Directly from the “Why didn’t WE think of this First!?!?!?!?” file:
Time flies. Can you believe that is has been almost two years since the finale of Breaking Bad? Guess what? The end of the show has not stopped addicts of the meth-centric show from seeking out more of those thrilling Heisenberg highs.
Breaking Bad has created a fan culture that still resonates, from Better Call Saul, the arguably great spinoff about Walter White’s reluctant lawyer, to the range of odd memorials around Albuquerque, Walter White lives on. Yes, there are the Albuquerque RV location tours, the fun “meth-sprinkled” donuts and a self-guided pizza toss at the White family home. Full disclosure: The last one isn’t a real tour. Warning — the real residents are not at all happy about it.
In our wonderfully warped culture, a show is about a psychotic, manipulative monster who peddles destructive street drugs, somehow makes sense that it gets the Star treatment. Stranger still is a new pop-up bar 5,000 miles away in East London that allows you to “cook” your own BB-themed cocktails in—what else?—an RV.
Yes, why is this not humming along the streets of LA right now???
Well, read on…
For $35 per person, the folks at ABQ offer you an invitation to make two “chemically pure and stable” cocktails inside the RV. Of course ABQ stands for Albuquerque, in New Mexico, where the popular TV series was set — that’s the airport symbol.
In the interest of verisimilitude, the interior is crammed full of scientific glassware, dry ice and an ominous HEISENBERG scrawled on the wood paneling. Hazmat-suited staff walk you through your cook, and there’s even a scowling White look-alike for your selfie needs. Need a souvenir? There’s a small gift shop where you can buy meth candy or a creepy recreation of the plane crash teddy bear.
Is this whole enterprise brilliant, terrible or just dumb? In a word: Absolutely! It is a HUGE hit.
The brains behind the pop-up, seems to have a knack for combining delightfully questionable judgment with a classic P.T. Barnum-esque understanding of viral marketing. Case in point: This group’s last effort, a bar filled with live owls, Annie the Owl, received nearly 80,000 participant applications and a Change.org petition against it with more than 30,000 names. Yes, when you can rile up 30,000 petition signers to protest your idea…that strongly drives an opposing group to support you…like science — an equal and opposite force, with money in hand.
So far, more than 45,000 people have signed up for the ABQ experience. If you’re looking to buy tickets that are sold out on ABQ’s site or are want to sell or exchange tickets for dates you can no longer make, visit the Facebook ticket exchange. Or just show up and politely but firmly remind them who’s the one who knocks.
Now, back to the show: ABQ, the RV trailer revamped as a cocktail-making lab in the style of the hit Netflix series Breaking Bad, is to become a permanent fixture in London as a pop up entity.
The bar offers an ultimate Breaking Bad experience, with the chance to ‘cook’ a range of cocktails from a manual – not a menu – all while wearing an official Walter White meth-making suit. An ultimate cool experience!
The regularly sold-out Shoreditch pop-up is to become a permanent bar later this year, says founder Sebastian Lyall, although he is still looking for investors to back the plans.
A new drink is also being cooked in the lab – Fly is a ‘molecular twist on a bramble’, using apple-infused gin and cranberry caviar instead of grenadine.
All in all, there are a lot of things inside the RV which are inspired by New Mexico, invoking the
story behind the transformation of a very simple, humble man into a monster.
Heading to London soon? The trailer is currently located behind the Ace Hotel in Shoreditch until it sets off for a road trip to Paris in May, before returning to the capital as a permanent fixture.
Again — why do we not have a fleet of these here???
It may be in London, but the concept and the show is American. Thus, American Bars salutes them!
