters, or any other reason to jump. That sure would suck a whole lot! Matt and I seem to be in agreement that any good software interface requires some kind of "friction", whether it's about saving princesses or moving files from one folder to another. I'm not saying that it should be as challenging as Tetris to install an application: just that it should feel and look like something cute and fun. Then again, do you really want moving files to be so fun in your computer operating system that people are tempted to sit around moving files back and forth all day? You probably don't, in the same way that you don't want people to stand there and, giggling like a heliumed gorilla, straight-blast paper-grabbing at your napkin dispenser until it's empty and they're breathing heavily and sweating all over your floor. In short, the new napkin dispensers are too fun; they are so too fun they are dangerous to restaurant productivity.
2. I had lunch at Umami Burger for the first time today. Really fantastic (and it better be because a burger, fries, and 8 oz(!) soda plus tip is $20).
3. "George Clooney is financing the use of surveillance satellites to monitor violence in the Sudan in advance of an independence referendum there."
Alas, it's too late to participate in Bompas & Parr's Artisanal Chewing Gum Factory:
Each visitor will be able to choose and combine 200 familiar and unusual flavours including iris, Hendricks Gin and tonic, curry and beer yeast. In total 40,000 flavour combinations are possible.
Truly outlandish combinations were possible. At least you can participate vicariously by watching the video below:
Coming next month is another event that sounds like great fun - - Taste O Rama at the Harley Gallery:
Coming soon to the Harley Gallery, Bompas & Parr will show Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom in Welbeck Abbey's Titchfield Library. Guests will be taken on a trip through the secretive underground rooms at Welbeck before watching the film presented in Taste 'o' Rama - with spectators able to enjoy key moments of the movie with their mouths.
(Monkey brain's anyone?)
You can read about Bompas and Parr's previous culinary adventures at their site, including the Sugar Cave:
Emperor Vespasian's notorious Shield of Minerva dish:
The Ziggurat of Flavour, Occult Jam ("a small triumph over mortality"), Surreal House Dinner, and more. Via thesesites.
1. Wired interviewed Genndy Tartakovsky about Sym-Bionic Titan (which was excellent).
2. And the producers of Batman the Brave and the Bold talk about how much the toy company influences plot decisions: "The toy company wanted to see Starro as much as possible, because they were going to put a big push behind that character."
Review of the current menus at Thomas Keller's The French Laundry, and photo set showing off the beautiful food. (His restaurant Bouchon is far and away my favorite in Los Angeles.) Via.
Signage, stationary and more by Apartment One for Moomah, a coffee shop and art spot for kids. The Moomah webstore includes various goods including t-shirts:
Each heartfelt kit includes; a blunt needle, pre-cut felt shapes, embroidery floss, stuffing, instructions and paper hearts to hold your sweet thoughts and to be tucked within the heart when it is done.
A lovely and thoughtful keepsake for years to come! Great for beginners who want to learn to sew.
