Restaurant Merch is the Only Merch You Should Buy
Cooking has a very special place in my heart. My parents forced me to learn to cook for myself once I was old enough to be at home alone. This led to me realizing I could use cooking as a means to impress women, and later realizing that I should stop trying to please women and instead cook because I enjoy doing it. I've learned about so many different cultures and people through cooking. I have so much respect for line cooks, chefs, servers, really the entire service industry. While I personally haven't spent much time on the service-side of the industry (except for a brief stint at an absurdly popular ice cream shop in Toronto that shall not be named), I have a dream of opening up my own restaurant to share my cooking and, more importantly, sell fire t-shirts.
A bartender once recognized this Pumpui longsleeve and told me my glass of natural wine was on the house.
These days, people will sell merchandise for anything and everything. The days of bands and sports teams monopolizing the ad space on the front of our t-shirts are long gone. Anyone who has some semblance of a brand has merch and, let's be honest, it all sucks. Instagram influencers are trying to sell tees, many bands have completely over-saturated their apparel, and YouTubers no longer get their money from views — it all comes from merch sales. People are really out here buying Ninja headbands. The only merch that doesn't suck anymore is restaurant merch.
Before a deeper dive into restaurant merch, we need to talk about the graphic tee. There are two main reasons why anyone wears a graphic tee:
You like the graphic on it; and/or
You’re a part of the fanbase the graphic represents.
Someone is wearing that one green Zelda tee that everyone who’s ever touched a controller owns? They probably like video games. What if you want to tell people you had Supreme’s Cherry on in the background while you were on your phone the whole time? Wear a Supreme “Box Logo” tee. Graphic tees are simply another form of self expression within the “world” of “fashion.” When it comes to cool graphic tees, there’s a spectrum. On one end, there’s the “Everyone and their mom recognizes this logo,” and on the other are the “If you know you know” graphics. In t-shirts, like most aspects of life, extremes are never a good thing. The ideal graphic tee lands on a happy medium and, surprise surprise, this is where we find restaurant merch striking the right balance.
Sam James Coffee Bar x Stüssy ~ If anyone is selling this tee in a men’s M, please DM me — this is a need, not a want.
Restaurant merch you ask? Why restaurants? First off, everyone has a favourite dish they’re weirdly passionate about. This can simply be a plate of chicken tenders or some six course tasting menu that was only available for one night. Second, city boys are very passionate about representing their city. While something like a sports team jersey can do this, you can never be certain of whether someone is really from Oakland or they just started watching the NBA in 2016. Restaurant merch lets people know you love this type of food AND you really know your city. It’s the perfect way to tell people “yeah I’m cultured.” Don’t be mistaken though, good restaurant merch is not limited to restaurants in big cities, the best food (and t-shirts) are often found in the smallest and most unexpected places.