I read about this new fast food restaurant in Beirut and to be frank, I’m not sure what to make of it.
I’m quite sure there’s something really wrong with the whole idea behind this thing, but it may take me a second to sort out exactly what and why.
Anyway, in case you missed it, the newly opened eatery is called “Buns and Guns” and features chefs in military helmets, food wrapped in camouflage paper and the slogan “a sandwich can kill you” � reportedly a reference to the large portions.
A recent Associated Press story says the violent theme for the restaurant that opened about a month ago in Beirut’s Hezbollah-dominated southern suburbs, is tongue-in-cheek.
It’s drawing customers, the story says, among “residents proud of the Shiite militant group’s battlefield successes.”
In typical Middle Eastern fashion, some Lebanese have managed to convince themselves that having been pounded
to dust and suffering hundreds of casualties is “battlefield success.”
So, in deference, I guess, to its top-notch terrorist homicidal maniacs, this restaurant is “done up like a military outpost,” with “neatly stacked sandbags” covering the exterior, “while the inside is festooned with camouflage nets, defused mortar shells and live ammunition.”
Employees in military uniforms serve meals to the recorded sounds of gunfire as “background music,” the story says.
I have always personally enjoyed battlefield music with my falafel, so this would be perfect for me.
And, if this weren’t disturbing enough, Buns and Guns’ menu includes a “magnum” chicken sandwich and potato wedge “grenades.” Other menu items include the “rocket-propelled grenade” and the mouth-watering AK-47 Klashnikov assault rifle, which in this case is a beefsteak sandwich served in long baguette-style bread.
A pizza topped with peppers, onions, mushrooms, olives, corn and tomatoes is called the Claymore, referring to the devastating anti-personnel mines, the story says.
No glorifying violence there, at all.
Ask any expert and they’ll tell you that the best way to create a peaceful, non-violent environment is to do whatever you can think of to make war seem fun and delicious.
The restaurant’s owners said the military theme is an advertising gimmick, the story said.
“The idea came before all the clashes that happened in Lebanon,” co-owner Ali Hamoud told Associated Press Television News. “But in the end, (the fighting) helped in advertising the restaurant.”
The story notes that while it doesn’t have direct Hezbollah ties, the restaurant couldn’t operate in the heart of the terrorist organization’s territory without its blessing. And since Hezbollah’s Al-Manar TV ran a story about the restaurant, it’s presumably is OK with it.
It seems to me to be a little bit like having a Mafia-style restaurant in old Chicago or a drug-dealer-themed night spot in Richmond or a street-gang style eatery in south-central Los Angeles.
On one hand, it’s almost the epitome of the capitalist spirit, to exploit a terrible situation in this way. But it seems to me that unless one is intentionally trying to reinforce this type of subculture, there’s just something wrong with this concept.
They say you are what you eat. Maybe you also are where you eat.
Have PoliticalMavens.com delivered to your inbox in a daily digest by clicking here
