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March 28, 2010 7:38 PM

What works of literature/movies/etc. depict Heaven as a restaurant?

For example, I just finished watching Monty Python's The Meaning of Life and the ending sequence is of all the characters who have died throughout the film enjoying a meal together in Heaven.

Or The Restaurant at the End of the Universe by Douglas Adams, where all the characters believe they have died and ended up in an incredibly beautiful restaurant surrounded by people they wish to reconnect with and plenty of alcohol.

I feel like this is a common (British?) theme, but I have no other specific examples.

posted by Point n Click to grab bag (19 answers total)

Defending Your Life has a lot of emphasis on food and restaurants in the afterlife. It's not heaven, though.
posted by Jaltcoh at 7:40 PM on March 28, 2010

Restaurant at the End of the Universe isn't post-mortem, it's a time machine thingy. The other end is the Big Bang Burger Bar.
posted by mdn at 7:54 PM on March 28, 2010 [2 favorites]

Does Gottfried Helnwein's Boulevard of Broken Dreams homage to Edward Hopper's Nighthawks count?
posted by carmicha at 7:57 PM on March 28, 2010

In the Talking Heads song "Heaven", it's a bar.
posted by No-sword at 8:15 PM on March 28, 2010 [2 favorites]

The 'My First Kill' episode of Scrubs has heaven as a diner
posted by eclecticlibrary at 8:15 PM on March 28, 2010

In Titanic, Rose dies of old age in her bed and meets Jack in Titanic Heaven, which is that fancy-schmancy restaurant on-board. They don't show them dining though, it's just everyone applauding as Jack and Rose kiss. (It was on TV tonight, and 2 hours after clicking on to it, I found myself still watching. I lovehatelove it!)
posted by AlisonM at 8:17 PM on March 28, 2010

http://drmcninja.com has several characters going to a restaurant after they die (Bee Man, Ben Franklin)
posted by rebent at 8:18 PM on March 28, 2010

Not exactly heaven, but in Stargate SG-1, when Daniel was dead and in his ascended form, he interacted with other ascended beings in a diner. Episode summary here.
posted by Pater Aletheias at 8:45 PM on March 28, 2010

It's a stretch, but I think I remember that God is a bartender in the finale of Quantum Leap. Or maybe I dreamed that.
posted by monkeymadness at 8:50 PM on March 28, 2010

Would Valhalla count? The warriors there seem to have done little but eat and drink mead beyond compare there.
posted by Some1 at 9:42 PM on March 28, 2010 [2 favorites]

In Dead Like Me, the reapers hang out at a diner.
posted by ClaudiaCenter at 9:53 PM on March 28, 2010

It's a stretch, but I think I remember that God is a bartender in the finale of Quantum Leap. Or maybe I dreamed that.

I thought of that too - Sam ends up in this bar where he sees all these past leaps. I guess you could call it heaven, though it's really ambiguous.
posted by Solon and Thanks at 9:56 PM on March 28, 2010 [1 favorite]

In Anglo-Saxon literature, heaven is compared with a mead hall. I can't think of an explicit examples, but there is a moment in Beowulf when Heorot is called "the best under heaven". Ok, it's a loose relationship, but at least the comparison is there.
posted by johnxlibris at 9:56 PM on March 28, 2010

The manga Yakitate Japan depicts heaven as a hostess club.
posted by Aznable at 3:30 AM on March 29, 2010

Cockaigne is a carnivalesque utopia that feeds into this heaven.
posted by einekleine at 6:31 AM on March 29, 2010

This is only narrowly related to the topic, but my mom tells about a medical incident where she had one of those near-death experiences. She describes it as seeing all her relatives at a cocktail party. (queue the Twilight Zone music)
posted by CathyG at 6:39 AM on March 29, 2010

How about the Beauty School Dropout scene from Grease?
posted by mismatched at 6:44 AM on March 29, 2010

Starseeds, Heavensairportcoffeeshoprestaurant.
posted by googly at 7:19 AM on March 29, 2010

it could be argued that La Grande Bouffe was a sort of heaven on earth for a certain strata of society.
posted by adamvasco at 11:28 AM on March 29, 2010