[Spotted via swissmiss]

“Norguet’s interiors are mature, with splashes of colors applied at intervals of white walls, substantial materials such as plywood cabinets and carefully-chosen upholstery, and even digital screens from which to place your order,” writes Samuel Medina at Architizer. “Enclaves of familial privacy are created by means of full-height walls and circular booths, so that families may sit together enjoying their meal.” He also points out that since customers are spending more for their meal in France (around $9), they tend to want to take their time while they eat. Click through to check out some photos from the first store in Norguet’s series, and let us know if these swankier interiors would entice you to linger over Le Big Mac there.

[via Curbed]

Pictures from last week’s Coachella Music and Arts Festival found their way back to civilization and the web has enjoyed gawking at the fanny-packed attendees and guessing what Vanessa Hudgens was spotted licking off of her fingers. Thanks to The Creators Project, more than 1200 glowing balloons fell from above during Arcade Fire’s performance, absolutely blowing this dude’s mind.

Portal 2, the sequel to the award winning teleportation-puzzle game from Valve Corp was released Tuesday after four years of development. We’d hate to give away too much in spoilers, but TIME gave it their first perfect 10, and at least one college professor postponed a lecture due to so many students calling in sick.

HBO’s new series Game of Thrones premiered Sunday to mixed reviews. The New York Times‘ Ginia Bellafante called the show something that “no woman alive would ever watch,” raising the ire of many a medieval fantasy drama geek girl. Adweek praised marketing agency Campfire for building up pre-show buzz with their well executed online puzzle game hooking the hardcore fans. After it premiered to 2.2 million viewers on its first night, HBO immediately renewed the show for a second season.

Prop comic and living spectacle Carrot Top straightened his famous ginger curls for the cover of Las Vegas Magazine. The image gained tens of thousands of views across various entertainment sites, the likes of Gothamist, The Superficial, and Pink Is The New Blog.

A really excellently video of what appeared to be an it’s a hoax.

The must-see cute animal video of the week is Cookie, the ticklish baby penguin at the Cincinnati Zoo. Uploaded over a year ago, the video laid dormant until being discovered by Reddit on the 15th, accruing 2 million views in the past seven days.

This resume from a slacker with a sense of humor turned up at a restaurant in the UK recently, before becoming one of the week’s most shared images. Although some speculate that Eric is avoiding employment to stay on welfare, others commend the aromatic Mario Kart expert for his unrelenting honesty and entertainment value.

And lastly, BuzzFeed’s own Gavon Laessig curated a list of 45 McDonald’s Items Not Available In the US, making many of us wish we could get a McKroket and McBeer for lunch.

[via BuzzFeed]

Nearly everything. From sub-par craftsmanship and disastrous safety ratings to gross corporate mismanagement and Cold War distrust, the Yugo is remembered best today not for its brief success but for its dismal failure. But if the Yugo was a lemon, Jason Vuic’s surprising page-turner is the lemonade: even though we know how it’s going to end (watch out for the iceberg, Yugo!), we’re held rapt by Vuic’s careful reconstruction of the peculiar history of a terrible idea.

Meticulously researched (the endnotes top fifty pages), The Yugo: The Rise and Fall of the Worst Car in History is the biography of the Yugoslavian import from its birth to its death — and the brief period of fame in between. On Vuic’s ride, we meet enterprising automotive entrepreneurs who plucked the car from communist bloc obscurity and imported it to the United States, Yugoslav factory workers who struggled to keep up with the demand for the suddenly hot product, and everyone from enthusiastic owners who believed wholeheartedly in the $3990 car to comedians who made it the butt of their jokes. The Yugo was sold in America for only six years (from 1985 until 1991), but it made a lasting impression on popular culture. Vuic’s book, in the end, more than does the boxy hatchback justice: it’s a fascinating look at the car business, consumer preferences, Cold War politics, fads, and failure.

The Yugo, though one of the most famous, is not the only sensational commercial disaster of the recent past. In the spirit of the little car that couldn’t, we’ve assembled a list of five other doomed creations. But what will be the fantastic failures of tomorrow? The iPad? YouTube movie rentals? Tell us in the comments.

As Mike Albo points out in a column for the Daily Beast, fast food (despite a slight dip in sales from several years ago) ain’t going away any time soon: “Unless the world suddenly turns its golf courses into organic farms, there will be a greater demand for fast food at prices that income-challenged citizens can enjoy in the urban sprawl while they try to afford health insurance.”

Albo visits Manhattan’s newest Mickey D’s outpost, a space remade as “McCafé” in an effort to add an urbane, European edge to its famous dollar menu. Cappuccino drinkers lounge in “spruced up” dining rooms, complete with brightly painted walls, minimal decor, and knockoff design-y seating. In a similar move, Burger King deployed a franchise-wide redesign last fall (60 so far, all 12,000 branches in the coming months), a concept called 20/20 that includes “LCD menu screens, corrugated metal and brick walls, a rotating flame chandelier in the dining area, as well as an exterior that emphasizes the Home of the Whopper tagline.”

Blimpie, the slightly-more-terrible-but-not-by-much sandwich shop cousin to Subway is hopping on the renovation train too, following a logo relook from early 2009 that had many wondering what their branding experts could have been smoking. Incorporating “Mid Century Modern design cues taken from Charles and Ray Eames works,” the stores will factor in a “subtle color palette, light-stained tables and chairs with splashes of bright-colored hues throughout…. Natural design elements, such as steel and wood, are integrated into the intrinsic nature of the design itself.” Sounds revolutionary.

We have to wonder if all this image-scrubbing and lily-gilding is targeted toward the current customer, or a projected market. HuffPo reports that fast-food restaurants “typically get almost two-thirds of their business from drive-through or carryout orders.” If the Blimpie’s, McDonald’s, and Burger Kings of the world can convert some of its transitory traffic into eat-in customers, then boom, the ambiance trick will have worked. As Albo puts it: “Eating our meat paddies [sic] and McFlurries on reproductions of Jacobsen chairs signifies the final and complete digestion of midcentury modern decor into everyday American life.”

Of course, it’s always a gamble to try and brainwash the consumer, 15th Avenue Coffee and Tea — née Starbucks — being one example. The renovated coffeehouse, one of the original in the ‘bucks empire which started in Seattle in 1971, will serve wine and beer in addition to coffee to better serve its yuppified customer, a busy consumer who needs a “third location” between work and home to manage calendars, update blogs, go on blind dates, and decompress after a long day.

Will the face of fast food change without overhauling the menus? We’re not sure. But judging from the looks of a recent project by Access Agency, we’d wager to guess the next step is in the packaging:

What do you think? Will a revamped atmosphere make you more likely to indulge in fast food? Or does it matter?