Which ‘High End’ Downtown Restaurant Served Sushi Off a Half-Naked Woman Last Week?

Well, let’s not waste time here — the answer to the above question is that seafood restaurant Angry Lobster was spotted hosting a woman lying down, mostly unclothed and strategically covered in sushi to sate patrons’ appetites.

Instagram stories and posts last Wednesday night showed the body sushi being offered to attendees of an event named Food Porn. Presumably for reasons of food safety and hygiene, the woman whose body is used as a sushi platter is not completely naked — she appeared to be wearing underwear, and the sushi itself was placed on leaves that covered her breast and crotch areas. It’s hard to think of a more literal example of objectifying women — the sushi “server” is little more than a fleshy table in this situation, remaining dead still while a host of patrons pluck at her with chopsticks. Needless to say, there were no male body sushi counterparts offered.

The images were posted by events outfit Black Mohawk Productions, as well as Fabio Broccoli, the organizer behind events such as Montreal’s Lobster Clam Jam and Pizza Week — the latter event was recently criticized for creating advertisements that featured a women holding a pizza in front of her vagina. Broccoli regularly holds Wednesday night oyster events at Angry Lobster.

It’s unclear who put together this particular sushi arrangement — on last count, at least one party planning outfit in Montreal offers such a “service”. Perhaps in an attempt to make it seem exotic or culturally valid, the body sushi service is sometimes called by its Japanese name, nyotaimori, although the social media images from Food Porn suggest that the crowd was overwhelmingly white.

For some extra context, Angry Lobster is the sister to prominent steakhouse La Queue de Cheval (and is located at the same de la Montagne address) — the very expensive beef-oriented restaurant helmed by Peter Morentzos has been called out in the past for objectifying women (specifically, with an ad campaign that appeared to compare women to cuts of meat). A similar approach involving close-up shots of women’s body parts was used to promote Angry Lobster when it opened in 2015.

• 10 Priceless Facts About Montreal Body Sushi [EMTL]
• Pizza Festival Criticized For Sexist Ad [EMTL]
• Infamous Montreal Steakhouse Likens Women to Cuts of Beef [EMTL]