LONDON -- Forget the owl bars and cereal cafes; there's a new bizarrely themed pop-up coming to town that could eclipse all bizarrely themed pop-ups that came before it.
Remember the blobfish? It was crowned 'world's ugliest animal' a couple of years back, and in a dramatic turn of fortune it could be getting its very own pop-up cafe in London.
Whoops - sorry. Was meant to say I'm Lorcan spokesblob for The Blobfish Cafe http://t.co/2fZtIkEzgv We'll be opening next Summer. P— Lorcan The Blobfish (@BlobFishCafe) June 19, 2015
The cafe's website bills itself as "The world's first face-to-face blobfish experience." The cafe's slogan reads "EAT. DRINK. MEET BLOBFISH," making it a sort of a restaurant/aquarium hybrid in which people will have the experience of eating their lunch while watching the cafe's three resident blobfish (named Lorcan, Barry and Lady Swift) go about their daily blobfish business.
The cafe is to open next summer in -- you guessed it -- East London, and according to the website, construction of a blobfish-friendly tank is underway.
"Every possible measure has been taken to safely transport these Australian ocean floor dwellers and happily rehome them in an East London pop-up," the cafe's mystery owners have written. "There is still an incredible amount of work to do and we know a year might seem a long way off – but nothing has ever been attempted like this before -- so please bare with us. We promise it'll be worth the wait."
The Blobfish Cafe were reluctant to answer questions, but when Mashable asked about the inspiration behind the animals' names among others they did send this response from their "official spokesperson" Lorcan (the blobfish face of their Twitter account): "I don't understand your question about our names. That's what our parents called us -- how did you get your name? That's not to say we are siblings, far from it. We just used to hang around the same bit of ocean floor. Barry is a complete nut job. Lady Swift keeps herself to herself. We sometimes watch Emmerdale together but that's about it."
Blobfish soap-watching habits aside, though, the owners are tight-lipped about the other details. "The only comment we can offer is 'The Blobfish Are Coming!'" They told Mashable. "The mystery must remain intact!"
While the mystery remains, though, there will be lingering questions about the logistics of keeping deep sea creatures in a tank in London considering they are accustomed to living at depths where there is a lot more water pressure in their natural habitat off the coast of Australia.
Mashable spoke to a marine biologist at the University of York, Professor Callum Roberts, who said he wasn't aware of any aquariums that currently house blobfish.
"I'm very sceptical about any of this," Professor Roberts said. "As with any deep sea species it's quite difficult to get them to survive – it takes a great deal of specialist skill to keep deep sea creatures in an aquarium... I would question whether it's all a prank."
Time, and first-hand blobfish evidence, will surely tell.