It’s like being inside a pink suntan, the new Malibu Barbie Café at Area15, where a conclave of pinks — blush, bubblegum, watermelon, fuchsia, hot — keeps company with yellow sunbursts and orange palm trees and a clever arrangement of spots conjuring a beachy glow. The weather forecast: balmy, breezy, with a chance of cupcakes.
Mattel Inc., the maker of Barbie, and Bucket Listers, a provider of pop culture experiences, collaborated on the pop-up restaurant, which runs through March 21 in the Illuminarium building at Area15. The pop-up, in the space that previously housed Lumin Café & Kitchen, harnesses that blowin’-in-from-Zuma vibe of Malibu Barbie, who debuted in 1971 as a brand extension of the original Barbie.
The Vegas debut follows the launch of eight other cafés across the U.S. and Melbourne, Australia. “Out of the nine locations we’ve built, this is the best one yet,” said Derek Berry, president of experience for Bucket Listers. “There’s another level of art direction here because Vegas has seen it all.”
Design details
The cost for the café ran into the six figures, Berry said. The pop-up is split into two sections.
In the dining room, a timeline of the Barbie Brand leads to a bakery case, bar and counter that stretches much of the room. Above the bar, there are glimmering pink disco balls and scaffolding hung with Barbie surfboards and with an image of a “Fun in the Sun” classic Volkswagen Bus.
Rows of hot pink life preservers garnish one wall. Just beyond lies a case with Malibu Barbie figures from 1971. An adjacent photo opportunity showcases a pink and orange tropical mural embedded with hot pink flip-flops, a hot pink Boogie Board, a yellow boom box, a rolled beach towel and roller skates in robin’s egg blue. Another photo opportunity showcases a giant boom box; “Stay Groovy” a painted banner urges.
The dining room seats about 120, with potted plants on white tables and potted ferns arranged here and there and potted trees rising to a pergola.
Real food, not kitsch
Becky Brown, a Los Angeles chef and culinary consultant, created the menu for the café. She was a natural fit.
“I had already done “Harry Potter,” “Bridgerton,” “Game of Thrones,” all these highly thematic pop-ups,” Brown said. “I thought this sounded really amazing, really fun.”
At the same time, the chef said she wanted to do real food, not a bunch of items made with pink food coloring. “I didn’t want to make anything too kitschy,” she said. “I wanted it to be quirky and fun but also taste good.”
What does that look like? Spinach artichoke dip. Pink hummus, yes, but tinted with beet juice, not artificial coloring. Avocado toast topped with arugula, toasted sesame and, for a twist, a sunnyside egg. Brown’s take on a wedge salad dressed with green goddess, a 1970s standard. A melty triple-threat grilled cheese with white cheddar, Gouda and Gruyère. A double smash burger on brioche with classic fixings.
Design-your-own cupcakes arrive in a pink boat. Ice cream floats roll up in a pink Corvette, a glass of ice cream in one seat, a bottle of soda waiting to be poured in another.
The café also has a full bar offering beer, wine, mocktails and cocktails, including a Think Pink Margarita, a Beach Cosmo and a Cali Colada.
The rink and the beach
The second half of the pop-up lies across the Illuminarium entry hall, with a Barbie merchandise store, a roller rink with walls striped in pink and blue, a swing (for more photos), and a sandy beach scene with Adirondack chairs and a white lifeguard stand, the largest photo opportunity at the café.
Tickets to the pop-up are $25 from malibubarbiecafe.com, with $10 applied to food and beverage spend and $5 to merchandise purchases. Roller skating begins at $1 for about 10 minutes. Berry, the Bucket Listers executive, estimated a family would spend about 90 minutes at the pop-up sitting down for a meal, taking photos and having a quick skate.
“We want to do an experience that locals will want to go to and tourists will want to go to and have that happy medium,” he said. “We want to offer a hybrid of fun dining and fun stuff to do.”
Contact Johnathan L. Wright at [email protected]. Follow @JLWTaste on Instagram.