Pop Culture: Casual Gamers and Locavores Unite!

When I'm not scavenging for local food suppliers and establishments that support them, I have to admit that I occasionally play what the industry calls casual games. The two hobbies (if casual gaming could be called a hobby) rarely have reason to come up in the same conversation, until now.

Enter DinerTown Tycoon. The DinerDash collection has come up with a great little game in the vein of the old school Lemonade Tycoon which sets their regular heroine, Flo, against an evil fast food empire. She must use interesting local and organic (and some conventional) ingredients to lure the diners of DinerTown into her restaurants. They are being enticed into Grub Burger by the noxious fumes of Ingredient X, but will be brought back to the light with the right combination of price, ingredients and advertising.

It's entirely possible that gamers will enjoy this strategy game without even pausing to contemplate the deeper issue, but at the very least, casual gamers may subliminally absorb the underlying concept and think of the world a little differently. Down with Grub Burger!