 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
USA Sonic Fan Events or Places 5 |
|
Sometimes Sonic Fan Events turn normal places into Sonic Places.
There are some good examples of both here, so if you couldn't make it to a cool event, or to see a Sonic place, check out the photos and descriptions here--reported by Sonic fans! (most of the time) This page is only for modern events or places. See page 1 for some older / classic ones! They're all fun & interesting. |
|
|
Sonic Gear Main Page * Sonic Fan Events 2 * Sonic Fan Events 1 * Sonic Fan Events 3 * Sonic Fan Events 4 * Events 5 |
|
|
|
|
 |
In California, the Sonic Pop Up Cafe "Sonic Speed Cafe" appeared for an amount of time. Pop Up Cafes/events are more popular / more usual in Japan than they are in the US, but hopefully it's something that can catch on.
An event-place like this 'takes over' a space (in this case a food-ready shop in a strip mall) either dedicated to hosting pop ups or just something that can be made ready. It does this for a fixed amount of time (weeks, a month, etc) and then goes away. It's always to promote some brand or a new thing/movie/game etc.
The pop up cafe will have quick stick up decor, a menu geared toward the brand, standees, and sometimes merchandise. This one's got all 3! |
|
|
| The exterior has the quick stick up sign (top), Sonic & Knuckles standees with the logo to set indoors or out, and the windows have checkers & little character face logos 'snowing' all over them. The inside has the title, Sonic graphics, and more checkering card for the walls. |
|
 |
Here's what the inside end looks like. The menu boards are at the front on the usual TV screens. They also adopted 'black market chao vendor guy' as part of it, he appears as a standee and his card/logo is on the wall for the merchandise. You can see it back there as stacks with tees and hats. This merch would be limited to only being sold here while the cafe was open. It's also very costly.
Photo by SDCC Unofficial Blog |
|
 |
|
With this tv screen photo, you can see the items you could buy separately from the food. The chao-marketer makes them look 'taped up' which is a cute/funny touch.
There's a tee, a hat, and a sweatshirt. The black tee is only available as a bundle item with stuff for the San Diego Comic Con/so this is basically just an ad for it.
Notice how expensive everything is. The shirt is 36, the sweat shirt 75 and the hat 35. It's limited run stuff and made to be exclusive but...yikes. |
|
|
 |
 |
|
But this is a cafe, so let's see the food!
Here it is, with the expected Sonic themed packaging. The sandwiches/hot dogs come in paper dishes with |
|
|
| characters and logos, the fry boxes are backed with character faces, and the cups have the cafe's symbol. The drinks shown here are the Sweet Amy (strawberry milkshake) and Tails's Flying Fox Mango slush. The menu is pretty much the expected traditional fast food fare with fries, sandwich/hotdog/chili dog & etc. This befits its slogan "Gotta Go fast....Food". |
|
|
|
|
 |
The menu appears on TV screens, as all modern menus do, but...people taking photos of it get different things appearing on it. The Sweet Amy doesn't always appear, and neither does the red/blue Sonic Knuckles drink.
The sole combo, "Gotta Go Fast Meal" has the chili dog, fries, drink and white tee (that only comes with that meal) for 55 dollars.
The whole place is actually very costly, especially if you like paying 12 dollars for an average size sandwich and nothing else. 5 dollars PER chicken tender? Yes. Also 6 and 7 dollar drinks. |
|
There's gold onion rings, fast fries, chao down combo (of both), classic chili cup, blue blur slush raspberry drink, smasching echidna cherry slush, team dark mocha milkshake, and soda fountain (pepsi) The chili dogs and chili itself also comes in vegan version, which is nice (Called Green Hill versions). There's also Eggdog (Egg salad hotdog), Knuckle's Sandwich (fried chicken) Evil Genius egg salad sandwich, and piko piko tenders. (5 bucks a tender! come n' get em...$$$)
This is a 2023 pop up.
Opinion zone:
Are these high prices comprable to other pop up cafes of unrelated brands? How about all the Japan pop up cafe prices, do Japanese expect things to be super high priced for average foods served with new names there? And like...it's a gimmick to say you ate there and took photos so you sit there with your 12 dollar sandwich, and 6 dollar drink and 6 dollar fries. I literally don't know / if someone in Japan writes in about pop up expectations that'd be good.
Over-all though, there's enough attention to detail, to decor, and the menu to make it feel not slapped-up. It does feel like a 'Sonic place'. The menu is creative/appropriate enough for a 'fast food' and if the quality was there/it actually tasted good it's probably a fine thing to have.
|
|
 |
When the fashion/apparel company Stray Rats did a Sonic collab back in 2021 or so (and they did another too, probably in 2023 or so) they announced it with this pair of billboards in China Town New York. They're pretty simple, a hot yellow-greenish background with only black/white colors. The display area is a double billboard where there are 2 ad spaces, one on top of the other.
The top has a classic Sonic face line art where he is wearing headphones, the website for them, the 30th Anniversary logo and the Stray Rats logo. The bottom billboard uses typewriter font really big to just spell out Strayrats and Sonic, but they put his name in some brackets.
The simple design makes these eye-catching enough, and that hot color is good and bright. Hopefully a store that sold the clothing was close at hand. |
|
|
|
|
|
 |
Neither a place nor an event, this is an IRL Lamborghini full size working actual car. But, it'll appear at Sonic events and themed places! Cars with fancy all-over themes like this are a wonderful moving ad and a good spectacle to see.
What's also neat about this is that it has a Sonic & Kncukles theme, because Knuckles has been left out a lot |
|
| lately in favor of the Year of Shadow. It's not a bad thing, but it's good to have a variety of characters into the spotlight. In this case, the car is divided roughly in half, with half red half blue and a wavy center line for excitement. Each door that tilts upward has modern Sonic or modern Knuckles on it. There are also little speed chevrons, character icons, and some stripes. It's a nicely done very stylish design. A good thing all around, and it may appear in different countries too. |
|
 |
|
 |
|
| In spring/summer 2025, it's Katy Texas turn to get a pop up Sonic Speed Cafe. As this is a franchise type cafe pop up, the food here will be VERY similar to the California one seen above. The interior though, is much more decorated for this one. It has Sonic Shadow Generations art for one wall, more traditional group art & logo for the other wall, matching colored LED border strips, Green Hill counter top, and individual character silouette table art for each table. Interestingly the ground |
|
is covered in Green Hill grassy carpet probably astroturf of somekind. It's a bold move to put any type of rug in a fast food joint...so let's see how this goes.
As you can see with the food photos, the containers are all cardboard, and the same as before, with character faces that peek over the sides, slogan boxes (Gotta go FAST food!), that also feature Sonic and logos. The drinks will have the same logo clear plastic cups. You can see in the back there (Chalkboard looking area) that "Dr. Chao" merchandise space that will be set up later on. These are set-up factory photos.
Cafe Details: People do review these online, and the food (seems generally agreed) is very mid. Like, it's not going to be amazing because of the temporary nature. However, as in other countries, these in the USA are often treated as fan meeting places, almost like mini get-togethers / mini-cons. You're going for the photos, other fans, the experience and sometimes whatever exclusive collectible is available there. It's more the spectacle than it is the food. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|