Need homework help

[ShadowBall]

I disappear for a couple weeks and come back needing help. Forgive my neediness.

I'm in a homework crisis - class is next week and while I only need to do some rough drafts for my homework, I don't even have an idea yet. Well, I did, but found out it's been done already so despite how bad I want to do my original idea, I feel like I can't.

Here's the assignment: Come up with a theme restaurant. Once I have an idea, I can punch out the drawings in no time, especially since being in school makes me want to draw 24/7. I initially was going to do a space cafe complete with a gift shop containing alien dolls, sci-fi posters and movies, employees in space type suits, an anti-gravity simulator (costs extra), a giant TV that only shows sci-fi films, and an interior that is lit up or entirely chrome. No mention of a budget or need for realism in the assignment instructions, so I want to take advantage of that.

I find out that there are not only several fucking space restaurants in the US already, there is one right in bloody NYC (which is where my class will be) that is decorated with lights like what I wanted to do! I will feel like a hack if I do another one, though I intend to patronize Mars 2112 since I'll likely be walking down Broadway anyway when I make my rounds to museums and stores.

Can anyone offer any suggestions on nifty theme restaurants/cafes? Or should I risk being a hack and just do the sci-fi theme? It seems most themes have already been done, from samurais to robots to zombies to nurses to dinosaurs and I'm not sure what to do now.

[trailerparkmedic]

If your ideas are already taken, get more detailed. Sure, nurses, zombies and dinosaurs are taken, but has anyone made a "zombie nurses being eaten by dinosaurs" restaurant? Since you can't do sci-fi, do your favorite sci-fi show or movie. If Star Trek has been done, focus on a specific season/movie, or even base it on your favorite episode.

[ShadowBall]

Yup, we have to design everything - menus, business cards, employee uniforms, advertising, interior design, logo. The whole she-bang. I'm still really leaning toward the space cafe only because the other places I've researched seem like family-oriented venues and I want this cafe to be fun, but aimed more at grown people. Kinda like a "Starbucks in space" sort of thing.

And thanks very much for the 60s idea...I'm also now kind of thinking of doing something with a disco theme. Maybe something weird like disco robots since I'm sure there's a disco-themed lounge of some kind somewhere.

There's also no mention on whether or not the theme has to be totally original or if it can be based off existing entertainment. For example, a friend suggested a cafe with a Doctor Who theme, but I don't know if I'd get told that was "not allowed" or not. The instructors doing the critiques are kind of stupid and will tell people their ideas are "wrong" if they don't understand them, don't like them, or don't get the joke (if there is one). So I won't want to bust my ass thinking of something that these idiots won't get anyway. I know for a fact absolutely no one in my class watches the Doctor, so it'd go totally over all their heads and the professors will give me a shit grade based on their ignorance. I actually did very poorly on an assignment last year because the program director didn't understand the meaning behind some of my pieces, even when I repeatedly explained them (even though after seeking the opinions of several other people who said they clearly understood the purpose).

That's one of the things I hate most about my school: a lot of these so-called professionals are rather narrow-minded or just plain dumb and will grade based on whether or not they think something is pretty and not on any level of creativity. Hell, for the "invention" assignment, someone "invented" artificial flowers and got an A. Someone else "invented" a dowsing rod and got an A. Someone else else "invented" a high chair and got an A. I create something that actually doesn't already exist and I get a B. I think B is their favorite letter for me or something because no matter what I do and no matter how much better it looks compared to other projects, I always just get B's.

[ArcticChicken]

There is no such thing as a completely original idea. I say go for it and have fun.

[auntiem]

Before you added more info I was going to suggest a Firefly theme - with the bartenders wearing Jayne Cobb hats.
I like the 60's idea - but I was thinking more Mod / less hippie - a spin on a Clockwork Orange milk bar is what I was picturing.
They are currently running a Bar Rescue marathon today and I doubt there is a theme they haven't used yet.
For the longest time I've been threatening to open "The Flame" restaurant. Tons of flambe items on the menu (I'm a sucker for those carts that come around that do up Banana Foster and such), flaming drinks, mini Baked Alaska for dessert and drag queens for servers.
What about a Seven Deadly Sins theme? I once went to a bar that was in what used to be a church and they had drinks based on the sins - that is as far as they carried the theme, but I bet you could take off and run with it.

[auntiem]

Oh! I just thought of one I'll bet has never been done - a Ballet Bar!
You could totally have fun with the drink menu inventing new drinks.
You could play the scene from Turning Point where she dances in Swan Lake totally drunk (love that scene!) on the trivia machine's screens.
They just said on Bar Rescue that bars that make the most money attract women (if there are women - the men will come too).

[It's me]

why not a retro space theme? How about a steam punk space restaurant?

[ArcticChicken]

What about a Seven Deadly Sins theme?

My BF has (not seriously) floated the idea of a club based on Dante's Inferno, it would have 9 dance floors, each one themed as one of the layers of hell.

Oh! I just thought of one I'll bet has never been done - a Ballet Bar!

Or "Barre"

[ReadyToRetire]

Dunno about the practicallity or possibillity of this, but how about an optical illusion theme?
Tables or chairs may appear bigger/smaller, higher/lower or further away than they actually are.
Murals painted on walls to make it seem bigger than it is. Floors looking slanted and walls
appearing to be shorter/taller than they are. That kinda thing.

Although, it may be too mind-trippy for an eating establishment.

[dragon_wings]

Dunno about the practicallity or possibillity of this, but how about an optical illusion theme?
Tables or chairs may appear bigger/smaller, higher/lower or further away than they actually are.
Murals painted on walls to make it seem bigger than it is. Floors looking slanted and walls
appearing to be shorter/taller than they are. That kinda thing.

Although, it may be too mind-trippy for an eating establishment.

Maybe. But it would so kick ass as a dance club. ^_^

[auntiem]

Maybe. But it would so kick ass as a dance club. ^_^

I would so go if I still embibbed of specific fungus and/or itty bits of white paper.

[AnaKhouri]

What about a restaurant that looks like a cave? Or a jail restaurant where you're seated in a cell and they shove the food tray through a slot in the door? Or an Alice in Wonderland tea house?

[Kogarashi]

How about pirates vs. ninjas?

[42_42_42]

Lord of the Rings
Harry Potter
Game of Thrones
Stephen King
Vikings
Stargate
The Hanging Gardens of Babylon
Monopoly
The Game of Life
Ancient Rome/Greece/Egypt
Alice in Wonderland/Through the Looking Glass
a gross-out restaurant
a baby restaurant, where everyone sits in "high chairs" and wears bibs...
The Restaurant at the End of the Universe from the Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy books

[auntiem]

The Restaurant at the End of the Universe from the Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy books

Extra bonus point if you issue a towel to each person as they enter!