After more than a dozen negative reviews across web and social media indicating that the staff at the Friendly Toast in downtown Portsmouth NH was now too friendly, the ownership at the iconic restaurant decided to rebrand.
The restaurant revealed the new name in a press release Friday: The Hangry Hipster. Instead of a graphic of a happy looking anthropomorphised female toast in an apron, now there’s Broiche the Hangry Hipster.
We contacted co-owner Eric Goodwin shortly after the reveal for comment.
“It turns out there is such a thing as ‘too nice’,” said the Goodwin. “It’s these people around here. You can never seem to make them happy. You clean up the place it and they want the old dirt back. You make the food safe to eat again and you’re just an old white man out of touch. You train your waitstaff to be friendly and they want to be abused. So I named this goddamn restaurant after them as a big fuck you.”
Some in the Facebook community are outraged about the name change, some going as far as calling for the restaurant to be burned down with all the staff members inside.
It also sparked a debate as to what, actually, a hipster is.
“I don’t even think there’s a such thing as a hipster anymore,” said Tan Vampires frontman Jake Mehrman. “I’m the Tan Vampires frontman Jake Mehrman and I unironically check my credit score and enjoy Seth Rogen movies just like anyone else. Not usually at the same time, but you get it. I mean, I could probably get a mortgage if I wanted to, and I would know how to do it. If I’m not cool then probably nobody is anymore.”
“I just think the timing on this is bad,” he said.
Some Millennial culture watchdogs expressed some tacit approval of the logo, depending on Goodwin’s intentions.
“If you’re just looking at it at face value: “Hangry Hipster”, it’s not cool,” said Tim Fife, who does something with electronic music and blood. “If he’s doing it ironically, that’s another thing, but even irony is a bit played out. He would have to change it ironically, use “Hangry” ironically, give an ironic explanation as to why he did it, seem earnest, and earnestly feel like it was a good change. That would be cool. He might be doing that. At this level it’s impossible to tell.”
“We might never know if the Hangry Hipster is good,” he lamented. “Even if it seems good, there will always be that doubt.”
At time of publication, the online conversation had turned predictably to The Elvis Room.
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