Potoooooooo
Contributor
http://munchies.vice.com/articles/c...staffed-by-waiters-with-learning-disabilities
Last week, Forrest Gump Restaurant opened in the city of Changchun in China, a country that is already a hotbed of quirky eateries with tenuous links to Western TV and film. (Anyone fancy Shanghai’s gloriously pathetic Joey Tribbiani restaurant?) But this is not a movie-themed joint featuring Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. seafood or an aged female actor drawling chocolate-based metaphors to customers. There isn’t even a picture of a bench-bound Tom Hanks on the wall.
Instead, the restaurant’s name was inspired by the fact that 12 members of the serving staff who offer up local favourites—such as noodles, buns, and the house special of goose eggs with scallions—have learning difficulties. Thankfully, despite its clunky moniker, Forrest Gump Restaurant isn’t some kind of horrendous piss-take human zoo but a result of the good work of Hu Yangping, who has dedicated much of her life to helping the mentally impaired. She says the “courage and optimism” of the Gump character in the 1994 film led to the name.
Last week, Forrest Gump Restaurant opened in the city of Changchun in China, a country that is already a hotbed of quirky eateries with tenuous links to Western TV and film. (Anyone fancy Shanghai’s gloriously pathetic Joey Tribbiani restaurant?) But this is not a movie-themed joint featuring Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. seafood or an aged female actor drawling chocolate-based metaphors to customers. There isn’t even a picture of a bench-bound Tom Hanks on the wall.
Instead, the restaurant’s name was inspired by the fact that 12 members of the serving staff who offer up local favourites—such as noodles, buns, and the house special of goose eggs with scallions—have learning difficulties. Thankfully, despite its clunky moniker, Forrest Gump Restaurant isn’t some kind of horrendous piss-take human zoo but a result of the good work of Hu Yangping, who has dedicated much of her life to helping the mentally impaired. She says the “courage and optimism” of the Gump character in the 1994 film led to the name.