We all know what a Karen is, right? Those annoying middle-aged white women who think they’re always right, better than everyone else, and will make damn sure we know it. You always hear them asking to ‘speak to the manager’ when retail staff don’t immediately buckle under the pressure of their perfectly practiced stern gaze.EvenFinal Fantasy 14has its own Karens to deal with, but fortunately, at least one of them is presented in good humour.Content creator Chilifarmer is well known in the FF14 communityfor his comedy, including his Karen of Eorzea skits, but now he’s taken that one step further by opening Karen’s Diner on Aether, Jenova.RELATED:Meet The Players Who Found Love In Final Fantasy 14“Karen’s Diner is a tacky tourist restaurant themed roughly around the mix of a ‘50s jukebox diner and a cheesy theme park restaurant, the best of both worlds,” Chili tells me. “The twist is that the waiters are rude, so be prepared when you arrive. The diner is staffed with Karen-esque characters who will read your outfit, judge your food orders, and then dump your food on the ground. You better pick it up yourself!
“The whole idea is to come and laugh at yourself, respectfully. All staff are instructed with a perimeter of what they can make fun of, and there’s still a spirit of community, fun, creativity, along with the rude banter. It’s all in good fun, like a roast.”
Chili took inspiration for the diner from an Australian restaurant of the same name and premise, which features actors taking on the role of rude waiting staff for any customers who are gluttons for punishment as much as they are for tasty food. The venue also has a wheel for customers to spin, which Chili hopes to integrate into the Eorzean equivalent somehow in the future.Although naturally, it’ll take some creative fan-dangling to get something like that to work within the limits of the game.
This is a challenge that Chili has grown accustomed to overcoming. The entire project, from creating graphics for the menus to the housing design, was all done by Chili alone. Anyone who has ever dabbled in FF14 housing will tell you that it’s not the easiest of processes, especially when you want to think outside the box and create something unique.
“I spent about three months gradually writing out the concept and building the actual venue,” Chili explains. “Final Fantasy 14’s inventory and housing systems can be a bit clunky, so creating large-scale projects can take a lot of time. I built bit by bit, so every few days, I would glitch a few walls, test some ideas out, then stop to work on my other projects. You have to be diligent in spreading out large projects like this, or else they’ll never see the light of day.”
Chili’s also added his own extra flair to the theme by creating a secret bread basket dungeon. The menu is specifically tailored to the venue, so ordering certain items might trigger a fun event or require you to complete a specific task. Intrigued? Well, fortunately for you, you can check out the Karen dining experience this weekend in a special pop-up venue.
“There is no current schedule, but when we are open we are usually open on Saturday evenings, Eastern US time,” Chili says. “I always post in my Discord a week ahead of opening. I always want to improve or add something interesting to my venue projects for every opening so I usually don’t reopen until I can add some extra flare or improve where I think we need to change or edit, so you typically won’t see weekly openings from most of my venues, especially since I do a lot of this myself.
“Our next opening will be February 18 and 19 forFishFestfrom 4 - 6pm EST. I have designed a larger-scale pop-up diner for this event that’s hosted by the Eorzea Museum Network and the creator of theEorzea Aquarium. This Karen’s Diner pop-up is all fish themed. There are aquariums next to the booths, so you may watch fish while you eat and have Karen cross her arms at you. You can check out Fish Fest the entire weekend of February 18-19, and I will be there on either my Riku Mistwarden character or Karen O’eorzea.”
you’re able to find out more about Karen’s Dinervia Discordand theofficial website, orcheck out Chili’s awesome content over on Twitch. We also highly recommend checking out FishFest this weekend as, on top of hearing an earful from Karen, it’s jam-packed full of other events, such as panels, a dance performance byEsprit, contests, and more. You can check out the full scheduleron the website.
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