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Hospital fetish restaurant in Latvia

Cory Doctorow at 6:57 am Sun, Jan 25, 2009

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Marilyn points us to Hospitalis in Riga, Latvia, a hospital themed restaurant where, "the food is served in syringes, flasks and operating-room dishes, and customers can be tied up in straight jackets." The waitresses all wear fetish-nurse outfits and Milla-Jovavich-in-Fifth-Element red wigs:

The food is served in flasks and operating-room’s dishes and isn’t that cheap (7 and more lats per meal), but this is a bizarre experience that is worth breaking the bank. Besides, the place is owned by local doctors, but unfortunately, the president of Latvia, who is also a doctor, declined his appearance at the opening once he realized how weird this place actually is.
Hospirestaurant - Hospital Themed Restaurant in Latvia (Thanks, Marilyn!

I write books. My latest is a YA science fiction novel called Homeland (it's the sequel to Little Brother). More books: Rapture of the Nerds (a novel, with Charlie Stross); With a Little Help (short stories); and The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (novella and nonfic). I speak all over the place and I tweet and tumble, too.

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  • Takuan

    no need to get personal

  • Drowse

    anyone else think these two ‘nurses’ look like they could be straight out of Little Britain?

  • jahknow

    “I want you to relax… and breathe deeply. Breathe deeply. – I like this song. – Of course you do. Welcome to your relaxation time….”

  • Ugly Canuck

    Palilay: Riots in Lithuania; Estonia, not yet. I used to hang out with a Latvian. easy to get these tiny Baltic states mixed up.
    Wasn’t Lenin born in Riga, Latvia?
    PS Also hear old Riga town is worth seeing.

  • Michael

    JJasper: HAHAHA!

  • Jack

    @4 POSTED BY FEE:
    True enough, but the issue of style over substance in restaurants extends past novelty restaurants like this. Even some “great” restaurants in NYC are merely circus sideshows to different degrees. Heck, any local Irish “pub” that’s not in a deeply Irish neighborhood is a sham.

    So heck, this is cool. But the red wigs are asinine. Maybe just wigs if they want to keep even bangs on all of the waitresses, but nothing wreaks of bad sorority party or a bachelorette “wigging out” than uniformly bright/colored wigs.

  • Clay

    This looks a lot more inviting than the “medical prison” themed Alcatraz ER in Japan.

    Although the proprietor of that place seems like a truly awesome dude.

  • Anonymous

    This restaurant owners are two famous latvian doctors, it’s not latvian humor, but doctors black humor IMHO.

    And restaurant is really nice – bright rooms, nice smell of food, and tasy meals.

  • chasie

    That “nurse” on the right seems kinda manly to me.

  • Patrick Dodds

    That pizzacake thing on the right looks weird and unpleasant, the waitress less so – I love the touch provided by the glasses.

  • Karnuvap

    I thought of a restaurant catering to would-be cannibals.
    Chicken or pork (because that’s what we taste like, apparently) is skilfully re-shaped (by redundant or trainee plastic surgeons) into human hand or foot or shaped pieces before cooking and serving.

    I wouldn’t eat there because I’m not mad.

  • Patrick Dodds

    Dang – meant on the left…

  • EeyoreX

    I hope the next step is a restaurant-themed hospital. Where all the doctors wear chef’s whites.

  • Bazilisk

    Those are not Fifth Element wigs. Those are NURSE JENNY f(Pokemon) wigs. God, people, get with your 90′s kids anime references here!

    At least I could see the nurse Jenny wigs spreading from pokemon to anime cosplay to fetish cosplay to…nurse costumes.

  • Bazilisk

    ‘scuse me I mean Nurse Joy. Pokemon knowledge a little rusty, it being 10 years ago, when I was 10.

  • noen

    “That “nurse” on the right seems kinda manly to me.”

    I thought that too but I believe I’m wrong. It’s an illusion caused by the fact that they are in drag. They look like they belong in Lazy Town.

  • Clayton Hove

    Instant flashback to being a kid in the hospital and the dreaded approaching sound and smell of the metal food box push card thingie. In particular, those awful sterilized instant potatoes had an unnatural air about them that terrify me to this day.

    I’ll much rather take the Olivia De Berardinis interpretation of a nurse over this.

  • consideredopinion

    I seem to recall this restaurant theme already being deployed in Taiwan or Singapore somewhere.

  • Takuan

    http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=EcKORO8S6m8

  • MPC

    This is great there should be more theme restaurants like this in North America. There is the Medieval Times with franchises in most of North America and if I recall they are quite successful. There is also a Pirate Times I believe is under development.

  • Daemon

    It’s a cosplay cafe, just in latvia instead of japan…

  • Takuan

    how about a slaughterhouse theme where they herd you through a maze and then feed you in pens? I won’t tell you how the check arrives.

  • Drabula

    Riga is a great city AND it has the most beautiful women per sq km I’ve ever seen in my life. I’ll definitely check it out next time I go back.

  • Hiroshi Taniguchi

    Do you suppose they keep a decent track system for all those lovely snacks that they serve? I am told that hospitals are very focused on tracking of bacteria and other less pleasant realities of human interactions. It does look very promising.

  • jjasper

    Is Latvian Women’s Wrestling and Food Service Olympic Team. Is merging departments due to economy.

  • 850

    http://www.heartattackgrill.com/photos.html

  • Quiet Noises

    #21, neighboring Estonia does have a Soviet theme park, it can’t be much different…

    Hopefully this’ll give my friends something else to talk about than Tequila Boom. It seems like the only place any goes to party in Riga is this tequila bar where they serve up meter sticks of tekiils, and the way it’s talked about, you’d think it’s the only place to drink in the whole city.

  • Marcel

    #Takuan:

    I think you’ve just might have found new business opportunities for Blackwater U.S.A. after the withdrawal.

    Would make an interesting menu!

  • TJ S

    Sorry, the whole idea of eating in a hospital is ruined for me (as is the sexy nurse).
    Having a wife, mother-in-law, and mother as nurses ruins the allure.

  • maestro_wu

    #CONSIDEREDOPINION:

    Yes, there are hospital/nurse/medical themed bars in _both_ Singapore and Taiwan. :)

    I’ve been to the one in Taiwan a few times (which calls itself “DS Music Party”, oddly). It’s great for a laugh, and the staff, er, nurses all seem to be in on the camp feel. Beers are served from IV-like containers, the bathroom is labeled “Emergency Room”, the kitchen is the “Pharmacy”, and so on.

    The one in Singapore seemed a horrible, loud, glass-and-steel place, with the hospital theme being done seriously, so I passed on that one.

  • EH

    Where’s Damien Hirst?

  • pelrun

    What’s next, Chicken Chasseur in a stool bucket? *shudder*

  • help i cant comfirm my username themelonbread

    Has no one here seen that No Reservations episode in Singapore? There’s a restaurant called Aurum where diners eat on operating room tables with their cutlery in the shelves, and sit on wheelchairs.

    http://www.visitsingapore.com/publish/stbportal/en/home/about_singapore/highlights/index/to_do/aurum.html

    http://food.recentrunes.com/?p=1617

    http://www.timeoutsingapore.com/restaurants/Modern/aurum

    http://www.reuters.com/article/gc08/idUSL2153100020070323

  • Bathblogger

    For 219 pounds you can go from London to Latvia. Spend a couple of pounds on the food and get back on the same day. Isn’t it a great plan?
    Latvian rules!

  • imipak

    http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=7_dx9i9t_E8

    * remembers Dave Lister serving up a feast using kidney bowls, sample bottles, scalpels for knives… doesn’t seem to be on yt though.

  • Anonymous

    Looks like a “Little Britain – USA” sketch. Think I would prefer going to “Heart Attack Grill”

  • Lord Xenu

    Well, nothing says “Great Food and Atmosphere” like a hospital, so this kind of makes sense.

    • Antinous / Moderator

      When I worked in the hospital, emesis basins were the dinner plate of choice, with a graduated cylinder for one’s beverage.

  • gretagretchen

    Hmmm looks like a great place for kink.com to shoot

  • TheChickenAndTheRice

    That explains why I’ve never been to Latvia – it’s a cheesy theme park!

  • Palilay

    This is cool..

    If people are curious about Latvia they should google the riots in Latvia and Estonia, and the generally deteriorating situation in the Baltic states due to Russian influence.

    If the Russians get their way stories like these will be few and far between – it will be like the dark ages of Russian occupation again.

  • Takuan

    I’ll bet that bathroom gets used quickly.

  • Fee

    Although I am generally in favour of anything to combat the cloned food outlet plague on our streets, with Starbucks and McDonald’s on every corner, it would be great if an imaginative restaurant included edible food, too.

  • Gilbert Wham

    Eep! Restaurant based on the level designs for F.E.A.R. more like.No likee.

  • GuidoDavid

    Helloooooooo, Nurse!

  • earbox

    Apparently 7 lats is about 13 bucks American. That’s not bad for a meal.

  • Maxi Malone

    President of Latvia, who declined to appear, must have thought: Sounded good at the time.

    May Your Glass Always Be Half Full

  • noen

    I hope you autoclaved those damn things first. But I suppose people can get used to anything. Except for pathology, I could never get used to the smells coming from there.

  • jjasper

    Don’t order the steak and kidney pie. Last guy who did woke up in a bathtub full of ice.