It’s a Mad, Mad World at Mad Rex
A look at what went into the making of the world's first post-Apocalypse restaurant.
This past fall, a team of entrepreneurs with an appetite for — shall we call it “razzle-dazzle”? — opened Mad Rex, a multimillion-dollar “Restaurant Entertainment Xperience” in Fishtown, across from Sugarhouse Casino. It’s kind of like a Hard Rock Cafe but with an after-Kim-Jung-Un-does-us-in theme. Death and decay? It doesn’t come cheap, so here’s some of what went into the making of the world’s first post-Apocalypse restaurant.
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Photograph courtesy of Society Hill Films
Creepy mannequins
Assembled by four different artists based in Russia, Poland and the U.S. at a cost of $4,000 apiece. (There are 15 of them.)
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Photograph courtesy of Ted Nghiem
Armory wall art
Some weapons were made from scrap metal and junkyard bric-a-brac; those came out to about $100 each. The model AK-47? Upwards of $1,300.
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Photograph courtesy of Ted Nghiem
Helicopter
Shipped in from a Florida salvage yard for $3,000. Made pretty by local graffiti artist Alloyius Mcilwaine, who also painted the airplane chassis (see below).
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Photograph courtesy of Ted Nghiem
IV cocktails
How to booze when you’ve got giant VR goggles strapped to your face? The staff sets you up with an alcoholic “IV drip” — meaning you pick your poison and slurp it through a tube.
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Photograph courtesy of Kory Aversa
Lava rocks
For cooking your own steak. Brought to your table at 500° after heating in one of the two $15,000 specialty ovens. The menu has elevated pub fare, and it’s better than you think.
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Photograph courtesy of Kory Aversa
Custom decor
Hand-torching the tables for a post-apocalyptic effect cost more than $5,000. These light-up skull lamps? $450 each.
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Photograph courtesy of Ted Nghiem
Airplane chassis
Purchased on eBay for $3,000, plus whatever it cost to crash-land it through the restaurant’s ceiling.
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Photograph courtesy of Society Hill Films
Battle truck
The life-size underlit war truck ($7,500) that sits on the sidewalk transforms into a full-blown DJ booth during events.
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Photograph courtesy of Ted Nghiem
VR room
The gaming equipment came to around $100,000, and the room is outfitted with leather chairs, personal lockers and a vintage rug.
Published as “It’s a Mad, Mad World” in the December 2017 issue of Philadelphia magazine.