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Leave it to my childhood homegirl Hello Kitty to throw a birthday party of epic proportions.She's 35 this year folks, and instead of spending a low-profile, quiet evening at home like I did on my 35th birthday, she's going all out with a three-week-long birthday party at Royal/T Café called "Three Apples: An Exhibition Celebrating 35 Years Of Hello Kitty" in which she celebrates 35 years of being cute, fabulous, a style and pop culture icon, and most of all, a good friend to all us girls whose childhood and adolescent years were defined by orange-scented erasers, stamp sets, stationery, and plush toys all bearing none other than Ms. Kitty herself.
Yes, Royal/T's café still had its normal cosplay cafe menu of coffee, tea, sandwiches and snacks, and its waitresses dressed up in those ridiculously cute brown and white maid uniforms, but for this special occasion, they stepped it up a notch with a special Hello Kitty themed menu. I just had to have the Hello Kitty's Kawaii High Tea which included a pot of tea, two tramezzini complete with Hello Kitty grill marks, smoked salmon and spicy tuna canapé, a couple of mini cupcakes donning (*eek*) Hello Kitty rings, a mini brownie and green tea cake, and topped with my favorite...a Hello Kitty sugar cookie! It wasn't exactly a bargain at $25, and not haute cuisine by any means, but so worth all the girly giggles it gave me. Individual Hello Kitty themed food items such as the tramezzini and Hello Kitty shaped pancakes and waffles are also available and just as kawaii.
My husband wanted to order something more manly--as in a burger off the café's normal menu--but he still ate off my tea set. He was too embarrassed to show his face eating the cutesy sandwiches.
Nor did he find it amusing when I asked him to try on one of my Hello Kitty rings.
After we ate, it was time to celebrate some more by exploring the Hello Kitty art and artifacts exhibits at Royal/T. Everything was so freaking adorable that I OD'ed on all the cuteness, died and went to Hello Kitty heaven.All the artwork was absofreakinglutely insane, and ranged from morbid to fabulous (a la Lady Gaga)
And I wished I could take all the Hello Kitty stuff displayed throughout the gallery home with me.
Look, they even have a Hello Kitty apartment! Every girl needs one of these!
But my absolute favorite part of the exhibition was seeing a ton of vintage Hello Kitty merchandise from the 70's and 80's that I either used to own or remember seeing as a kid. Those were the good old days.
Happy 35th Birthday to my old friend. You haven't aged one bit, and are still as cute as ever. Thanks for all the good times and good memories, and here's to many more happy years to come. Peace and love!
Three Apples is running daily from 10 am to 10 pm at Royal/T Café until November 15th. Please visit my SmugMug album for more photos of my visit to Three Apples!Three Apples: An Exhibition Celebrating 35 Years of Hello Kitty
(at Royal/T Café)
8910 Washington Blvd
Culver City, CA 90232
(310) 559-6300
www.royal-t.org
www.sanrio.com/threeapples
