"Why does that mushroom sound like Strong Bad?"

August 26, 2022 2:41 PM

How long has it been since we had a Flash Friday?
The Mellow Mushroom is a chain of pizza restaurants based and primarily set in the U.S. state of Georgia. What else is owned and operated in Georgia? Homestar Runner! Back in 2001 these two semiagrarian planets shared an orbit for a time: the Brothers Chaps made a website for Mellow Mushroom that will look and sound very familiar to fans of Strong Bad and friends. The site changed design in 2007, but the Chaps' version is still hosted on the company's website, and although Flash is dead, if you install the Ruffle browser extension you can see the site largely as it existed back when it was active. More information is on the Homestar Runner Wiki.

I never lack for excuses to link to Homestar Runner and associated associates. And hey why not remind people that Ruffle exists! I've eaten at a Mellow Mushroom before, they're not bad, the one I went to had this big cartoon mural with many of these characters on it. They moved out of that place though and now it's a sports bar, yuck.

posted by JHarris (25 comments total)

Just hoping the Poopsmith never worked there.
posted by Abehammerb Lincoln at 3:12 PM on August 26, 2022 [5 favorites]

Not a Homestar fan, but I recall a few pleasant meals at the Mellow Mushroom in downtown Asheville NC about 20 years ago. The walls were covered in a heavily Grateful Dead-influenced style. They had good pizza and hoagies, and local beers on tap.
posted by Greg_Ace at 3:24 PM on August 26, 2022 [3 favorites]

The Poopsmith is more likely to have picked up a shift at the Pizz. Somebody's gotta make that money.

The Mellow Mushroom is good, although it's not my preferred pizza style. I am generally happy at any place that has those little pizza racks to set the pie over your table.
posted by Countess Elena at 3:29 PM on August 26, 2022

My wife and I have have adopted “Melllllllocator!” and “I like the Caesar salad” as catchphrases when ever we eat there or order online.
posted by snortasprocket at 3:33 PM on August 26, 2022

Nichesitepool deep end.
posted by y2karl at 3:43 PM on August 26, 2022 [3 favorites]

They had a Mellow Mushroom across the street from Vanderbilt in Nashville and it was perfect for the down-on-your luck grad student. Happy hour was something crazy like 3:00-7:00 every weekday except for Friday, and it was half-price beer. And this was still during the days of indoor smoking in certain places, so you could sit at the bar, chain-smoke, drink two beers, and grade a mess of student papers, all for the kingly sum of $4.

The only significant Mellow Mushroom story I have, though, is when I was ordering a slice during happy hour and was seized by a fit of madness and said "I desire pizza with jalapenos and... ANCHOVIES!" and the server gave me a look and said "...seriously?" Reader, it was exactly as bad as you think it was.
posted by lorddimwit at 5:13 PM on August 26, 2022 [8 favorites]

I really miss Mellow Mushroom; the town I grew up in had one of the first outside of Georgia, I think, been there since the mid-90s. Staple of my Friday nights growing up, and looking back on it I’m surprised my parents were so stoked on regularly bringing two kids under 12 to a place that was almost-but-not-quite-a-bar right next to the college. I think it was one of the few spots that was reliably good, and reliably vegetarian upon request.
posted by supercres at 5:43 PM on August 26, 2022 [2 favorites]

(Now I perversely find myself craving a jalapenchovy pizza.)
posted by darkstar at 6:02 PM on August 26, 2022 [5 favorites]

LONG PANTS LONG PANTS I’M A LONG-PANTS MAN
posted by rrrrrrrrrt at 6:22 PM on August 26, 2022 [5 favorites]

It’s been a very long time since I’ve lived more than a couple of miles from a Mellow Mushroom (Athens, Augusta, Birmingham, Atlanta). Even now, there’s one a mile away in the Atlanta burbs. I haven’t been in awhile, but it’s always great for cold beer, stoned waiters in tie dyed shirts, fun trivia on the right night, and thick cheesy slices.
posted by Fritzle at 6:45 PM on August 26, 2022 [3 favorites]

😁🍄🍕
posted by clavdivs at 6:56 PM on August 26, 2022

Weird, I ate Mellow Mushroom about 40 minutes ago at a houseparty here in St. Augustine, Florida.
posted by saladin at 8:13 PM on August 26, 2022 [1 favorite]

I sat at the bar at the MM in St. Augustine a few years ago, hiding from the rain while biking. They were getting rid of a 12% Belgian beer for $4 a pint. I went back a few more times.
posted by credulous at 10:08 PM on August 26, 2022 [1 favorite]

Mellow Mushroom is the closest decent pizza parlor, so we get it every month or so. Did not know about the Homestar Runner link!
posted by cupcakeninja at 2:32 AM on August 27, 2022 [1 favorite]

Wonderfully weird. I didn’t know about that connection. There are 2 Melllow Mushrooms in the Memphis p, TN area, including one so popular with the local cycling crowd that a weekly ride is named for it. Cyclists used to take over the outdoor patio after a Tuesday night ride, though that practice has waned in recent years. The beer deals, aka “carbohydrate recovery”, were great.
posted by grimjeer at 4:05 AM on August 27, 2022 [1 favorite]

The aesthetics of the place offend me deeply even though I wish more restaurants had giant statues to set the mood--Red Lobster could become a terrifying, thalassophobic experience!--and the past few times I've been, it's been 50/50 whether the dough had raw spots--but they're about my favorite place in terms of cocktails. Good work, MM bar!
posted by mittens at 5:46 AM on August 27, 2022 [1 favorite]

We were on a road trip, dead tired from touristy stuff in... Chattanooga I think? And ordered Mellow Mushroom in our motel room. It was delivered by DoorDash or GrubHub or one of those... about 80 minutes after we ordered it. It was room temperature and we weren't convinced it had ever been a good pizza to start with.
posted by Foosnark at 7:24 AM on August 27, 2022

I live in the suburbs of Atlanta and have access to every national chain pizza place, all of whom deliver to my address. And despite that I'll still drive to the Mellow Mushroom when I want pizza.

I remember the Homestar Runner thing. Looking at the dates I was still living in L5P and using MindSpring as my ISP.

I think I'll get Mellow Mushroom for dinner tonight.
posted by ralan at 7:44 AM on August 27, 2022 [2 favorites]

Mellow Mushroom Hilton Head kept my sanity intact for a good solid year with calzones and aesthetics. I do love the giant artistic fungi.
posted by Callisto Prime at 8:24 AM on August 27, 2022

The MM in my town (Greensboro, NC) has some really lovely stained glass in a nice older building. Even my little berg has better pizza places (Cugino Forno, for one) but it’s a solid choice when hanging out downtown at the cat cafe or vintage stores.
posted by jeoc at 12:40 PM on August 27, 2022 [1 favorite]

Nashville has changed a lot, but Mellow Mushroom certainly used to be my favorite pizza place. Buffalo chicken pizza with a blue cheese base always great.
posted by little onion at 2:12 PM on August 27, 2022

I had intended the thread to be about this weird little Homestar Runner niche thing, but am surprised to see so much love for Mellow Mushroom. That's pretty cool.
posted by JHarris at 5:26 PM on August 27, 2022 [3 favorites]

Speaking of Ruffle, Kongregate just rolled out direct integration with Ruffle so that you can play their flash games without needing to install the plugin yourself! Here's their announcement about it.

I... do not like their new direction of NFT game nonsense, but I'm delighted to see they haven't given up on their archive of web games entirely. Maybe they'll even get badge earning sorted out again at some point.
posted by vibratory manner of working at 6:09 PM on August 27, 2022 [2 favorites]

I love how all these supposedly smart rich people are telling us NFTs are the future, but anyone who actually remembers and loves the old web will have no truck with it.
posted by JHarris at 6:38 PM on August 27, 2022 [3 favorites]

Anything HSR or Chaps-adjacent is welcome. I know they still release an occasional video but I miss them a bunch.

checkitoutcheckitoutcheckitout
posted by 1adam12 at 7:38 PM on August 27, 2022 [3 favorites]