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Food

This Hollywood Restaurant Dressed Up As McDowell's From 'Coming To America' For Halloween

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Who says a restaurant can't dress up for Halloween? This Monday and Tuesday, Fat Sal's in Hollywood donned the costume of McDowell's, the fictional fast food joint from the 1988 film Coming To America—and unsurprisingly, Angelenos are into it.

The diner's Highland Ave location features Coming To America-themed food items including "The Big Mick," "The Sexual Chocolate Shake" and "Zamunda Fries," as well as turning its interior and exterior into a reproduction of McDowell's, the definitely-not-McDonald's restaurant where Eddie Murphy's character, Prince Akeem, finds work after arriving in New York from the fictional African nation of "Zamunda."

"This thing has really blown up," said a spokesperson for Fat Sal's, whose co-owner Josh Stone was responsible for turnign the Hollywood sandwich shop into McDowell's. Shari Headley, the actress who played Lisa McDowell in Coming To America—Prince Akeem's love interest and McDowell's heiress—announced on Twitter that she would be stopping by the Hollywood pop-up after 1 p.m. on Tuesday afternoon.

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Coming to America fans have been flocking to the pop-up's Hollywood location all day to order "Sexual Chocolate Shakes," pose with servers dressed in McDowell's signature plaid uniforms and snap photos of the "Golden Arcs." You see, McDonald's has the Golden Arches, but McDowell's has the Golden Arcs:

Hollywood isn't the first location to host a Coming to America-themed pop-up; the Wiener's Circle in Chicago previously got the McDowell's treatment in 2015. Fat Sal's McDowell's-ification will last until 3 a.m. on Wednesday morning, if you get a hankering to celebrate Halloween night (and a hopeful Dodgers win, please God) with a handful of Zamunda fries.

Fat Sal's Hollywood is located at 1300 N. Highland Ave. (855) 682-4373

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