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It all started last year, with the video of the lady who lost it at a coffee shop worker in Melbourne, Australia. She blew up and said, "I want to see the manager." That classic line was amplified, and this "Karen" incident went viral.
When my business partner and I saw that, we got the idea to create a fun dining experience that would embody the "Karen" persona: a place for rude hospitality.
We wanted it to be an anti-TGI Fridays. Instead of happy-go-lucky wait staff who come out with a little tambourine, wish you happy birthday and give you service with a smile, we wanted wait staff who would flip you the bird, throw menus at you, take a call while taking your order, or make you clean your own table. And that's how Karen's Diner was born.
We chose the name because the diner embodies the "Karen" meme. The wait staff are self-entitled "Karens," but this opens the door so customers can also be "a Karen," without judgment.
We created a pop-up in Sydney, where I live, at the start of October, 2021, and within four months we created our first restaurant. We have expanded quickly and now have 15 restaurants across America, Australia, New Zealand and the UK.
Our staff are from a solid pool of actors and hospitality staff. It's quite common for actors to wait tables, and that works in our favor. But we also get a lot of hospitality staff who are sick of the years of being on the receiving end of "Karens," so they want to come and be paid to say what they think—to some degree, although we obviously have boundaries and rules.
It's a common misconception, but we're not a place where you come and get abused, or where you abuse staff. It's about getting that level right of humor and banter; it's not about people feeling belittled. I feel we have enough training and policies in place that can really mitigate that.
We want to create a fun, safe space, and make it for everybody. Racism, sexism and homophobia will all not be tolerated, as we make clear when people book on our website, or enter our restaurant.
We've had some amazing people that have come through our doors that have had disabilities, like Tourettes, and they've felt so incredibly comfortable at Karen's because they can have a joke with people and it's OK. They still get the same level of banter as everybody else and nobody feels obliged to tread lightly, as they might do in other social situations. Usually their carer or their family member says, "Hey, can you be extra mean to them" because they love it. We've even had requests to come deliver Karen's experiences in hospices in the UK.
There have been one or two incidents where people have complained because they were offended. It definitely goes against what we want to deliver as a brand, and we have dealt with those people respectively. But I'm talking about maybe two incidents of people who have come forward, out of over 300,000 people we've had through the door.
In general, customers can take the joke. Sometimes they banter back, and stick their middle finger up at the staff. But, to be honest, most people come in wanting to be on the receiving end. I think they like to play along and find the whole thing funny.
Our staff get tipped really well—which is unusual for Australia, where it's pretty alien to tip after a meal. But I think because customers are getting a dining experience, they feel obliged to give something to the person who's performing a role.
We've added lots of fun extra things to Karen's, so it's a whole immersive dining experience—not just an interaction with a sassy, rude waiter. There's a whole load of games and activities that happen throughout your meal.
There's Karen's Wheel of Misfortune, where each table is invited up to spin the wheel, and there are various socially awkward challenges on there, like having to sing a song to the diner, take part in a dance-off, sit on another table for 10 minutes, buy your table a round of drinks, or even leave the diner and never come back.
We have a fashion parade, too, where we judge the least well-dressed in the diner, and a trivia test to see who has the lowest IQ. These games bring the room together. We want people to leave thinking it was a really fun, silly, stupid dining experience with good food.
As we've grown, we've also added events like Karen's Bingo nights, comedy nights, and Karen-oke. Nobody takes themselves too seriously, and that's what the venue champions.
The diner has created a lot of viral content on TikTok, which has brought in a lot of the Gen Z demographic—but a lot of them bring in their parents. There have been trends where people have brought in unsuspecting parents or grandparents and filmed the results. But we also have companies that want to come down and embarrass their bosses or work colleagues.
I'm sure there are a few disgruntled people out there called Karen who disapprove of our business. But regardless of us or not, the "Karen" meme is out there. On the whole, we get the Karens with a sense of humor who come in—and if you're named Karen, you get a free drink. They tend to love the fact that we're making a tongue-in-cheek play on the meme, making light of something that is already out there. I would argue that we champion "the Karen."
People can relate to "Karens" because everyone, at some point, has probably been one. I've done it on the phone to call centers where I've been pissed off about internet issues. While there are definitely some people in society who are worse than others, everybody is guilty of some form of Karen-isms.
I think the term "Karen" will be an ever-present idiom that people refer to—like how "OK, Boomer," has become a phrase. Karen has stuck. I would not be surprised if the dictionary had to stick something in and update its definition at some point.
We're looking to franchise the Karen's Diner brand, and we're getting franchise requests from everywhere from Sao Paulo to Delhi, to Bangkok. I think every single culture has "a Karen," and it's something that has really resonated with people. We want to see a Karen's Diner in every country, every city. There's no reason why we can't be a staple product, insulting people across the globe.
Aden Levin is the Director of Viral Ventures, which includes Karen's Diner as one of its immersive events.
All views expressed in this article are the author's own.
As told to Katie Russell.
