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Filmmaker Kevin Smith Can See the Future of Fast Food, And It’s Vegan

Jill Ettinger
7 min readJul 9, 2020

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Kevin Smith eyes a Mooby’s Cow Tipper

The first thing my six-year-old daughter notices about Kevin Smith is that the color of his blazer matches the largely purple color scheme of his pop-up restaurant, Mooby’s. We’re seated in one of its booths, looking out at Santa Monica Blvd., which is less busy than it should be on a late Wednesday afternoon in Los Angeles.

Before Smith sits down with us, he’s making the rounds, greeting reporters, employees, friends, and fans. He bumps elbows — the unofficial COVID handshake — with a few. He even goes in for a hug to some. His real-life presence is the opposite of his brooding “Silent Bob” character. He’s reassuring, like a small-town mayor showing up on the scene of a local disaster. Even through safety masks and the mist of hand sanitizer spray, everyone inside the restaurant looks relieved at his arrival.

Next, my daughter notices his shoes. They’re bright yellow. He has denim knee-length shorts on. She giggles. It’s a bit of a self-imposed uniform, I tell her; he’s frequently photographed in this ensemble and its variations. Like the Steve Jobs turtleneck, Smith’s blazers and backward-facing ball cap offers fans some comfort in their predictability, especially in these tense early days of public re-openings in Los Angeles. It’s also just days after some of the biggest Black Lives Matter protests…

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