There is a Garfield-themed restaurant opening in Toronto, Ontario — which likely means a lot of lasagna…and we wonder if they will be open on Mondays. According to BlogTO, the restaurant will be the first of its kind in North America. What is interesting is that the restaurant itself is primarily geared toward delivery, so fans will not get the kind of immersive experience you might expect from a traditional theme restaurant. Instead, you can order lasagna, cookies, coffee, and Garfield-shaped pizza (check it out below) delivered to your home or office in environmentally-friendly packaging from an app-based “mobile kitchen” company called GarfieldEats.
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According to BlogTO, there will be a minimalist physical storefront, with no cashiers but instead a line of mobile devices on which customers can place their orders, and play Garfield-themed AR games while they wait. The app itself reportedly allows users to watch Garfield cartoons and play Garfield-themed games as well. The food’s packaging comes in distinctive orange, and the pizza boxes feature Garfield comic strips. All of this, apparently, was approved by Garfield creator Jim Davis after being approached by GarfieldEats founders Nathen Mazri and Pascal Haider. The pair hope to expand their restaurant empire to more cities by 2025.
Davis is kind of the opposite of Calvin & Hobbes creator Bill Watterson, in that he licenses constantly. The comic strip was created in 1978 and by the mid-’80s was a licensing phenomenon, with toys, t-shirts, and more. The image of a plush Garfield adhered to the inside of a car window is so ubiquitous that it may be the first thing a lot of people think of when they hear the fat cat’s name. Davis founded and operates Paws, Inc., which handles all of Garfield’s merchandising.
The strip also remains immensely popular, with the title of the most widely-syndicated comic in the world at this point. Over the years, Davis has taken home awards from the National Cartoonists Society as well as four Emmys and more. The scooter deliveries and eco-friendly packaging on the Garfield pizzas makes perfect sense; Davis is a public advocate for environmental causes and charities.
