Restaurant Turns Into McDowell’s From Coming To America For Halloween

Paramount Pictures

Halloween saw some pretty amazing, creative, outlandish and controversial costumes this year.

Guaranteed, no matter what you double-tapped on Instagram, nothing will beat this restaurant’s disguise.

Fat Sal’s Deli was dressed up as a McDowell’s – the chain which made an appearance in Eddie Murphy’s 1988 cult classic, Coming To America.

In the name of nostalgia, here’s Prince Akeem himself Coming To America:

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Now, for Halloween, Hollywood has payed homage to Prince Akeem and his cohort, from the fake African nation of Zamunda – by honouring the place where the pair found employment on the mean streets of New York: McDowell’s fast food restaurant.

The mock restaurant owner, Cleo McDowell, explains in the film:

Me and the McDonald’s people, we have this little misunderstanding.

See they’re McDonald’s. I’m McDowell’s. They got the golden arches. Mine is the golden arcs.

For the occasion, Big Sal’s staff got dressed up in McDowell’s plaid uniforms and changed their menu and invited customers to come dressed up as their favourite Coming To America characters.

The details were shared on social media:

One guy pulled out all the stops and came dressed as the King of Zamunda, who was played by James Earl Jones in the movie.

No expense spared, he even donned a fake leopard skin:

Even Shari Headley, who played Lisa McDowell in the film, showed up to the mock McDowell’s.

The icon dressed as herself to celebrate the pagan annual festival:

There were some great fourth-wall-breaking moments.

She even snapped photos with the mock McDowell’s staff:

Customers could even order the restaurant’s specials, on this spooky day.

Fat Sal’s were serving up the Sexual Chocolate Shake, Zamunda Fries and the Big Mick:

People were queuing around the block at Fal Sal’s Deli, based in LA, to get a taste of Zamunda and film history.

The iconic Chicago hot dog spot, the Wiener’s Circle, got a Coming to America-themed makeover for Halloween too.

The film, with a solid 69 per cent on Rotten Tomatoes, has become a cult classic thanks to its tongue-in-cheek sense of humour, the occassional slapstick scene and moralising tale.

The Hollywood rumour mill is churning out whispers Eddie Murphy will be returning to his prime and is reportedly working on a Coming to America sequel.

Sources close to Murphy claim the actor-cum-comedian is writing a script which will see the African Prince, Akeem Joffer, come back to America.

A mysterious tweet was sent out – and quickly deleted – from Eddie’s official account, depicting Prince Akeem’s infection-free Queen-to-be in a still from the 1990s movie.

It was Coming To America‘s off-the-wall bizarre comedic styling which helped gross nearly $300 million dollars, despite little press before its release.

The tweet sent from Murphy’s official account was simply captioned, ‘Coming to America sequel?’

Paramount Pictures

Since the sequel has been confirmed, Jonathan Levine, the director of Warm Bodies and 50/50 is set to direct, while Black-ish creator Kenya Barris is on board to write the script.

Kevin Misher will be producing the follow up and he’s also believed to be starring in the movie too.

As for Eddie, we’ll have to wait and see.

Watch this space.

Francesca Donovan

A former emo kid who talks too much about 8Chan meme culture, the Kardashian Klan, and how her smartphone is probably killing her. Francesca is a Cardiff University Journalism Masters grad who has done words for BBC, ELLE, The Debrief, DAZED, an art magazine you’ve never heard of and a feminist zine which never went to print.